Turkey to offer course on Christianity at schools
REUTERS/Osman Orsal
Students attend a geometry class at Fatih College in
Istanbul February 21, 2014.
School students in Turkey are to be given the option
of taking an elective course in Christianity.
According to World Watch Monitor, the course has been
written by a committee of nine Christian leaders from different traditions in
Istanbul, including Greek Orthodox and Protestants.
So far, course material has been written for fourth
and fifth grade children, with the committee preparing to work on textbooks for
eighth and ninth grade students next.
In Turkey, elective courses need a minimum of 12
students to sign up before they can go ahead.
Religious freedom expert Mine Yildirim told World
Watch Monitor there were concerns that the course will not take place in
reality.
"There are more questions than answers,"
said Yildirim. "If the Ministry of Education is not willing and ready to
become flexible, such courses will be only a possibility in theory and never in
practice."
That flexibility could include allowing the course to
go ahead without the required quota of 12 students being met, or allowing
students from different schools to come together in one location to take the
course.
There is some suspicion that Turkey has announced the
new course simply to appease the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in
September that the country's mandatory religion classes were unfair to those
who do not follow the majority Sunni Islam faith.
Critics of the religion classes say they are not
neutral, but impose Sunni Muslim rituals on students in class.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that parents
must be allowed to withdraw their children from the classes if they wish,
without having to reveal their religious beliefs.
Dogan Bermek, vice president for the Federation of
Alevi Foundations, told World Watch Monitor he thought the introduction of the
new Christianity elective was a move by Turkey to get "the Europeans off
their case".
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