President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a searing address Sept. 29 at the Turkish Green Crescent Society’s International Drug Policy and Public Health Symposium in Istanbul. Erdogan made several “headline-making” statements during the speech. One highlight was his reference to a European Court of Human Rights ruling that called on Turkey to halt compulsory religion education and moral values courses. Erdogan criticized the decision from a mind-boggling perspective, stating, "You will never see a debate over compulsory physics, mathematics or chemistry lessons, but for some reason, religion classes are always debated. If you lift compulsory religion and ethics classes, drugs, violence, and racism will fill the void." He added, “If you are asking for compulsory religion classes to be abolished, then you should not be complaining about drug addiction, violence, anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.”
Erdogan did not even spare the Islamic State (IS) in his battle cry against Turkey's problem of increasing drug abuse. He explained that there are thousands of Western fighters joining IS and stated, “I believe not all of these are Muslims. Some of them are drug addicts. Some of them are prone to violence.” He concluded that the trigger for drug addiction, terror and violence is greed.
This is not the first time Erdogan has spoken of Islamic piety as a cure for addiction. He appears to be convinced that drug addiction is also the result of moral degeneration due to Westernization. Erdogan has said multiple times that his government’s quest is for Turkey's youths to avoid the trap of drugs, so they can have strong morals.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and several other Justice and Development Party (AKP) members have echoed Erdogan's argument that religious education is a must for a drug-free society. The importance of religious education was defended most passionately by Burhan Kuzu, an AKP Istanbul parliamentarian and professor of constitutional issues. Kuzu tweeted, “So 20% of IS members were Harvard graduates. There are ones with PhDs. A decent education does not prevent one from becoming a terrorist. Correct religious education is a must.” Kuzu has been mercilessly mocked for his reference to Harvard.
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