Diyanet

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan argues that the American continent was discovered by Muslim sailors some 300 years before Christopher Columbus – and that Muslims had even built a mosque atop a hill near the Cuban shore.

The resentment of Mehmet Görmez, the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), to the filth he saw in Mecca is very important

It is very important that President of the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) Professor Mehmet Görmez said, after counting several Islamic educational institutions in the world, “Scholars from these places, instead of solving problems, are becoming problems themselves in many places.”

The head of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) was included in this week’s list of top names hosted by the president every Thursday, in a break with previous custom

The head of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) was included in this week’s list of top names hosted by the president every Thursday, in a break with previous custom

Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) will hold a “Latin American Religious Muslim Leaders Summit” in November, as part of its efforts to reach Muslim communities around the world.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said his government attributes an "international mission" to Turkey's Directorate for Religious Affairs (Diyanet), also indicating that the country needs to make “reforms in religion.”

His words echo President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent suggestion that the Diyanet’s “honor” as a key state body should be restituted

Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) is so rich (its budget surpasses that of a dozen ministries combined) that it regularly produces data for social and political sciences.

In a poll it carried out last year, its pollsters asked Turks a set of entertaining questions, including:

Drawing attention to steadily rising attacks against mosques in Germany, Turkey’s top cleric has said the Pope must “translate words into deeds with regard to the misperception and misinterpretation of Islam.”

The government is in contact with the Turkish Consulate members in Mosul who were kidnapped by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Iraq and their whereabouts are known, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said on Sept. 1.