Non-Muslims and Muslims need to unite for a freedom of religion act (3)
by
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ

The secular establishment in Turkey has deceived everyone by playing on well-known fears. When non-Muslims demand their rights, the establishment says that if they give some rights to them, these rights might be used and abused by “fundamentalist Islamists.” When Sunni Muslims demanded some rights, they were denied with similar arguments -- that the rights they demanded might be used by Alevis and non-Muslims.

Even if we overcome these very deep-rooted fear-mongering policies by the state’s secular establishment, it is quite difficult to solve religious congregations’ problems with the existing legal tools.

New legal instruments and structures should be created. A new religious institution should be introduced by law to regulate the relations of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and this institution’s framework should be compatible with its ecumenical nature. New legal regulations should be introduced for the upper-level religious institutions of religious minorities. New legal regulations are needed for the recognition of religious congregations and their institutions. Churches, synagogues and mosques should be given separate and distinctive legal capacities. It is obvious that the Turkish legal system, which only stipulates foundations, associations and corporations as legal persons or structures, is not suitable for the recognition of churches, mosques and synagogues.

Different laws for different religious institutions

I also discussed in previous articles how the different needs of religious institutions are regulated with different laws in Turkey. Since these laws were created for general usage, they are far from meeting the specific needs of religious congregations. Therefore the recognition of congregations, the granting of distinct legal personalities to mosques, churches and synagogues and regulating all needs of these institutions should go hand in hand.

How could all these things possibly happen? It is obvious this process requires the involvement of the religious communities themselves. This process requires a serious shift in perspective on the part of congregations. First of all they need to learn to seek their own rights and to act together. Freedom of religion is a ship everyone is aboard. If this ship is sinking or half of it is in the water, no one can go anywhere. And in the Turkish case, this ship has not gone anywhere for a long time. No one should think that their part of the ship will continue sailing while the other parts of the ship are taking on water.

There are initiatives in Turkey that create the illusion that Muslims and non-Muslims have these kinds of channels. Non-Muslim community leaders sit around a table with the president of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, and they call it dialogue. These are not civil initiatives in the real sense of the word.

A civil inter-religious communities initiative

What is desperately needed in Turkey is a civil inter-religious communities initiative that will monitor, report on and campaign for freedom of religion. When non-Muslim and Muslim communities start to talk to each other they will be surprised to see that how their problems are interconnected and will see that only a holistic approach can solve these problems. They will start to understand that defending “the other’s right” is the most influential way to promote their own rights. When Muslim congregations start to talk of the rights of non-Muslims and vice versa, they will deliver the most powerful strike to break down this vicious circle of fear-mongering used by the state to limit the scope of freedom of religion.

If these congregations come together and see that there is no salvation for anyone on their own, they will start to develop common strategies and tactics to broaden the scope of their rights. They could introduce some strategic legal cases together. They could reach a consensus on some models to get recognition for their institutions. They could benefit from the experience of the world and observe together how the limits of freedom of religion have been broadened in other countries.

Instead of waiting for something to be offered to them by the state and instead of being a passive subject of this process, they can be an active part of the struggle for gaining more rights in the field of freedom of religion. After a time these religious congregations could finally reach a consensus on a bill on freedom of religion. With one single law, all the needs of religious congregations can be met. If religious congregations start to participate in this kind of struggle all together, they will make a huge contribution to the democratization process in Turkey. All we need is to get rid of well-known stereotypes and to have honest and open dialogue. The rest will come…