Actor Müfit Can Saçıntı slams Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin: 'He should look at national education from a distance'

Actor and director Müfit Can Saçıntı, known for the film Mandıra Filozofu, spoke about Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin's definition of "secularism." Saçıntı stated, "The Minister of National Education should look at national education from a distance," and added the following:

"The Minister of National Education should look at national education from a distance. If he looks from a distance, it will be for the benefit of the country. Secularism is not asking the questions that God will ask His servants. Everyone has abandoned the questions that people ask each other (Are you hungry? Are you full? Are you lonely? What are you eating? What are you drinking?) and is chasing after the questions that God will ask His servants..."

WHAT DID YUSUF TEKIN SAY?

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin criticized the CHP over secularism during his speech at the AK Party Central District congress in Batman and said the following:

"They are criticizing me. They tell me that what I said is contrary to secular education. I say that it may be contrary to you, but it is not contrary to the values of the citizens in Batman or Erzurum. If there is a contradiction, it is between what you understand by secularism and what the citizens understand. The secularism you understand is this; remember the 1940s, locking the doors of mosques, turning mosques into stables, banning citizens from learning the Quran. This is what you understand by secularism. You did these things as a requirement of secularism. So, what you understand by secularism and what I understand are not the same. I understand secularism as the state guaranteeing the freedom of religious belief and worship for all citizens, regardless of which religion they believe in. What do you understand? You understand the shackling and banning of the freedom of belief of Muslims. So, there is undoubtedly a difference between our understandings of secularism. I am in favor of universal secularism; you are imposing on me a concept of secularism that you invented, specific to Turkey. This cannot be. What you understand by secularism is this; taking a child who wants to go to university with a headscarf into persuasion rooms to try to persuade her, you did this as a requirement of secularism. While doing this, you defended yourselves with secularism. So, is the secularism you defend the same as the secularism I understand? It is not."

News Source : 12punto