20 May 2011

State-sponsored imams contradict Turkish secularism, Sudanese professor says

Turkey is damaging its claim to being a secular state by providing state employment to imams, according to a leading Sudanese law professor and expert on Islamic studies.

“My definition of secular state is one that is neutral to religion. And by that definition, I am critical of Turkey because here the state controls religion rather than being neutral on religion,” Abdullahi An-Na’im told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in an interview Thursday. “Turkey can do better than this.”

In Turkey, the Religious Affairs Directorate administers a vast network of imams throughout the country. [Hürriyet Daily News] Read more [via National Secular Society]