Religious Education Policies in Republican Turkey

Abstract

The relation of religion and state has generally become problematic during the Republican history. The impressions of the state about the religion, in addition to the political dimension of problem affect the religious education completely. In specific periods, direct or indirect involvements to design religion show the differentiation between the perception of the state about religion and the perception of the society or the life style of them. In this respect, applied politics in front of the society are perceived as a threat which has to be opposed generally. The reflections of the applied religious politics to religious education in the Republican Turkey were always significant. All political powers did not transcend to use religion and religious education within the terms of their own political and ideological conditions. This condition naturally causes to handle religious education within the framework of politics. Therefore, during the 95 years of Republican Turkey because of the discussion on whether the state can give religious education or not, the question of how can we give better religious education cannot be discussed. This article, deals with influences of attitude to religion of political power on religious education during the Republican history. In this context, the article is discussed within three titles. First title deals with historical process of religious politics in Republican period. Second title deals with the problems of applied politics. Third title deals with the effects of religious politics to religious education before and after 2002.