Turkish secularism

Harold's List
TURKISH DAILY NEWS
TDN editorial by Yusuf KANLI

With moves by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to ban altogether, or at least limit, alcohol consumption in cities to special “red light” districts, or ghettos, the increasing charges of cronyism and allegations that recently created police positions and other employment openings in state offices elsewhere were being filled or were intended to be filled by people supportive of the party, remarks by the premier referring the headscarf controversy to religious scholars and other such trivial developments have brought to the agenda once again a discussion on the limits of the “secularist” understanding in this country.

Does secularism mean a clear-cut separation of religion and state affairs in the French sense of “laпcitй,” or do we have a secularist understanding that enables our state to "regulate" religious affairs through a special agency that enjoys almost absolute power over all mosques and imams and that can even dictate the topic of Friday sermons?

We have to be clear: If the system in Turkey could be described as “secularist,” it must be a sui generis form of secularism because it is neither like French laпcism nor like American secularism under which church and state are totally separate and where there is full religious freedom -- to an extent envied by fundamentalists all over the world -- and it is up to the discretion of the individual to let religion guide one's life, or not.

In Turkey, we have a Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) that, in a way, represents the “dominance of state over religion” or the “state Islam” which enjoys -- at least in theory -- almost full monopoly as the legitimate form of the Muslim faith practiced in the country. Of course, the practice of “state Islam” regulated by the Religious Affairs Directorate has been a contentious subject because it fails to include schools of Islam other than the Sunni Hanefi sect and does not include in particular the country's Alawite community, which constitutes an estimated one-fifth of the overall Turkish population of 70 million. Still, the Religious Affairs Directorate, which is affiliated with the Prime Ministry via a state minister in the Cabinet, is the sole authority to regulate religious affairs in the country. By law, it coordinates the building of mosques as well as the training and appointment of imams, although imams are selected either from among graduates of university theological faculties or are educated by the directorate through cooperation with the Education Ministry.

Though the Religious Affairs Directorate is a republican establishment, this peculiar situation in Turkey, as a philosophy and as a tradition, predates the establishment of the republic, and it is perhaps one of Turkey's important sui generis assets that helped it to become the first and only secular democracy among Muslim nations. Of course, a reform in the Religious Affairs Directorate that will make it “all inclusive” will further expand the crucial role it has been playing in blocking -- ever since its establishment -- a possible Islamist fundamentalist threat. The Turkish case must be taken as an example in reforming the Muslim world, particularly in view of the fact that in other Muslim states governments finance, certify and supervise mosques but cannot stop underground radical Islamist movements.

Now a change in Turkey that may allow religion, that is, Shariah and religious scholars, to determine what's good and bad for society, the establishment of “alcohol ghettos” in cities and state offices gradually filled with Islamists (the government has flatly denied the existence of such a program but neither the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) nor the secularists in society give much credence to that denial), a former imam becoming provincial health executive in Sivas, the prime minister making comments with religious connotations, the Parliament speaker once again scratching the headscarf ban, a minister applying for segregation of the sexes and a minister's wife sitting at a separate table during a “working dinner,” may all seriously hurt the balance of Turkish society.

Practicing or non-practicing, religion is important for all Turks. But, I don't think anyone in this country wants to be forced to choose between the republican multi-party secularist democracy and something else… Today the ruling party appears to be the biggest political party, and according to latest public opinion polls, in any new election in the near future it may maintain its parliamentary lead. But it should not be forgotten that this is the same electorate that was fed up with the policies of other parties that brought the eight-month-old AKP into government in the Nov. 3, 2003 polls that can just as easily banish it if it so chooses.