Many faiths, one standard of religious education
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Haziran 30, 2009 00:00
The issue of the reopening of the Greek Orthodox Halki seminary on the island of Heybeliada, shuttered since 1971, is complex and often deeply emotional. All too often, the issue is surrounded domestically with nationalist sentiment and ill-informed opinions.
Internationally, confusion also often reigns. U.S. President Barack Obama, whose government has sought and seeks to close down radical Islamic madrasas in Pakistan and elsewhere can cheerfully come into the Turkish Parliament and call for the reopening of Halki without even realizing the double standard he is inadvertantly advocating.
And so we must commend the new effort by Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay and State Minister/European Union negotiator Egemen Bağış to seek resolution of the long-festering problem while carrying the discussion to a more intelligent, reasonable and cogent plane.
"Although we have not finalized a decision in the Cabinet, my personal impression is that we are going to open the seminary," Günay was quoted in yesterday’s Daily News. And none too soon, we might add.
Günay and Bağış have both effectively explained the impediments, in Bağış’ case to our own strategic partner, the Greek daily Kathimerini.
A major challenge is Turkey’s mechanisms of state oversight of Islamic religious schools, both the vocational high schools known as "imam-hatip" and the university-level faculties of theology. In general, given the history of this country and its secular foundations, there is good reason for governance of the curriculum and education in such schools. And Turkey cannot have one standard of education for clerics of one faith and a different, more liberal standard for clerics of another faith. Opening the seminary as a foundation university, akin to Koç or Sabancı universities, is one idea. Another is to allow it to function under the rules established for private high schools. Such notions have been rejected by the church, but Günay expressed confidence that a formula can be found that comports with the principle of equality for Islamic and Christian education.
Bağış, in turn, has effectively made the point that Turkey needs to deal with the issue independently of the treatment of the Muslim minority in Greece. The attitudes of the past, whereby the rights of respective minorities in either country were treated as a bilateral issue to be dealt with reciprocally, are wrong, he said. Turkey must deal fairly with its minorities regardless of how Greece treats its minorities. Yes, progress in Greece is politically helpful, but rights cannot be subject to political quid pro quo.
Günay and Bağış have laid down the very concrete conceptual pillars upon which resolution can be constructed in a way that can be understood both at home and abroad. It is high time Halki was reopened. Günay and Bağış are showing the way.
And so we must commend the new effort by Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay and State Minister/European Union negotiator Egemen Bağış to seek resolution of the long-festering problem while carrying the discussion to a more intelligent, reasonable and cogent plane.
"Although we have not finalized a decision in the Cabinet, my personal impression is that we are going to open the seminary," Günay was quoted in yesterday’s Daily News. And none too soon, we might add.
Günay and Bağış have both effectively explained the impediments, in Bağış’ case to our own strategic partner, the Greek daily Kathimerini.
A major challenge is Turkey’s mechanisms of state oversight of Islamic religious schools, both the vocational high schools known as "imam-hatip" and the university-level faculties of theology. In general, given the history of this country and its secular foundations, there is good reason for governance of the curriculum and education in such schools. And Turkey cannot have one standard of education for clerics of one faith and a different, more liberal standard for clerics of another faith. Opening the seminary as a foundation university, akin to Koç or Sabancı universities, is one idea. Another is to allow it to function under the rules established for private high schools. Such notions have been rejected by the church, but Günay expressed confidence that a formula can be found that comports with the principle of equality for Islamic and Christian education.
Bağış, in turn, has effectively made the point that Turkey needs to deal with the issue independently of the treatment of the Muslim minority in Greece. The attitudes of the past, whereby the rights of respective minorities in either country were treated as a bilateral issue to be dealt with reciprocally, are wrong, he said. Turkey must deal fairly with its minorities regardless of how Greece treats its minorities. Yes, progress in Greece is politically helpful, but rights cannot be subject to political quid pro quo.
Günay and Bağış have laid down the very concrete conceptual pillars upon which resolution can be constructed in a way that can be understood both at home and abroad. It is high time Halki was reopened. Günay and Bağış are showing the way.