Religion Islam is a monotheistic religion practiced by Muslims.
They believethat Allah gave revelations to the Prophet Muhammed through the Angel Gabrielaround A. D. 600. Jesus Christ and the prophets of the New Testament are acceptedas Islamic precepts.
During their rule of the Ottoman Empire, Islamic lawsdictated the way of life for the Turks. In 1924 with the new republicgovernment, Islamic Law was abolished as a state religion. The governmentremoved religion from public policy and restricted it exclusively to personalfaith. This led to the abolishment of the religion’s hierarchy and the closingand confiscation of the lodges, meeting places and monasteries as well asoutlawing their rituals and meetings.
The government restricted religious publicattire for men and women as well as trying to substitute Turkish words forArabic words of Islamic origin. This was a swift and harsh attempt at change. During the 1940’s there was a relaxation of some political controls and by the1950’s people wanted to return to traditional religious practice. In factstarting in the 1950’s religious education was made compulsory in secondaryschools and in 1982 it was extended to primary schools as well.
A lot of thecontroversy that followed was found in the universities. Female studentscommitted to Islam began to cover their heads and necks with scarves and longovercoats. This lead to the regulations in 1987, forbid female students to covertheir heads in class. Protests by other religious students and professorsoverturned the dress code in the 1990’s.
Today, a Turkish woman’s dress hasbecome the center of much debate. (Bollag,B. , January 8, 1999). The Muslimreligion accounts for 99% of the population in Turkey. Non-Muslim’s religionsinclude: Christians, Protestants and Jews. The members of these religionsusually reside in a single area and are very small in number.
