BERLIN – A proposal by Germany’s Deputy Finance Minister to introduce an “Islam law” and set up an official mosque registry has been rejected by other politicians as unnecessary.

“We don’t need an Islam law, a Christianity law or a Buddhism law,” Volker Beck from the Green party said, Deutsch Welle reported on Thursday, March 30.

The proposal was first made by Jens Spahn, member of Chancellor Merkel’s ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) party, who called for significant changes in the way Islam is being practiced in Germany.

Spahn argued that the introduction of “Islam law” would insure transparency into wider Muslim community practices.

He also called for language tests for Muslim imams, adding that it is important for imams to deliver teachings in German to help diminish prejudice against Muslims.

“Do we really know if their sermons are being made in accordance with our laws? And it’s about more than that. Is it enough, just to ask that they don’t break the law? Should they not encourage cooperation and integration?” Spahn said to DW.

German sermons, the politician said, would also help the German authorities to know “what happens in mosques”.

Spahn also demanded that mosques in Germany be registered since at the moment authorities don’t know “how many mosques there are in Germany, where they are or who finances them.”

Spahn’s proposals echo those made last year by Andreas Scheuer, the secretary general of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s CDU.

Opposing the idea, Green Party’s Beck said, “The religious communities organize and administer their own affairs.”

He conceded that sermons in German and having imams trained at German universities would be a positive development.

However, he said that this was something that could not be made compulsory, noting that German communities abroad continued to speak in German, while in synagogues, the Torah was mostly read in Hebrew.

German authorities estimate that more than 5 percent of the population, or some 4.5 million people, adhere to the Muslim faith in Germany.