Modernist Trends in Ilahiyat Faculties (Islamic Studies Faculties) Turkey, Post-Coup 1980

Authors: Muhammad Hamza Tariq

Abstract:

The regrouping of the Islamists and the politics of religious education was the most common debate in the last decades of Turkish history. Religious schools were criticized to be influenced by partisan politics. Within this turmoil, the faculty of Ilahiyat which was established by the Republic to cherish Islamic modernism and to raise modern clergy also underwent a considerable change. This research studies the revisions in the curriculum of the faculty over the last few decades. A series of interviews were also conducted to observe the prevalent trends, especially modernist among the professors at the Ilahiyat faculties. Lastly, a survey was done among the freshman and final year students based on the similar questions to observe the changes of opinions with regards to their views on Islam, modernity, political Islam, interpretation, etc. A shift in the curriculum was noted though it cannot be overgeneralized whereas a degree of prevalence of modernist thoughts was also recorded among the teachers and the students.

Keywords: ilahiyat, divinity, religion, Islamization