|
Turkey's Educational Syllabi – Nationalism In Stead Of Religion
 |
| Turkey's war against religious reaches educaioan syllabis
|
By IOL correspondent in Turkey Saad Abdel Majid
ISTANBUL, Jan. 12 (IslamOnline) - As the United States started a campaign against religious education in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, considering it a reason behind graduating "terrorists", schools in Turkey are a model to the kind of education that the U.S. seeks after the September 11 attacks.
It is as if the Turks have predicted these events. Since the fall of the Islamic empire by Mustafa Kamal Ataturk in 1924, many procedures have been taken to minimize the religious content in both mainstream schools as well as in Islamic schools which teach Quran and it's sciences.
All this was done under the pretext of being in line with the European ideology.
Turkey has dwarfed the Islamic presence in the civil school syllabi. For instance there is not a single textbook which students are given that has the name "Islam" in its title. Most titles are focused on behavioral culture.
There are no religious syllabi also in the post-secondary institutes and colleges and it is non-existent in the military colleges. If any student is found with a copy of the Quran or a religious book, this student is immediately expelled.
For instance, in the academic year 2000-2001, a text book on religious culture which was in the fifth grade syllabus and which has been authorized by the Turkish ministry of education in 1997 was devoted mainly to Ataturk's secular thought.
There was a large picture of Ataturk on the first page followed in the second page by the religious anthem and in the third page, there was an excerpt from a speech called "Ataturk's speech for the youth."
The seventh chapter of this book was devoted to secularism and was under the title "Ataturk's thoughts in our religion and in secularism". The tenth chapter was under the title "loving the nation" and took 30 pages out of the total 137 pages of the book.
In short, this book advocates nationalism instead of religious teachings and instead of displaying the stories of Muslims heroes such as Omar bin Al Khattab and Khalid bin Waleed, the book displayed Ataturk as a hero and the savior of the Islamic nation.
In the 79th page of the book, the students are told that the most sacred religion is "freedom" and in the following page they are told that "all the catastrophes and problems that the Turkish nation has been through throughout the history is because of religion." Being "religious" was dubbed as being "ignorant".
This is not just the case in mainstream schools. Even religious schools have received their share of secularism and dwarfing religious thought.
In 1997, the education law was changed to limit any religious teachings and because of that, children below the age of 12 are not allowed to learn the Quran and even after that, they are only allowed to learn it during the summer vacation.
The campaign of the education law was carried out by the "Mother Nation" and the rightist "Democratic" parties both are secular and share the Turkish rule.
Turkish newspapers "Akd" and "Mille Gazette" published reports in 2001 saying that the number of students in the religious schools have decreased from a former 850 thousand student in 2000 to nearly 400 thousand students only in 2001.
The ministry of education also refuses to recognise certificates from Al Azhar University in Egypt or other religious colleges in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Malaysia under the pretext that they are "religious certificates".
Last month, the Turkish minister of education Bostangi Oglo called for the halt of teaching Turkish Islamic history and culture, saying that these cultures have ended and that the rebirth of the Turkish nation started from the declaration of the republic.
A university professor Oktay Sinan Oglo, said in a televised interview that these changes are dictated from abroad and that there are many pressures being placed on Turkey to make the educational system nationalistic.
The organizations that place these pressures are the NATO, the E.U., the United States and other secular organization and parties, he said.
Oglo added that in the university, professors are asked to avoid using the world "Islam" to avoid hurting the feelings of non Muslims!
|
