Turkey's Diyanet, or Religious Affairs Directorate, announced through its website on Jan. 8 that it would be seeking legal advice on how to deal with people making allegedly perverted and twisted comments about the agency. Soon thereafter, media outlets began posting a link to Diyanet’s “Question and Answer” section, fingering it as the reason behind the notice. Within a few hours, Diyanet became the center of yet another controversy.

The newspaper Birgun shared a screen grab of a Diyanet Q&A in which an anonymous visitor to the interactive site had posed the question, “Would my marriage be void if I lust for my own daughter?” The Quran (4:23) prohibits incest, as does Turkish law, making the answer of an unidentified ulama (religious scholar) to this question all the more shocking. He stated, “There is a difference of opinion on the matter among Islam's different schools of thought. For some, a father kissing his daughter with lust or caressing her with desire has no effect on the man's marriage.” He went on to assert that according to the Hanafi school of Islamic thought, the mother would be “forbidden” to such a man. After elaborating in graphic and disturbing detail about girls' attire, he suggested, “The girl should be over nine years of age.” He also referred to writings by particular religious scholars and gave a concluding explanation about differences in sexual arousal between males and females.

Although the religious ruling, or fatwa, appeared on Diyanet’s own website for all to read, the directorate appeared to be more upset at the press for publicizing it and the people who shared it on social media. The reactions by those trying to defend Diyanet were as mind-boggling as the fatwa itself, which was removed from the website Jan. 8.

Hilal Kaplan, a columnist for the pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) daily Sabah, issued a series of related tweets. In one she wrote, “The question raised here is whether or not the marriage commitment would be nullified. The enemies of Islam, those who want to hurt Diyanet, are the ones reflecting on the answer as halal, 'permissible.' [They] are the real perverts. They must be the ones writing this question, as they are the ones spreading the private answer written in a private conversation.”