A Salafi Assault on Turkish Theology?

“Everything goes wrong all at once.” That is one of the versions of the oft-quoted Murphy’s Law, which seems to be prevalent these days in Turkey. Because as if all the political tensions and the declining democratic credentials of the country were not enough, a bizarre decision by the Higher Education Council has raised an unexpected concern: that Turkey’s theological faculties are being taken over by a more dogmatic understanding of Islam that has no respect for philosophy.

First, a summary of basic facts: In Turkey, all universities, even private ones, are under the “coordination” of the Higher Education Council (HEC), which is a state institution controlled by the government. This centralized system controls theology faculties as well, which are Turkey’s main source of well-educated men of religion. For a long time, the curriculum of the theology faculties has included both “Islamic sciences” such as the study of the Quran and the hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad), and secular disciplines such as sociology of religion and history of philosophy.

However, a very unexpected decision by the HEC was handed down in mid-August, reducing the philosophy class from “obligatory” to “optional.” It also reduced the hours and the credits of the classes on sociology of religion and psychology of religion. Meanwhile, the hours and credits of the “Islamic sciences” were maximized.

Since then, the theological community in Turkey has been discussing this “assault on philosophy,” as some have called it. In the past two weeks, some columnists, including myself, have criticized the HEC decision and warned against “theology without philosophy.” After my critical piece, I received dozens of emails from concerned professors and other lecturers in Turkey’s theology faculties. They all were disturbed, if not outraged, by the HEC’s decision.