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A community of Turkey’s Shia minority, organized a workshop
Saturday in Istanbul to make their voice heard by the state.
According to AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), community members
demanded that their beliefs be included in textbooks and
barriers to training their own religious leaders be removed.
The workshop was closed to the press, but community leader
Selahattin Özgündüz conveyed the group’s demands to the media:
Caferis want to be able to speak about their community on
Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT, and other
mass-media outlets. They are also demanding that the state not
intervene with their mosques, the management of their Koran
classes and the property of those institutions.
Though Caferis do not want to be governed under the framework of
the Religious Affairs Directorate, Özgündüz said, they are
asking to receive a share of the payment allocated from the
state budget for religious affairs. They also want texts
prepared by the community to be included in school books.
Source:
http://www.abna.ir
Date: 2010/04/13
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