Parliamentary Speaker: Secularism Shouldn't Take Place in Constitution

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Parliamentary Speaker İsmail Kahraman has said, “Secularism shouldn’t be included in the constitution. Our constitution shouldn’t avoid the religious constitution subject. It should be mentioned religiously”.

Kahraman gave a lecture themed “New Turkey and New Constitution” in the sixth “New Turkey Conferences” organized by Islamic Countries and Writers Union (AY-BİR).

İstanbul Governor Vasip Şahin, İstanbul University Chancellor Prof. Dr. Mahmut Ak, AY-BİR Council President Yusuf Balcı and academics.

Here are some headlines from Kahraman’s speech:

“Constitution should give primacy to people”

“State and nation should merge. First comes people. The new constitution must say people first.

“The state must be an organization in service of people, its citizen. The situation is quite opposite here, we have had constitutions protecting state, and put people into service.

“Intro of the constitution upsets me”

“This constitution must change. There is intro part upsetting me. There are 32 ‘and’, 22 ‘commas’, seven ‘semicolon’, seven ‘paragraph’, and one ‘point’.

“It is a 2-page long intro section. There is no such intro in world constitution. Its language is also not good”.

“The word ‘Allah’ is not mentioned in the constitution”

“In 1982 Constitution the word ‘Allah’ is not mentioned.

“However, when the Constitution is classified in terms of belief, both 82 and 61 Constitutions are religious constitutions.

“Why? Official holidays are Feast of Sacrifice and Ramadan Feast. Religious courses are mandatory and it has a religious-based structure.

“Thus, it is not secular, but a religious constitution. Secularism definition is in accordance with that.

“Secularism to begin with shouldn’t be included in the new constitution. There is secularism in three constitutions in the world. Those are France, Ireland, and Turkey.

“Our constitution shouldn’t avoid religious constitution subject. It should be mentioned religiously”.

“Religious constitution”

“There are religious phrases in constitutions of some countries. So why should we as a Muslim country shy away from religion?

“Why? We are registered to Islamıc Cooperation Organization. We are member and founder of it. We are an Islamic country. Secularism shouldn’t take place in the new constitution and it has to be a religious constitution”. (EKN/TK)