Sucu is splendid in stripes

WAS it the result of an Islamist inquisition? For many the sacking last week of Ayse Sucu (pictured), the head of the women's centre of Turkey's state-run religious-affairs directorate (Diyanet), amounted to nothing less. With her loosely worn headscarf and progressive views, Mrs Sucu had become an emblem for Diyanet as it launched a series of initiatives to advance women's rights in Turkey. Her dismissal prompted the resignation of all 28 women working in her centre.

Pro-secular newspapers have cast the affair as a further twist in the battle between western-minded Turks and the mildly Islamist ruling Justice and Development (AK) party. Some blame Diyanet's new boss, Mehmet Gormez. Unlike his predecessor, Mr Gormez is said to espouse rigid views on the headscarf. And in a homily penned during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, he derided activists campaigning against the ritual slaughter of millions of sheep. All of this has sharpened fears that, with AK's blessing, Mr Gormez will steer Diyanet, which is responsible for managing Turkey's preachers and mosques, in a conservative direction.

As ever in Turkey's mix of official secularism and popular piety, the truth is more complex. For one, Mr Gormez is the brains behind an ambitious project to reinterpret the Hadith, the most sacred text in Islam after the Koran. A collection of thousands of utterances said to have been pronounced by the Prophet Muhammad, the Hadith is the main guide for Muslims in interpreting the Koran. Mr Gormez's goal is to weed out those unsavoury texts (on restricting women's freedoms, for instance) that, in Mr Gormez's words, obscure the original values of Islam. Outraged purists have accused him of “degenerating” Islam and fought to block his promotion. Sources close to Mr Gormez say that the row shows the idea that he engineered Mrs Sucu's removal because of her views is ridiculous. He has even, they add, been known to prepare his wife's breakfast.

The fuss over Mrs Sucu has obscured a far more controversial change to Diyanet. Until recently it was a semi-autonomous body. Now it is directly attached to the government, leaving it vulnerable to political manipulation. Will the revamped Diyanet offer seats to Turkey's non-Muslim minorities? What of the millions of Alevis who neither fast during Ramadan nor pray in mosques? Such questions will be the real test of Mr Gormez's liberalism.