Stardate 20030713.0046

(On Screen): AFP provides a report about Zuhair Mahmoud, who is running a theological college in France to train Imams for French mosques.

"In the 1980s it became clear that the Muslims of France and Europe were integrating definitively in their adopted countries. Here a generation has grown up with French as its mother tongue," said Zuhair Mahmoud, 51, the Institute's founder and director.

"These people need imams to pass on the religious values of their parents. Leaders from elsewhere cannot do it because they do not understand the language or the customs and habits that prevail here. They have to come from inside," he said.

This is a second career for Mahmoud. And his first career?

Mahmoud is a former Iraqi nuclear scientist who was posted to France 20 years ago as part of a cooperation programme between Paris and the government of Saddam Hussein.

Oh, goodie.