ANKARA, May 20 (Islamonline & News Agencies) - Players from a third division Turkish football club are facing judicial and disciplinary penalties for performing the Islamic prayers at the pitch following a victorious game over the weekend, news reports from Turkey said.
Players from Ladik Kompensor, a minor Turkish soccer team knelt down for the prayers after winning a vital match that earned it a promotion to the Third Division. Ladik Kompensor had just beaten Ankara Kizilcahamam Belediyespor 2-1 in a match held in the Central Anatolian town of Kayseri last week.
Pictures of the Ladik Kompensor players performing the prayer were splashed across Turkish media over the week attracting severe condemnation from the country's staunch secularists who consider such activity to go against secular principles.
Authorities in predominantly Muslim but strictly secular Turkey are extremely sensitive over the display of Islamic adherence in public places, often seeing such attitudes as supportive of political Islam.
Both the team's manager and other top administrative officers quit and disowned responsibility for what they said was "an unplanned action."
According to Anatolian news agency, the Konya based management of the soccer club has resigned. A statement from the management read, "The prayer was not a planned event. We have already expressed our upset and stated that we did not approve of this action. We have decided to resign as the managing board."
The news agency further reported that window frame-maker Kompen, a unit of Islamist leaning business conglomerate Kombassan has also withdrawn its sponsorship of the club.
More trouble is in the offing for the team as the department of religious affairs announced that it was inappropriate for public prayers to be performed for such victories.
Turkery's general prosecutor Osman Vuraloglu said that his office is looking into pressing formal charges against the team and is studying the television event to see if any laws have been broken.
For the most part of the 20th century Turkey's secular rulers and the military were never able to shake off its deeply Muslim character. Religious Turks and Kurds are demanding the full freedom of political and religious expression that the country's constitution denies them.
The military have on several occasions established themselves as the unappeasable defenders of the secular tradition. The issues that arise from this conflict, including persistent questions about Turkey's human rights record, have put serious obstacles in the way of its campaign to accede to the EU.
