Another nail in the coffin of secularism in Turkey. “Children must be protected from ideologies other than Islam: Turkey’s top religious body,” Duvar English, March 29, 2021: The head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) has said that children must be protected from ideologies other than Islam, as he warned against “organizations that promote deism […]
Turkey: Religious Affairs Ministry says it’s permissible for girls to be married at age nine
It would have been surprising if the Diyanet had said anything else. Islamic tradition records that Muhammad consummated his marriage with (i.e., raped) Aisha when she was nine, and the resultant fact that child marriage is accepted in wide swaths of the Islamic world. Child marriage has abundant attestation in Islamic tradition and law. Turkey’s […]
Turkey: Top Islamic religious body tells women to accept violence at the hands of their husbands
Of course. The Qur’an teaches that men are superior to women and should beat those from whom they “fear disobedience”: “Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because Allah […]
Turkey’s Religious Affairs top dog: ‘Hagia Sophia shouldn’t only be place of worship,’ should be ‘a madrasa inside’
Training a new generation of jihadis and Islamic supremacists inside what was the foremost cathedral in Christendom for nearly a millennium — what could be more deliciously illustrative of the triumph and supremacy of Islam? “Turkey’s Top Imam Now Wants to Build an Islamic School at Hagia Sophia,” by Tasos Kokkinidis, Greek Reporter, July 12, […]
Turkey’s Diyanet: Schoolchildren leave Islam after reading the Koran
A prominent member of Turkey’s highest Islamic institution, the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), stated that children who read the Turkish translation of the Koran “start gravitating towards” atheism and deism, a belief in a non-interventionist creator. The statement was made by Professor Cağfer Karadaş during an interview with the pro-government newspaper Yeni Şafak on […]
In Turkey, Religious Authorities Get in the Way of Science (Part 1)
Like almost every other country in the world, Turkey has been hit with the coronavirus. And like other Muslim countries, in Turkey there has been a clash between religious authorities, unwilling to lock down shops, or mosques, or cities, and the medical specialists, who insist such measures are necessary. The latest report on the situation […]
Turkey’s Jihad in Syria
On February 28, the Turkish government-funded Anadolu Agency (AA) reported on the alleged takeover of a Syrian town by the Islamist “Free Syrian Army” (FSA). In the news report, the agency posted some images of the FSA fighters. A striking detail immediately attracted attention: on the arms and chests of some FSA fighters were logos […]
Turkey: Religious ministry has $11 billion budget to promote Islam, Christians have no legal way to build churches
Islamic law forbids the construction of new churches. Christians are “forbidden to ring church bells or display crosses, recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays, and are forbidden to build new churches” – Reliance of the Traveller o.11.5 (6,7) “Turkey Grows Role of Islam,” International Christian Concern, […]
Germany: Mosques pray for Erdogan’s military offensive against Kurds: “Allah, lead our glorious army to victory”
Mosques in Germany are praying for the Turkish army’s success as it wages a fierce military offensive against the U.S.-allied Kurdish forces and civilians in neighboring Syria, German newspaper Die Welt reported. The worshippers pray the victory verse: “Allah, Lead Our Glorious Army to Victory.” The backing from mosques in Germany comes days after Turkish […]
Turkey: Directorate of Religious Affairs considering banning imam from preaching because he sings rock music
Whenever I note that Islamic law forbids music (aside from nasheeds, a cappella songs encouraging jihad), I am excoriated as a greasy Islamophobe, but it’s nonetheless true: Hadith Qudsi 19:5: “The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance.” (The Hadith Qudsi, or […]