The Ministry of National Education continues to force students to attend compulsory Islamic classes claimed to be "elective courses"

The Ministry of National Education (MEB)’s imposing of "compulsory Islamic classes" students has been officially proven in Turkey. Compulsory Islamic classes, promoted at the beginning of the second semester in schools, mosques, sermons (khutbah) and meetings with the support of the Directorates of National Education and Islamic sects in many provinces, have become obligatory for secondary school students in Istanbul.

In the form, families of students came up against Quran lessons selected by the school administration as the first so-called elective cours’ in the document.

A from written to be submitted to the directorates of National Education includes a statement saying "I want the student to take the following elective course below stated" along with a section involving student information and the approval of parents.

"Elective course" forms that parents have been forced to sign were reportedly prepared on the instruction of district Directorates of National Education, while teachers criticizing the Turkish government’s imposing of compulsory Islamic class were threatened with indictment.

Regarding the issue, Feray Aytekin Aydoğan, the Chair of the Education and Science Workers’ Union (Eğitim-Sen), said, "The district Directorates of National Education threaten school administrators at meetings, forcing them by practically saying ‘Either you will make the necessary arrangements regarding elective Islamic courses in schools or you will be dismissed".

Turkey's ruling AKP party has been trying to mold public opinion, especially via pro-government media in order to "officially" make Quran and prophetic biography courses obligatory for students.

In his evaluation to soL news about the government’s "elective" Islamic classes, the former reporter of the Supreme Court Ali Rıza Aydın from the Enlightenment Movement Against Reactionism had previously stated, "Courses such as Quran, Prophetic Biography and Basic Religious Knowledge seem to be elective, but in practice, they have become compulsorily courses imposed on students by school administrators in many schools."

Aydın also reminded that the AKP’s 4+4+4 educational system ─ which is a contentious 12-year compulsory education system with four-year phases of primary, middle and high school ─ paved the way for religious middle schools and this was not found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court on the pretext that religious courses are ‘optional’, and added: "The Constitutional Court referred to a new and flexible definition of secularism with this decision and attributed it to ‘religious freedom’ as the Turkish government wanted".

"Even if the Constitutional Court tries to refer to a flexible definition of secularism, de facto applications regarding religious classes are unconstitutional and against the Law on the Unity of Education," Ali Rıza Aydın underlined.