Info Class on Religion to be Taught in All Turkish Schools

A class on culture, which will include information on all religions, will be taught in schools next year, said Turkey’s State Minister Faruk Çelik, who has been the coordinator of the government’s Alevi initiative to solve the long-lasting problems of the country’s Alevi population, reports Today’s Zaman.

“This will be a culture and information class that will include instruction on all religions. Children should know about what religion is even if they are atheists. 

“With your support, we will make it possible to have such a class during the 2011-2012 school year. This is not religious education, this class is informational. Education and instruction will not be mixed,” Çelik said yesterday, addressing more than 3,500 people at the Bostancı Performance Center (BGM) where international leaders from Alevi organizations gathered for their fifth meeting under the leadership of Turkey’s Cem Foundation.

Alevis practice a form of Islam that distinguishes their worship from that of the Sunni Muslim majority. While there are no official figures on Turkey’s Alevi population, estimates vary from 6 million to 15 million in the country, which has a population of more than 70 million. The Cem Foundation’s head, Professor İzzettin Doğan, puts the figure as high as 30 million.