Details of the book distributed to students at the TÜGVA Summer School have emerged: 'These are the product of a bigoted mindset'

Cenk Başboğaoğlu - 12punto.com.tr

The Summer School program of TÜGVA, where Bilal Erdoğan, son of AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, serves as a Member of the High Advisory Board, had started across Turkey with approximately 550 thousand applications in 81 provinces.

In the first part of the program, which covers students who have completed the 4th grade of primary school and middle school students, courses on the Quran, basic religious knowledge, the life of the Prophet (siyer), ethics, and catechism (ilmihal) were taught, while the second part included football, basketball, volleyball, swimming, archery, mind and intelligence games, workshops, competitions, nature camps, and various social activities.

'COMPLETELY RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA'

12punto has accessed the textbook distributed by TÜGVA as part of the Summer School held between July 6 and August 14.

While the definition of Ottoman Turkish in the book is given as “the state of Turkish enriched with Arabic and Persian words,” it is followed by the reference that “it is written not with Latin letters, but with Quranic letters.”

On the other hand, following the sentences “In the past, children learned Quranic letters with Ottoman books. Because both the Quran and daily books were read with those letters” under the same heading, a map was placed in which the provinces of the Republic of Turkey were written in Ottoman Turkish.

Regarding the issue, Mustafa Hüsnü Bozkurt, Chairman of the Kemalist Thought Association (ADD), stated, “Referring to Arabic letters as ‘Quranic letters’ is completely religious propaganda. If this were the case, God would have ensured that all eight billion people in the world learned Arabic. Therefore, this is the injection of a completely deviant understanding of religion into small children through TÜGVA. It is intended to create the image that Arabic is a holy religion.”

'IT IS UN-QURANIC'

The section titled “Etiquette in Our Daily Life” in the textbook prepared by TÜGVA is noteworthy.

Following the sentences “I prefer comfortable clothes. I do not wear transparent and tight clothes. I do not wear eye-catching colors and clothes that will disturb other people. For men, clothing should cover at least from the navel to the knee. For women, clothing should cover the entire body except for the hands and face,” the words “If we want to leave a good impression on people as Muslims, we should dress well but not push the standards” were included.

Bozkurt said, “This is archaic, irrational, and un-Quranic. Nowhere in the Quran does it say ‘they will cover everywhere except their hands and faces.’ Let them even look at the Ottoman Palace, which they admire so much. Let them look at the daughters of Caliph Abdülmecid. As we can see everywhere in Turkey today, there are photos of them with their fathers with their heads uncovered and skirts at knee length. There are photos of Vahdettin’s daughters. None of them are in the attire they describe. Therefore, these are things done to strip women of their identity in society, to further consolidate a male-dominated society, and to erode the secular Republic.”

'ARE YOU AWARE OF WHAT YOU ARE SERVING?'

ADD Chairman Hüsnü Bozkurt addressed TÜGVA Chairman İbrahim Beşinci, who gave a statement to the Anadolu Agency on the first day of the Summer School saying, “We want to raise intellectual youth whose feet are firmly on the ground, with their hearts and souls. We are creating our content and determining our style within this scope.”

Bozkurt used the words, “He says he will raise intellectuals. How will you raise an intellectual? It is clear what this religious, anti-secular republic structure called TÜGVA understands by an intellectual. Are you aware of what you are serving by telling children, ‘Don’t dress like this, cover up like that’? Raising an intellectual means equipping the children of the Republic of Turkey with scientific knowledge so they can compete with the children of the world; it means raising free-thinking, free-conscienced, free-minded, that is, free individuals. But what are you doing? You are trying to force people into a certain mold.”