Ankara, Turkey - The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has not welcomed optional religion courses set out in the new constitutional charter, the Turkish Daily News learned.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will have the final say on religion courses in schools, which are compulsory under the current Constitution.
A commission chaired by State Minister Said Yazıcıoğlu is working on Article 24 of the Constitution. Members of the commission are not in favor of optional religion courses. Education Minister Hüseyin Çelik and State Minister Mehmet Aydın are members of the commission.
Instead, the commission is preparing alternatives to religion courses. The TDN learned that religion courses will be compulsory in the new constitution. Those students who don't want to attend religion courses will be allowed to abstain from attending them but will have to receive 'universal religious knowledge' courses where all religions are covered equally.
The commission's members believe that optional religion courses will lead to discrimination in schools between believers and non-believers.
Veto on conversion
The commission also discussed the second paragraph of Article 24 that stipulates people cannot be condemned or convicted due to converting to another religion. An AKP deputy said commission members believed this paragraph could create problems in practice such as an increase in missionary activities.
Worried by increasing missionary activities, the commission suggested that this reference be removed from the Constitution.
Özbudun's draft offers alternatives
A constitutional draft prepared by a scientific committee led by Professor Ergun Özbudun offered alternatives to religion courses. According to the first alternative the courses will be optional, meaning that compulsory religion courses at elementary schools will be scrapped. Religion courses used to be optional under the 1961 constitution.
According to the second alternative religion courses will be compulsory but students who don't want to attend the compulsory religion courses will be exempted.
The AKP commission is now working on its own alternatives and will make recommendations by taking into account the views of the Religious Affairs Directorate, academic circles and nongovernmental organizations. But the regulations over religion courses will take final shape after the prime minister's evaluation.