Showing posts with label Islam in Turkey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam in Turkey. Show all posts
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Friday, September 28, 2012
"They will say, 'put a headscarf on your child,' and she'll have to wear a longer dress. They will try to bring more backwardness into their lives. Nobody wants this," he says. "We want our children to be educated following the principles of secularism. Until now it was like this and we were happy."
Converting schools into religious institutions known as Imam Hatips is part of the Islamist-rooted government's education reforms, which, according to some parents, represent a welcome change.
"We are a Muslim country and Imam Hatips are for teaching our religion," says one mother donning a headscarf in accordance with her faith. "It is important for my child. I want my child to learn his religion. All this criticism is an exaggeration because we are a Muslim country, so religion must be in our education."
Imam Hatips like this one, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's alma mater and one of the oldest in Istanbul, were founded to teach imams. But the new curriculum, which combines normal education with hours of religious studies, are popular with Turkey's religious population. » | Dorian Jones | Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Thursday, September 09, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Turkey is on the brink of approving major constitutional reforms which critics say will pave the way for the key western ally to become an Islamic state.Opinion polls suggest the reforms, proposed by the Islamic-oriented government, will win narrow approval in a referendum on Sunday.
They will alter the constitution, originally introduced after a military coup in 1980, to enshrine the elected government's control over the military and the judiciary.
They are being promoted as a key step necessary if the country is to meet the demands for more democratic rule set by the European Union as conditions for a future Turkish bid for membership. But critics who support the secular separation of Islam and the state - followed since the collapse of the Ottoman empire in the First World War - say it will be a major step towards an Islamic state.
"The honest people of this country do not allow this," the opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said at a campaign rally. "Those in favor of democracy do not allow this, but the deaf officials of the European Union say, 'What a good thing it is you're doing'."
Since the election of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), and its charismatic prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country has moved closer to its muslim neighbours, including Iran, and away from a staunchly secular outlook that has played a major role in maintaining the country's position as a member of NATO and a key western ally in the muslim [sic] world. >>> Justin Vela in Istanbul | Thursday, September 09, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Struggle between secular Turkish military and Islamic-oriented government reaches new heights as senior officers jailed
The struggle between the secular Turkish military and the Islamic-oriented government reached new heights Wednesday as a court jailed 12 senior officers — including five admirals, an army general and six other officers.
The officers are charged with plotting several years ago to topple the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, news reports said Wednesday. More officers could be charged later this week.
Former chiefs of Air Force, Navy and Special Forces were also among about 50 officers detained by police in a sweep Monday.
Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but officially secular country, is witnessing an unprecedented showdown between the country's rising political Islamic movement and its fiercely secular founders, the military officers. >>> Selcan Hacaoglu, Ankara, The Associated Press | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 05, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: A 16-year-old girl has been buried alive by her relatives in Turkey as punishment for talking to boys, police have said.
Medine Memi was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman.
Her father and grandfather have since been arrested and are due to face trial over her death. Her mother was also charged but has since been released.
Police made the discovery in December after a tip-off from an informant, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on its website.
Medine had first been reported missing 40 days earlier.
The informant told the police she had been killed following a family "council" meeting.
Media reports said the father had told relatives he was unhappy that his daughter – one of nine children – had male friends. The grandfather is said to have beaten her for having relations with the opposite sex.
A postmortem examination revealed large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she had been alive and conscious while being buried. >>> | Friday, February 05, 2010
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
TURKISH DAILY NEWS: With the slogan "Covering is beautiful," a conservative Turkish fashion designer aims to shape the country's newly emerging "Islamic fashion" despite harsh criticism from conservative and liberal Muslims alike.
Tekbir Giyim, a company owned by designer Mustafa Karaduman, manufactures clothes and headscarves that are appropriate according to conservative Islamic standards, but that also look stylish.
The products are presented by elegant models, who, on other occasions, wear bikinis and elegant underwear rather than long skirts. The company's Web site, which is available in Turkish, Arabic and English, happily declares that they export to "five continents" and to more than a dozen countries.
Recently, however, Karaduman and his company have become a source of controversy and have received criticism from both the secular and Islamic camps of Turkish society.
Secularist commentators in the media have accused him of contributing to the "Islamization" of society by presenting the conservative Islamic dress code as something modern.
When Karaduman declared proudly that he has three wives and many children, "which all share the same house," he only deepened the controversy. Islamic Fashion Designer Sued for Islamic Name >>> | May 6, 2008
Tekbir Giyim
THE GUARDIAN:
Turkey's fashion battleground: In a militantly secular country, clothing is at the centre of friction over westernization >>> By Ian Traynor | June 2, 2006
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
Saturday, April 12, 2008
BLOOMBERG: Lazari Kozmaoglu, Istanbul's last pork butcher, takes a break from a two-hour backgammon session to recall the days he spent slicing bacon instead of rolling dice.
Eight workers used to rush in and out of the cutting room, placing wrapped meat in refrigerators, Kozmaoglu, 63, recalls in his store in central Istanbul. Today the shop is down to its last two months of stock and attracts only a handful of customers.
Turkey's Islamist-rooted government has clamped down on the pork industry since 2004, closing all but two of the country's 25 pig farms and revoking slaughterhouse licenses. Kozmaoglu, unable to add to his meat supplies, spends most of his time shuffling paperwork as he seeks permission to reopen his abattoir.
"I don't know what I can do if they don't give it to me; this business is my life,'' Kozmaoglu says as he watches a news bulletin on Greek television.
He's one of about 2,000 ethnic Greeks remaining in Istanbul. Most Greeks left the city after Turkish mobs attacked their homes and workplaces in 1955. Others were expelled in 1964 after fighting between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus.
Before the 2004 crackdown, Kozmaoglu was one of four pork butchers in Istanbul. All of his competitors quit handling pigs after losing their slaughterhouse permits. The state granted Kozmaoglu temporary licenses to let him kill the swine on outlawed farms, but those have now been cut off, he says. Istanbul's Last Pork Butcher Fights Islamist Crackdown on Swine >>> By Firat Kayakiran | April 10, 2008
Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
Monday, January 28, 2008
BBC: A Turkish court has handed down a 15-month suspended jail term to an academic found guilty of insulting the state's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Professor Atilla Yayla said the trial highlighted the limits on free speech and academic debate in Turkey.
His crime was to suggest in academic discussion that the early Turkish republic was not as progressive as portrayed in official books.
His lawyers say they will lodge an immediate appeal.
Professor Yayla told the BBC he was prepared to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
"I want to emphasise again and again that Turkey's most pressing problem is freedom of expression," he said. Academic sentenced over Ataturk >>> By Sarah Rainsford
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Friday, January 25, 2008
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Next week, the ruling Islamic conservative party in Turkey will likely succeed in lifting a ban on women wearing head scarves at universities. An end to the ban would infuriate secular elites, but please a growing conservative middle class.
Women at Turkish universities could soon show up in class wearing traditional Islamic head scarves, as the government moves towards lifting a ban on the practice.
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has its root in an Islamist religious movement, reached an agreement with an opposition nationalist party on Thursday to cooperate on legislation to lift the two decade-old ban.
"Agreement has been reached ... the issue of the head scarf was evaluated in terms of rights and freedoms," read a joint statement released by the AKP and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The two parties control enough seats in parliament to end the ban with a vote that could be held as early as next week.
A lift on the ban would anger Turkey's secular elite, who view the wearing of head scarves as a political statement aimed at undermining the nation's secular principles. Turkey to Lift University Head Scarf Ban >>>
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The Guls, behijabbed and triumphant
Mr Gul was elected in a third round of voting, after months of tension between Turkey's ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party and the secular establishment.
The vote came a day after a new warning from the military about attempts to undermine the secular constitution.
Mr Gul, whose wife wears a Muslim headscarf, has pledged to respect Turkey's secular institutions.
The AKP, which won recent snap polls, needed only a simple majority in the third round of voting.
Turkey's military chief warned on Monday that "centres of evil" were trying to undermine the state.
Gen Yasar Buyukanit did not name those he said were "trying to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic."
But analysts said the statement was clearly aimed at Mr Gul, a devout Muslim. Turkish MPs elect Gul president (more)
WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Turkey Set for New Leader
REUTERS:
Turkey's Gul stirs hope among devout Muslims
Mark Alexander
Thursday, July 19, 2007
BBC: Ahead of Sunday's general election, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford travels to Kayseri and Izmir to report on how the country's secular system and its democracy are being tested by a shift in power towards religious-minded Turks.
At five o'clock most mornings, the elite of Kayseri are already up and working out. In the hills that surround the city they take a brisk two-hour hike to start the day.
"We always start very early," one man puffs. Striding alongside him are the city's mayor, its business leaders and its police chief. "That's the Anatolian people. They have lots of energy," he says.
Kayseri is a clean-living city, and it is also devout. In Turkey today it is pious places like this that are on the rise. Two faces of modern Turkey (more) By Sarah Rainsford
Mark Alexander
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