Some recommendations which were accepted by Turkish National Education Council, have worried a number of Turkish people. In fact, these recommendations are not surprising for experts who have been following developments since last 30 years. It will not be wrong to say that these advices which are seen very radical today, will remain innocent when more radical demands arose in the future.
Advising to put on Ottoman Alphabet Courses for high schools and religious courses for first class of primary schools, can be approved by a large segment of society. Indeed, Islamic community in Turkey have changed very much in the last decade.
Pious do not find adequate their religious environment which live in. Those who live only with religious rules, perceive to spread religion to all areas of life as a goal and worship. The main purpose of a religious person is to re-educate their family, neighborhood, city, state and even the world, because the religion is not only moral rules but also political, economic and legal rules.
For religious people, modernism means corruption and to deny history. Hence, Espousing tradition is indicator of religiosity. New ideas in the religious field create fear. These fears are charged with disbelief and are excluded. Religious people think to save their beliefs in this way. They put up a guard wall around their environment and live in peace and happiness in there. They become communitarian and ghettoization against threats from outside. Any type of self-sacrifice making with property and even life are considered holy.
A like of the protectionist and sacred attitudes of pious is the opposite side. Those who perceive the religiosity as a threat against their life, have high protective walls such as pious. They also believe that their thinking and way of life are the best. They shows intolerance against opposing-views and unconditionally deny it. If the piety dominates to community, this attitude turns into fear, enmity and to exclude all of sacred values.
Irreligion (not Atheism) spreads in secret in communities in which religious extremism has been spread. Hard religiousness or irreligion leads the radicalism on both fronts. The intolerance which is shown to modern headscarves of students in Turkish universities in past, has feed Islamist reactions for years.
In fact, the main problem is not the existence of religion but is understood format and its coverage. When understanding of religion goes beyond individual limits, conflict begins at the social boundaries. There is not a judicial unit which will determine that which understanding of religion is the best. Thus, a belief has emerged in Islamic culture about 72 sects are astray but only one sect is the right way. Each Islamic community says that we are in the right way. Each individual has some discretionary proofs. The foundations of rules where conflicts arise, namely in the social sphere, should be away from any controversy. The sustenance of community, beyond the cultural and religious differences, is mind and science.
Today the biggest problem is that feeling and faith have control over mind and science. Modernism which is the fear of piety, is not corruption and immensity, but is actually aggiornamento. Religious rules must be updating as all the rules that define the boundaries of life. Prophets and sacred books came according to their eras. The languages and practices of prophets changed according to the age and society, with being the moral foundation was same. The prophets and sacred books which were belonging to oral culture period, ended with the written culture period, but religious people could not go forward from that era. Hence, today’s religiosity examples which have dominated Afghanistan and the Middle East, are these preserved primitive religious understanding.
Mental foundations of religiosity in Turkiye –with being its outlook is modern- are same. The most radical ideas and thoughts can be spoken in many theology faculties which must be a broad church. This understanding that spread not only to the social base, but also to the scientific institutions, cannot produce a bright future. This religiosity can think that they are serving for religion by opening mosques in every schools. Also they can defend to receive education of boys and girls in different classes and to cover their head at the child age in the future.
Those who prevent these arguments and conflicts are scientists and intellects. If the Islam community support mentalist scientists, objective solutions can be find. If the individual religiosity and beliefs step on the scene, they only increase conflicts and chaos.
A scientist cannot be religious. He/She question even beliefs and search for the truth. If piety cuts in the front of mind and science, he believes that the Prophet split moon and waits Mahdi or Messiah for solving problems, even if he is a professor in sciences.
Whereas the Koran which is the main source of Islam, has advised the guidance of mind about everything and entitled the mind as the biggest evidence of God. Peak period of Islamic civilization was the meeting time of Koran Philosophy with Universal Philosophy. The basic starting point of the biggest Muslim thinkers who they affected the world, such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Al-Farabi (Alpharabius) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), was the mind and science.
