" The Constitution allows rites of worship and religious services and ceremonies. It protects people from being compelled to worship and participate in these religious rites against their will. It forbids the exploitative use of religion, religious feelings or things held sacred for personal or political influence. It insures that one can change his religion or belief by himself or as a group, privately or publicly. The Constitution has these guarantees to freedom of religion or worship. Yet, and at the same time, it obliges the state to provide Sunni Muslim religious education in the elementary and secondary schools. This was seen as contradicting the principles of a modern, secular state. It compelled Christian and Jewish children to receive a Sunni Muslim religious education and opposed the philosophies of liberalism, human rights and religious freedom. It particularly affected Syriac Christians on account of the Treaty of Lausanne, which did not recognize them as a minority religious group.
Another problem concerned Islamic brotherhoods, denominations and sects. Islamic brotherhoods had a prominent place in the social, economic, and political life in Turkey from the Ottoman Empire to the current Republic. Their convents, monasteries and lodges were the seats and centers of culture and education in the country. But by the end of the 18th century, social corruption transformed these centers into locales of conspiracy. When the Republic was founded in 1923, the funds of the brotherhoods were confiscated and their operations suppressed. The state justified its action on account of the brotherhoods' support of the Ottoman Empire during the War of Independence. It saw these centers as breeding places of unrest. Although suppressed and technically illegal, these brotherhoods remained in existence and continued to affect social and political life in Turkey. These brotherhoods were the Naksibendiliks, Kadirliks, Rifailiks, Nurculuks, Suleymanciliks, Isikciliks, Mevleviliks, Bektashsiliks, and Aleviliks. These groups encountered financial problems and problems involving the internal structures of religious groups and marriage. The Directorate of Religious Affairs organized and regulated the religious lives of Muslim believers. The government provided this agency with an annual national budget for the functions. These illegal brotherhoods did not receive state support and had to obtain th money they needed from their respective communities. Neither did non-Muslims receive any state funding and likewise needed the same support from their communities for their existence and activities. As to their internal structures, the Directorate likewise made the decisions on the appointments of imams and muftis. On the other hand, the leaders of illegal brotherhoods were selected and confirmed through the general consent of their members. And as regards marriage, only civil marriage had legal status. Couples who acquired civil marriage where, however, allowed to conduct a religious marriage ceremony of their choice. The Turkish government allowed marriage between religious groups. Children from these marriages were given the right to choose their own religion upon reaching the age of 18. Until then, they had to obtain their parents' joint agreement on the matter.
Most critics had expected that the modernization of Turkey would dampen religious fervor, but it resulted in something else. The processes of modernization instead transformed traditional Islamic beliefs and groups and drove them into public frontlines. The elections of November 2002 voted the Justice and Development Party or AK into power. It became Turkey's first openly Islamic political group. This meant that religion and politics could not be separated in Turkey or elsewhere. The Turks' strong religious sentiments and attachment should have been harmonized with the requirements of its secular society. The Turkish Republic was, however, differently conceived and built. Kemal instituted a series of reforms, which would create a modern nation-state. Instead of adopting a neutral position on religious practices, the secular state sought to eliminate all manifestations of religion from the public and place them under the control of the state. The Turkish Constitutional Court decided that peace would be achieved if all forms of ethnic religious differences would be uprooted. It viewed religious claims as divisive and dangerous to the welfare and peace of society. The Kemal Republic was an intellectual and political experiment in Turkey, which differentiated, marginalized and excluded...
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