Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Religion & Law Blogs -> Religion Clause

Religion & Law

: Religion Clause

Battles Over Secularism In Turkey Lead To Indictment of Top Leaders

By Howard Friedman

The struggle between religious and secularist forces in Turkey has reached a new level. According to today's Turkish Daily News, the country's chief prosecutor has filed a 162-page indictment against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), charging it with trying to turn Turkey into an Islamic state. Alleging that AKP's activities are inconsistent with the secularism required by Turkey's constitution, the indictment asks Turkey's Constitutional Court to ban top AKP leaders (including the country's President and its Prime Minister) from politics for 5 years. Today's Zaman reports on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's speech responding to the indictment. Commenting on the political and economic uncertainty that the case is likely to cause, Reuters points out that in the past Turkish courts have banned more than 20 parties for having Islamist or Kurdish separatist agendas.

Meanwhile Human Events today reports that Turkey's Department of Religious Affairs (the Diyanet) is attempting to modernize and reinterpret Islam. It has announced that 35 religious scholars in the Theology Department at Ankara University have nearly completed a three-year forensic examination of the Islamic Hadiths. The authenticity of some Hadiths-- handed down orally-- have been questioned by some scholars. However an op-ed in Today's Zaman questions more generally the ability of the Directorate of Religious Affairs to maintain the existing system of state-controlled Islam.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on March 17, 2008 (boomark / email).