Turkish imam loses his job over lyrics criticizing government
Demotion of an imam over a protest song comes as another sign of the expanding intolerant climate in Turkey ahead of June elections.
Turkey’s official religious body demoted an imam over a protest song he wrote and sang, in a move critics say is another indication of the government’s increasingly blatant intolerance of any sort of criticism ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections.
“They see there is bribing — still they don't say anything. There is no justice, no morals; they are keeping their silence,” Imam Fatih Ardic, who has worked in Turkey’s western province of Manisa, wrote in his song without knowing these lyrics would cost him his job.
The video clip of the song, which was released on YouTube in the summer, quickly became popular. The song was even aired by one of Turkey’s public broadcasters, TRT radio.
Yet the Religious Affairs Directorate (the Diyanet) launched an investigation into Ardic in early October over the song, titled “Is it permissible hodja?” Last week, Ardic was relocated to another province as a janitor.
