Qualification of religious officals (Germany Baden Württemberg province example)

This study aims to determine and evaluate at what level do the religious officers who are on duty in DITIB mosques (The Turkish-Islamic Union For Religious Affairs) of State of Baden Württemberg in Germany have the expected qualifications. The fact that there were not so many researches on this field guided us to this study. The level of meeting expectations of professional knowledge of religious officials and religious services which are carried out under the umbrella of unions operating in Germany was determined by field research. This study, which was assessed also in terms of community-oriented activities of religious officials, is a mixed methodical study that uses quantitative and qualitative data together. The universe of this study consists of religious officials who are active in DITIB mosques in the state of Baden Württemberg and congregations. In the study, primarily it was determined that how the religious officers who are employed abroad evaluate themselves in order to reveal the present situation of them. Subsequently, the qualifications of the religious officials were determined from the perspective of the congregation of them. For the purpose of the research, a religious officers qualification scale for religious officers and congregation was developed.. The quantitative data which were obtained from the scales were interpreted with descriptive analyses of qualitative data that were acquired by means of interviews. We used tests in accordance with the quality of the independent variable in order to determine whether the total points that were obtained out of scales differ or not with regard to independent variables. In the evaluation of competence, the data of religious officers and congregation were handled successively for the purpose of reaching an integrity. In the obtained quantitative data, it was determined that there were meaningful differences between the qualifications of religious officers and the independent variables. Taking into consideration the breadth of fields in which the religious officers are on duty abroad and the expectation of the congregation, we tried to interpret the causes of these differences in the light of qualitative data. Keywords: Religious Education, Religious Officer,Qualification, Religious Services