Turkish Shiites fear growing hate crimes
Lacking political influence, Turkey's Shiite community continues to await a government response to recent arson attacks against their mosques.
On June 13, the small daily Yeni Mesaj reported an arson attack on the Shiite Allahu Akbar Mosque, in Istanbul's Esenyurt district. The reportedly unknown perpetuators struck after midnight, setting fire to the mosque’s library. Turkey's mainstream media failed to pick up on the incident until July 8, after another Shiite house of worship, the Muhammediye Mosque, was attacked in the same district. Both incidents took place in the middle of the night, involved arson targeting the mosques' libraries and caused serious material damage but no loss of life.
Hamza Aydin, Muhammediye's imam, told Al-Monitor, “Prior to the attack we had some suspicious visitors at the mosque. Initially, they just asked questions. Later, they made offensive comments. I reported one of them to the police. This man told me, 'You practice idolatry. We will not let your ezan [call to prayer] be heard in this country.'” Aydin further explained, “The mosque had no working security cameras at the time, so the police told us they could not follow up on the issue. Afterward we had the arson attack, which burnt several books, along with copies of the Quran.”
Turkey’s Shiites — called Jaafaris, a name honoring the sixth imam, Jaafar-i Sadek — have approximately 70 mosques in Istanbul and some 300 throughout the country. To put their number in context, one should consider that there are nationwide almost 85,000 government-sponsored mosques, which receive financing through the Religious Affairs Directorate. Thus, the Jaafaris' presence is minuscule in comparison, but they have, however, managed to so far maintain independence from the Religious Affairs Directorate. They receive no state funding for their mosques and imams.
Previous slander and threats and now the arson attacks represent troubling messages for the Jaafari community, especially following the escalation of sectarian war in Syria and Iraq and the emergence of the Islamic State (IS, formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS). The left-leaning daily Yurt reported on the arson under the headline “ISIS burnt down a mosque in Istanbul.”
