Freethought

The Renaissance witnessed a resurgence of humanism, a philosophical movement that championed individualism, reason, and the pursuit of knowledge

The head of Turkey's top official religious body, the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), has recently been changed by the government, but it seems that the change has not had any effect on the institution's anti-secularism stance.

If you take your political campaign to mosques, then you should realize that you would be dividing the people who go to mosques to pray; you would be separating the congregants.    

Secular Turks should relax. Not because their president, prime minister and a whole bunch of ruling party commissars outright rejected Parliament Speaker ?smail Kahraman's idea to draft a "religious" constitution so that the secular ethos of the charter goes away. Turkey will be the same Turkey with or without secular principles in its new constitution. 

Parliament Speaker ?smail Kahraman sparked controversy last week after suggesting that secularism should not be included in Turkey's new constitution, as this is a Muslim country. Both the president and the prime minister quickly denounced his remarks as his "personal views," ensuring that no debate on secularism takes place.

There is no need for a specific emphasis on Islam in the new constitution, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has said, noting that it was no issue if people live their faith.

We can view Turkish Parliament Speaker ?smail Kahraman's statement that "secularism must be removed from the constitution" from a couple of angles. 

Parliament Speaker ?smail Kahraman has understandably caused outrage among modern Turks by suggesting the new Turkish constitution should be stripped of all references to secularism and be based on religious values instead.

His remark also disturbed his own Justice and Development Party (AKP) government because it appears to hint at what really lies in the AKP's heart.

Parliament Speaker ?smail Kahraman sparked outrage late on April 25 by suggesting that the principle of secularism "must be removed" from Turkey's constitution, as even members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) voiced disagreement. 

Secularism must not feature in the new constitution, Parliament Speaker ?smail Kahraman said on April 25, stressing that "as a Muslim country" Turkey's constitution should be religious.