9 February 2010 / TAHA AKYOL MİLLİYET,
The venerable Ali Bardarkoğlu, the head of religious affairs, has urged people to “turn off their TVs for half an hour every night and use that time to read from the Quran.”
And so the debates have started. Those who wish to may follow his suggestion; those who do not wish to do so don’t have to. But in the wake of Bardarkoğlu’s words, this whole business got bigger, with an outcry rising from some that “the Directorate” of Religious Affairs cannot make these decisions.” A well-known director even went so far as to compare this bit of “turn off your TVs for half an hour” advice from Bardarkoğlu to opposition to the printing presses that occurred in past history. Of course, the 250-years-late arrival of the printing press to Turkey is a big deal in our nation. In fact, it is one of the main reasons that we turned so quickly into “viewers” without ever becoming “readers.” And the reason that we keep believing this legend, that somehow the printing press was prevented from arriving by the learned religious circles, is rooted in the fact that we are still not strong enough “readers.”
