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| Europe |
| Turkey: European Human Rights Court rejects compulsory Sunni education |
| 2007-10-10 |
| When Worlds Collide ... Ankara, 9 Oct. (AKI) - The European Human Rights Court on Tuesday ruled that compulsory lessons in religious culture and ethics had infringed the rights of two Turkish nationals, Hasan Zengin and his daughter, Eylem Zengin. The court ordered Turkey to pay 3,726 euros to the Zengins who belong to the Alevi branch of the Muslim faith. More specifcally "compulsory lessons in Sunni religious culture and ethics" The court's decison found "that religious culture and ethics lessons in Turkey did not meet the criteria of objectivity and pluralism necessary for education in a democratic society and for pupils to develop a critical mind towards religion." "In the applicants' case, the lessons did not respect the religious and philosophical convictions of Ms Zengin's father," the decision said. Wow... Strasbourg makes a statement on the bedrock Salafist program for world domination. The court also ruled that Turkey's procedure making religious culture and ethics lessons compulsory for Muslim children but not Christian or Jewish ones was discriminatory. Yes, can't allow Muslim taxpayers to fund Jewish and Christian religious education for wee kuff'rs - heads would explode! The exemption procedure " did not use appropriate methods and did not provided sufficient protection to those parents who could legitimately consider that the subject taught was likely to raise a conflict of values in their children," the court said. This especially applied to children from non-Sunni families, where the exemption from religious culture and ethics lessons had placed a "heavy burden" on parents of disclosing their religious or philosophical beliefs, according to the court. The ruling (if enforced - ha ha) would certainly put a crimp in the "We own your children" effort. The Zengins lodged their application with the court when Eylem was attending seventh grade of a state school. They complained that the syllabus of the religion lesson lacks objectivity in that no detailed information about other religions was included. The court upheld this claim finding that the curriculum and textbooks in primary schools and the first cycle of secondary school "gave greater priority to knowledge of Islam than to that of other religions and philosophies." Duh. Why is that (this is a rhetorical question)? "Pupils received no teaching on the confessional or ritual specificities of the Alevi faith, even though its followers represented a large proportion of the Turkish population," the court said. Information about the Alevis was only taught in 9th grade, the court found, stating this was too late. The court concluded there had been a violation of Article 2 of Protocol No.1 (right to education) of the European Convention on Human Rights - as the Zengin appeal claims. Minority Alevis describe themselves as ‘followers of Ali’, bridegroom of the Prophet Mohammed. They are neither Sunnis nor mainstream Shiites, and differ from Sunni Islam concerning religious practices such as prayer, pilgrimage and fasting. Some Alevis emphasise Alevism is a separate religion and some that it is a belief-system, while others assert it is the 'true Islam'. |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #2 Maybe we should sic them on the public schools in NY, CA and the Pacific northwest that have "play muslim" classes for the kiddies. Nah, not worth the bad that would come with it. Fun to think about, though... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-10-10 12:15 |
| #1 You got your chocolate in my peanut butter! |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-10-10 11:52 |