State Employees in Some Countries, Independent Elsewhere

Formal training for Sunni imams runs through institutions such as Al-Azhar University in Cairo, founded in the tenth century and still one of the most influential centres of Sunni religious education, though a great many working imams, especially outside major cities, have trained more informally under a local scholar rather than through a prestigious university, since no single body certifies the office across the Sunni world.

State involvement in appointing and paying imams varies enormously by country. Turkey's Diyanet, the state Presidency of Religious Affairs, employs imams directly and issues the weekly sermon they deliver, a degree of central control with few parallels elsewhere; Saudi Arabia and several Gulf states likewise appoint and fund imams through state religious ministries; while in much of Western Europe and North America imams are hired and paid directly by individual mosque communities with no government role at all, a difference that has become politically significant as some Western governments have proposed licensing or training requirements for imported or foreign-trained imams.

Whether a woman may lead mixed-gender prayer as imam remains a minority and contested practice; a widely reported 2005 prayer in New York led by the scholar Amina Wadud drew support from some progressive Muslim voices and rejection from the great majority of mainstream Sunni authorities, and the practice has not become general anywhere in the Sunni world since.