twelfth grade Turkish public college textbook promotes armed jihad
Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
The twelfth grade spiritual course e-book utilized in public colleges in Turkey promotes armed jihad, ignoring the abuse of the jihad idea by violent terrorist teams akin to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The textbook displays the prevailing ideology of the Islamist Justice and Growth Get together (AKP), led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been governing the NATO member nation for the final 20 years.
The 2019 version, authored by Abdullah Açık, Veli Karataş and Mustafa Yılmaz, was produced by the federal government printing workplace in two volumes and distributed below the title “Fundamentals of Islam’s Spiritual Beliefs.”
First two pages of the e-book on Islam that’s taught in twelfth grade in Turkey:
12thGrade_textbook_jihad_Turkey
The e-book emphasizes that armed jihad is compulsory for all Muslims and notes that “At this time, the idea of jihad is related to unhealthy examples, particularly by the opponents of Islam.” It claims jihad is introduced up by opponents of Islam as one thing unhealthy and one thing to be averted, including that Muslims have been intentionally defamed by these opponents over jihad.
The e-book utterly ignores the usage of jihad by terrorist organizations and doesn’t make a single reference to al-Qaeda, ISIS or different violent jihadist teams that abuse the idea for homicide, plunder, rape and different crimes. Not solely have been such teams missed within the sub-chapter that offers with jihad, however they have been additionally not cited in one other sub-chapter that particularly focuses on terrorism.
It describes the founding fathers in Ottoman occasions as individuals who made jihad their lifestyle and says they by no means hesitated to provide their lives to the jihadist trigger within the title of Allah. Stating that jihad will final till the top of time, the e-book describes jihadist exercise as one of many duties that each Muslim man and lady should fulfill.
The e-book is a worrying instance of how the Islamist ideology of President Erdoğan and his associates have taken a toll on schooling in Turkey, with 12 graders being taught to provide their lives within the title of jihad with none reference to the terrorist teams that abuse the idea.
The content material of the textbook and its design have been accredited as research materials for the 12 grade by the Ministry of Training in determination No. 12254648 on June 25, 2018. Tons of of 1000’s of copies have been printed by the federal government in 2019 and distributed to college students in all public colleges freed from cost that very same 12 months.
The chapter on jihad within the textbook:
12thGrade_textbook_jihad_chapter_Turkey
Comparable modifications consistent with the federal government’s views have been adopted in different textbooks as properly. For instance, the twelfth grade fashionable historical past e-book is stuffed with anti-American and anti-EU references. The e-book, additionally revealed by the federal government printing workplace, justifies al-Qaeda’s terrorist assaults on the US on September 11, 2001 that killed almost 3,000 individuals, manufacturers the European Union as a Christian membership led by the pope and criticizes the NATO alliance.
“The US grew to become the primary supply of issues on the planet with what it did within the aftermath of September 11,” the textbook says.
The e-book describes all members of the European Union as Christians and stated denial of membership to Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation, whereas accepting democratically and economically weak states as members of the bloc raises questions in regards to the identification of the EU. The e-book includes a picture of the leaders of the European Union and the pope on March 24, 2017 as they gathered in Rome to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which led to the formation of the union. The picture caption features a assertion by British-Polish historian Norman Davies, who stated, “I’m speaking in regards to the frequent custom of Christianity, which has made Europe what it’s.”
The chapter on terrorism doesn’t point out al-Qaeda or ISIS, which abuse Islamic ideas for partaking in terrorism:
12thGrade_textbook_Teror_chapter_Turkey
Not surprisingly, the e-book mirrores the attitude of President Erdoğan, who stated in April 2017 {that a} image of the pope posing with the leaders of EU was proof that the EU was a Christian bloc. Through the presidential referendum rallies, Erdoğan began bashing the pope and the EU in public speeches and repeatedly stated the West was hostile to Islam, touting the image as proof that confirmed the EU was a single nation of infidels. Stating that what he had been saying all alongside was confirmed proper with this gathering in Rome with the pope, Erdoğan declared that the EU was nothing however a Crusaders’ alliance.
The modifications in textbooks in recent times adopted the mass purge of the tens of 1000’s of academics from public colleges and teachers from universities. The schoolbooks have been rewritten to advertise the Erdoğan authorities’s perspective of world affairs, whereas tons of of spiritual colleges have been both constructed from scratch or transformed from current ones that used to show science and literature.
