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by Ahmad Khalil TURKEY (Islam Online) - In a quest to end Islamic influence within Turkish society the government is putting more restrictions to signs of Islamic trends in the educational sector. Parents demonstrated last Tuesday in front of one of the AlEmam AlKhateeb high schools in an Istanbul suburb to protest the ban on wearing a hijab (hair cover) by their female students. The Ministry of Education inserted within school form applications a clause stating that the school will be opened to both genders and that Islamic hijabs will not permitted within its class rooms. Angry parents, who filled the application unknowingly of the new decision, protested the way the statement was added without their prior notification, saying the school administration joined the scheme by not informing them of this new clause. Graduates of the AlEmam AlKhateeb schools, which stress codes of Islamic morality, have shown remarkable academic achievements compared with other secular schools. In 1999, the Turkish government campaigned heavily against such schools saying they represented practices that hindered the secularization and modernization of Turkish society. The government also raised the age of school enrollment from 5 to 8 years to discourage families from enrolling their children, and closed its junior high classes. Statistics indicate these measures were effective; in the last two years, the number of students enrolled has decreased significantly from 6,000 to 1,200, reaching a mere 300 this year. Some secular Turkish newspapers considered this a sign of decline in the influence of religion within the society, overlooking Turkish government interference. In a recent poll conducted by BilgiNet on how Turks view the issue of hijab, 89.02% said that it should be free decision without any restrictions, 6.36% said it should be banned in official sites, and 3.47% said it should be banned altogether. Turkish society, which is dominantly Muslim, has been undergoing secularization policies initiated by the Turkish government since the first quarter of the 20th century. In the past 20 years, however, the Islamic movement has been revitalized. In another survey conducted by Horriyat (Freedoms), a Turkish newspaper known for its anti-Islamic political stand, it asked its readers to vote on whether they believe in the Day After or not, of the 18,124 who participated 84.2% said "Yes", while 15.8% said "No". |
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