Call to the Diyanet from Fatih Altaylı: 'An urgent investigation must be launched'

Journalist Fatih Altaylı has called on the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) to launch an urgent investigation to answer the question: “What is the reason for this perversion in Quran courses, in the schools and dormitories of congregations and sects, and among some members of the organization?”

Altaylı wrote the following in his column:

“Not a day goes by without a case of ‘sexual assault’—sometimes against girls, but generally against boys—a case of harassment, rape, or molestation emerging in one of these places. Most recently, in the Akçakale district of Şanlıurfa, a mufti—yes, you read that correctly, a mufti—was arrested for raping a 12-year-old boy.

It is not one, not two, not three… If these things are happening in so-called religious educational institutions, in the dormitories affiliated with them, and now directly within the official Diyanet organization, and some have become impossible to hide, then this is a matter worth investigating and a problem that must be solved. It is now impossible to hide that this problem, which for years was thought to be specific to the church, is a problem not only in churches but also in the institutions of different religions. It is a duty to examine it.”