(Bloomberg) -- Turkey should remove references to
secularism when it writes a new constitution and draft a “religious”
charter that references Islam, state-run Anadolu Agency cites parliament
speaker Ismail Kahraman as saying.
"A reference to secularism should not be in the new
constitution’’: Kahraman"Our constitution should not avoid religion. As a
Muslim country, why do we have to separate ourselves, distance
ourselves, from our religion?’’"We’re an Islamic country. So we have to
make a religious constitution’’Says Turkey’s current constitution is
already “religious” even though it doesn’t reference God, because it
includes the directorate for religious affairs, makes Islamic holidays
public holidays and makes religious education mandatoryNOTE: Turkey’s
ruling AK Party has made rewriting Turkey’s constitution a priorityNOTE:
The Preamble of Turkey’s current constitution states that “sacred
religious feelings shall absolutely not be involved in state affairs and
politics as required by the principle of secularism"; Article 2
describes the state: ‘‘The Republic of Turkey is a democratic, secular
and social state governed by rule of law”NOTE: Upon taking office,
Turkish officials including members of parliament and the president take
an oath pledging loyalty to the principles of a secular republic
