Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı

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Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı
emblem
founding March 3, 1924
Headquarters Ankara
Authority management Ali Erbaş
Budget volume 1,998,412,595 TL (2008)
Website www.diyanet.gov.tr

The Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı ( German  Presidium for Religious Affairs ), abbreviated as Diyanet, is a state institution for the administration of religious affairs in Turkey . The Diyanet reports directly to the President . In 2015, the agency had more than 100,000 employees and an annual budget equivalent to more than one billion euros.

The Diyanet is the successor institution of the Sheikh al-Islām Office of the Ottoman Empire . The authority is thus the highest religious authority in the country. The head of the authority, who is also President of the Diyanet, has the rank of the highest Islamic scholar in Turkey and thus represents the highest Islamic authority of the country from a state perspective, which is recognized in the same way by the majority of the population .

The Ahmet Hamdi Akseki Mosque in Ankara , headquarters of the Presidium

Historical context

Secular republic

After the defeat in the First World War , Turkey was to be divided among several occupying powers. That was the Turkish War prevented the Mustafa Kemal led. After the victory, the Turkish Republic was proclaimed on October 29, 1923.

According to the will and vision of Mustafa Kemal (later called Ataturk), Turkey should orient itself towards the west and thus develop into a modern nation-state. During his tenure, Ataturk carried out profound reforms in the political and social system to achieve this vision. Among other things , the sultanate was abolished in 1922, before the proclamation of the republic , and the caliphate on March 3, 1924 . In 1924, with the abolition of the office of Sheikhul Islam , Turkey also abolished the religious courts, and in 1925, as part of a comprehensive “dress reform”, the fez and the veil were banned and coeducation was introduced. In the same year, the Islamic calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar and the metric system was introduced.

In the following years, entire legal systems were adopted from European countries and adapted to Turkish conditions. In 1928 the Ottoman script was replaced by the Latin one. Active women's suffrage was introduced in 1930 - since 1934 women have also been allowed to stand for election (passive women's suffrage). Only a few of the reforms, such as Ataturk's idea that prayers should only be in Turkish instead of Arabic, proved impracticable and were withdrawn.

Secularization

Despite all attempts to weaken the importance of the religions in Turkey for society at the lay level, belief remained an important part of Turkish society. The danger even increased that religion could be instrumentalized by circles over which the state had no influence. Therefore, the Office for Religious Affairs was established in 1924 . With this institution the state wanted to control religion. Therefore, the Turkish form of secularism is not a separation between state and religion , but rather a subordination of religion to the state.

construction

The Diyanet was founded on March 3, 1924 under Law No. 429 and is subordinate to the President of the Republic of Turkey. Until July 2018 it was affiliated with the Prime Minister's Office. The country's mosques and the imams working there are bound by instructions as officials.

The Diyanet in Ankara has the following main departments: Religious Services (Din Hizmet Dairesi), Religious Education (Din Eğitim Dairesi), Pilgrimage (Hac Dairesi), Religious Publications (Dinî Yayınlar Dairesi) and External Relations (Dış İlişkiler Dairesi). In the provinces of Turkey, the office is represented by the so-called Müftülük, the "Office of the Muftis ".

From 1992 to 2003, Diyanet was President Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz, who in his office had essentially handed down the Kemalist state doctrine. He was followed in May 2003 by Ali Bardakoğlu, who is considered liberal . After his resignation in November 2010, his deputy Mehmet Görmez took over the position . After Mehmet Görmez resigned from office in 2017, Ali Erbaş took over the office of Diyanet President. In March 2018, theology professor Huriye Martı was the first woman to be appointed vice-president.

tasks

In 2007 the DİB employed 84,195 people, including 60,641 imams. It is responsible for 79,096 (2007) mosques in the country and for those mosques abroad that belong to the DITIB . Outside Turkey, the DİB is responsible for 1805 mosques.

The Diyanet is responsible for organizing the Koran courses. It writes the Friday sermons, sends preachers, imams and muezzins to the mosques and maintains the places of worship.

The majority of Alevis do not feel represented by the Diyanet, as the office only supports and teaches Orthodox-Sunni Islam.

For a long time, the Diyanet represented a comparatively “moderate” interpretation of Islam and the Koran - for example, in March 2005 two women were appointed as vice mufti in Kayseri and Istanbul . In recent times, the Diyanet has also made a name for itself again and again with its very conservative interpretations of Islam and the Koran. At the beginning of 2016, for example, a fatwa in Turkey sparked discussion, in which the Diyanet prescribed fiancées how to behave in public. According to this Islamic legal opinion, flirting, living together without being married or being unobserved as a couple allegedly encourages gossip and rumors. Holding hands in public is also one of the things that is incompatible with Islam. A children's comic published by Diyanet, in which religiously motivated martyrdom is glorified, also caused discussions and fierce criticism in Turkey in March 2016.

Tasks abroad

The Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı operates outside Turkey through cooperation partners. The religious authority sends councils (müşavir) and attachés to embassies and consulates, especially in the Federal Republic of Germany.

To strengthen ties to the Central Asian Turkic states , the DİB operates Islamic cultural policy in the states of Azerbaijan , Turkmenistan , Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan .

Germany

It has its own branch in Germany: the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion (DITIB), which, according to its own information, oversees around 900 mosque communities nationwide.

Netherlands

The Diyanet founded its own organization in the Netherlands in 1982. Of the 475 mosques that existed in the Netherlands in 2018, 146 were controlled by Diyanet.

Switzerland

In Switzerland there is the “Turkish Islamic Foundation for Switzerland”.

Austria

In Austria it is the “Turkish-Islamic Union for Cultural and Social Cooperation in Austria” (ATIB).

Examples

  • In January 2007, the Diyanet decided to send 2,500 people to the east and south-east of Turkey. As “teams for guidance and sermons” (Vaaz ve İrşat 'Timleri), these are intended to curb the influence of the Kurdish Hizbullah and the PKK (cf. Hürriyet of January 10, 2007).
  • In March 2007, the office issued a fatwa declaring organ donation to be compatible with Islamic law . Organ donors would get their organs back in the afterlife (cf. Hürriyet of March 8, 2007).
  • Through a fatwa commissioned by Diyanet in 2008, it was stated that a departure from Islam to another religion was expressly permitted. The change of religion is only allowed if the conversion is an expression of a personal preference and does not prepare the ground for a revolt against Islam or the lawful order. The death penalty is justified if the apostate wages war against Islam. The authority expressly regards missionary efforts (“propaganda”) as part of the warfare.
  • Very conservative views of the authority were also revealed in 2008. For example, a guideline for the good and exemplary life of Muslim women published by the office takes the view that flirting is adultery and that contact with strange men should generally be avoided. The use of perfume outside the home is also a sin. Women and men in the same workplace are a particularly great danger to society. This guide has been heavily criticized by the Turkish daily Radikal and liberal circles in Turkey.
  • A fatwa issued by the religious authorities in 2015 wanted to tell fiancées how to behave. Accordingly, holding hands in public is one of the things that are incompatible with Islam.
  • In 2016, Stern reported on a comic for children in which dying as a martyr is glorified.

literature

  • Lutz Berger: Religious Authority and Millî Görüş. Two variants of a traditionalist Islam in Turkey. In: Rüdiger Lohlker (Ed.): Hadith Studies. Conversation with the traditions of the Prophet. Festschrift for Tilman Nagel . Hamburg 2009, pp. 41–76 (detailed description of the theological and Islamic law positions of the religious authority).
  • Erman, Tahire; Göker, Emrah: Alevi Politics in Contemporary Turkey, in: Middle Eastern Studies Volume 36, No. 4, 2000.
  • Göztepe, Ece: The headscarf debate in Turkey. A critical inventory for the German discussion, in: From Politics and Contemporary History , Federal Center for Political Education , Berlin 2004
  • Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi: From the revolutionary class struggle to “true” Islam. Transformation processes in Alevism in Turkey after 1980. Verlag Das Arabische Buch, Berlin 1992.
  • Seufert, Günther: State and Islam in Turkey, study by the Foundation for Science and Politics, Berlin 2004
  • Steinbach, Udo : Islam in Turkey. Interesting facts about secularism, religiosity and main variants of Islam, in: Information on political education, issue 277, 4th quarter, Berlin 2002.
  • Tezcan, Levent: Religious Strategies of the Feasible Society. Managed religion and Islamist utopia in Turkey, Bielefeld 2003.
  • Tröndle, Dirk: The debate about Islam and its institutionalization in Turkey, in: Zeitschrift für Türkeistudien, 14th year 2001, issue 1 + 2.
  • Tröndle, Dirk: The Friday sermons ( hutbe ) of the Presidium for Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı) in Turkey - pastoral care, religious service or the instrumentalization of religion, in: KAS / Auslandsinformationen 4/06, Berlin 2006
  • Vorhoff, Karin: "Let's Reclaim Our History and Culture!" - Imagining Alevi Community in Contemporary Turkey, in: Die Welt des Islams. Volume 38, No. 2, Leiden 1998.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Fatwa in Turkey: Flirting forbidden , Spiegel Online January 5, 2016
  2. ↑ Ali Bardakoglu: Modern FAZ, February 29, 2004
  3. ↑ Jürgen Gottschlich: Head of over 80,000 mosques: Head of religious office resigns. , taz, November 11, 2010.
  4. ↑ Luisa Seeling: A bit more feminine. In: sueddeutsche.de . March 15, 2018, accessed March 16, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Number of employees for the years 1998–2007 ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 26 kB), Presidium for Religious Affairs ( Memento of the original dated June 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 29, 2008  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diyanet.gov.tr @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diyanet.gov.tr
  6. ↑ Number of employees by type of employment (detailed) ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 45 kB), Presidium for Religious Affairs ( Memento of the original dated June 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 29, 2008  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diyanet.gov.tr @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diyanet.gov.tr
  7. ↑ Number of mosques ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( MS Excel ; 26 kB), Presidium for Religious Affairs ( Memento of the original dated June 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 29, 2008  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diyanet.gov.tr @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diyanet.gov.tr
  8. ↑ Number of mosques abroad ( memento of the original from June 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Presidium for Religious Affairs ( Memento of the original dated June 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 29, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diyanet.gov.tr @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diyanet.gov.tr
  9. ↑ Fatwa in Turkey: Flirting prohibited. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved April 27, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Turkey: Religious guardians use comics to encourage children to be martyred. In: stern.de. Retrieved April 27, 2016 .
  11. ^ "Union of Turkish-Islamic Cultural Associations in Europe eV" (DITIB)
  12. ↑ Semiha Sözeri, Ahmet Erdi Öztürk: Diyanet as a Turkish Foreign Policy Tool: Evidence from the Netherlands and Bulgaria . In: Politics and Religion . tape 11 , no. 03 , ISSN  1755-0483 , p. 624–648 (pdf: 12) ( academia.edu [accessed April 14, 2019]).
  13. ↑ "Turkish Islamic Foundation for Switzerland" (TISS)
  14. ^ "Turkish-Islamic Union for Cultural and Social Cooperation in Austria" (ATIB)
  15. ↑ Religious Office Permits Conversion from Islam , Der Standard May 2, 2008. Retrieved September 23, 2011
  16. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.diyanet.gov.tr
  17. ^ "Berger: Religious Authority".
  18. ↑ ISLAM IN TURKEY: When women send out special stimuli, Spiegel Online June 1, 2008
  19. ↑ Turkish authorities encourage children to be martyred Stern Online, April 1, 2016