Is Turkey heading towards becoming an Islamic state?

[purdy]

Is Turkey heading towards becoming an Islamic state, and if it does will that affect its application to join the EU?

There have been several disturbing reports about attempts to Islamise Turkey. The most recent was a musician being given a prison sentence for blasphemy. There have also been attempts to change the freedom women currently enjoy of picking how they dress.

 

Is this the start of a downward spiral as the hard liners attempt to take control of the lives of people in yet another state?

[ronthenekred]

Turkey is an Islamic state, there is no separation between religion and State. Considering 98% of the country are Muslim and Islamic, "heading towards" is a moot point.

[WeX]

Turkey is an Islamic state, there is no separation between religion and State. Considering 98% of the country are Muslim and Islamic, "heading towards" is a moot point.

 

Turkey is not an Islamic state. it is presently secular. The majority of people in France are Christian, but that does not make them a none secular, Christian state.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_state#Europe

[ronthenekred]

Turkey is not an Islamic state. it is presently secular. The majority of people in France are Christian, but that does not make them a none secular, Christian state.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_state#Europe

 

 

We're not discussing belief..we're discussing State.

 

 

"Diyanet and secularism [edit]

Reforms going in the direction of secularism have been completed under Atatürk (abolition of the Caliphate, etc..).

However, Turkey is not strictly a secular state:

there is no separation between religion and State

there is a tutelage of religion by the state

However, each is free of his religious beliefs.

Religion is mentioned on the identity documents and there is an administration called "Presidency of Religious Affairs" or Diyanet[6] which exploits Islam to legitimize sometimes State and manages 77,500 mosques. This state agency, established by Ataturk (1924), finance only Sunni Muslim worship. Other religions must ensure a financially self-sustaining running and they face administrative obstacles during operation.[7]

When harvesting tax, all Turkish citizens are equal. The tax rate is not based on religion. However, through the "Presidency of Religious Affairs" or Diyanet, Turkish citizens are not equal in the use of revenue. The Presidency of Religious Affairs, which has a budget over U.S. $ 2.5 billion in 2012, finance only Sunni Muslim worship.

This situation presents a theological problem, insofar as the religion of Prophet Muhammad stipulates, through the notion of haram (Qur'an, Surah 6, verse 152), that we must "give full measure and full weight in all justice”.

However, since it was set up, Diyanet, through taxation, use the resources of non-Sunni citizens to fund its administration and only Sunni places of worship.

For example, Câferî Muslims (mostly Azeris) and Alevi Bektashi (mostly Turkmen) participate in the financing of the mosques and the salaries of Sunni imams, while their places of worship, which are not officially recognized by the State, don't receive any funding.

Theoretically, Turkey, through the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), recognizes the civil, political and cultural rights of non-Muslim minorities.

In practice, Turkey only recognizes Greek, Armenian and Jewish religious minorities without granting them all the rights mentioned in the Treaty of Lausanne.

Alevi Bektashi Câferî Muslims,[8] Latin Catholics and Protestants are not recognized officially".

 

If there's no separation between State and religion how can it be secular?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_state#Europe

[WeX]

W

If there's no separation between State and religion how can it be secular?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_state#Europe

 

Secularism is hard to define in Turkey, according to Fadi Hakura of London-based think tank Chatham House. Turkey is constitutionally a secular state, but secularism seems to have taken a unique shape, because of "historical and geographical circumstances in the country".

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20028295

[ronthenekred]

Secularism is hard to define in Turkey, according to Fadi Hakura of London-based think tank Chatham House. Turkey is constitutionally a secular state, but secularism seems to have taken a unique shape, because of "historical and geographical circumstances in the country".

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20028295

 

I guess Fadi Hakura only finds it hard to define because he doesn't understand the definition of secular.

[purdy]

Turkey is currently a secular state, but in recent years the president has increased the influence of hard line Islamists by restrictions on sale and consumption of alcohol, curbs on freedom and speech and other freedoms that we in the west take for granted.

[gamezone07]

Its getting very serious, at least in the metropolitan areas the protests could be described as 'the Turkish Spring'

 

google, occupy gezi, twitter

[Anna B]

Turkey is a secular state following the abolshion of the Caliphate, separating the political from the religious by President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (about 1923) Istanbul's geographical location is also considered to be half European, half Asian.

 

It was a deliberate move by Ataturk to modernise Turkey into a modern secular European nation-state with a raft of political, economic, and cultural reforms. It is not allowed for example to wear a hajib in any state building, nor to stop work for prayers.

 

That being said, I've been a regular visitor to Turkey, a place I love, for over 10 years and there has definately been a noticable shift towards Islamic culture in that time. More women seem to be wearing the hajib, and covering up on the beach in that ruberised all enveloping swimsuit for example.

[bladesman123]

Turkey has a border with Iraq.