The suicide of a young man in Turkey stirs the debate on the abuses of religious brotherhoods

The suicide of a young man in a student residence run by an Islamic brotherhood has put the focus of debate in Turkey on religious organizations, whose economic power has increased since Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power, and around which Reports of sexual abuse and mistreatment have multiplied.

On January 10, Enes Kara, a 20-year-old medical student at Euphrates University (Elazig province), jumped out of the seventh-floor window of the building where he lived, a student residence owned by the Islamist Nur movement. A month before ending her life, Kara had posted a video on social media in which she claimed to have "lost the joy of living." In the video he recounted how since he was a child he had gone through religious boarding schools and that his family had forced him to stay in an Islamic residence when he went to university, despite the fact that he did not want to because he had lost his faith years ago.

The strict rules and hardship of life in the residence - going to all the prayers from dawn, Koranic readings, compulsory religious classes even on weekends in addition to the studies of his career - ended up undermining the young man.

“When you are forced to do these things against your will, you feel like you have lost your freedom.

(…) I am psychologically exhausted ”, he said in the video.

After hearing the news of the death, his fellow students organized a rally calling for measures to end “despair suicides” of young Turks under family, social, religious and economic pressure.

"How many more lives do we have to lose before action is taken?" Asked the student who read the statement, which asked to investigate the residences managed by religious organizations.

In several cities there have been rallies and protest demonstrations, some with dozens of detainees, and the case has reopened the debate on the

and

, the Islamic organizations that, in addition to their religious activities, maintain interests in different sectors, especially in education: Koran courses for children, boarding schools, university residences, denominational schools, exam preparation courses and competitive examinations...

Enes Kara için yapılan eylemde bir gazeteci gözaltına alındı ​​|

Cemaat yurtlarında kalmaya mecbur bırakılan ve yaşadığı baskılardan sonra intihar eden #EnesKara için Taksim düzenlenen eylemde gazeteci Yadigar Aygün'ün de gözaltına alındığı öğrenildi.

pic.twitter.com/RWs4Dy1zIr

– Yaşar Usta (@yasarustaportal) January 14, 2022

Some families send their children to these centers to receive religious training, others because they are more affordable, others because of the opportunities for the future that open up.

But they are regularly the subject of scandals, in many cases blamed on a lack of oversight.

"Legally, there should be supervision by the [Education] Ministry, but there isn't, and when there is, I very much doubt that the inspectors will dare to report irregularities," laments Turkish journalist Ismail Saymaz, the author of two books on the power that have reached the

In December, the cook of a student residence in the province of Antalya cut the throat of an 18-year-old student convinced that he was the

, the false messiah who, according to the Koran, anticipates the arrival of the Last Judgment.

The building had been rented by an Islamist foundation to a congregation that did not have a license to operate it.

In 2016, a boarding school belonging to the religious order

of the Süleymanci in the province of Adana burned due to the lack of maintenance of its electrical installation and 11 children between 10 and 12 years old and an educator died.

However, the majority of complaints focus on ill-treatment and sexual abuse.

For example, an employee of a boarding school for high school students in Izmir province convicted of abusing seven boys.

Or the director of a residence in Adiyaman province who forced 10 and 11 year olds to watch porn with him and touched them.

Or the imams from the provinces of Bartin and Afyon who abused several girls.

Or the case of a religious boarding school in Karaman in which a teacher, a member of the influential Ensar religious foundation, raped some 45 girls over a four-year period.

In all these cases there has been a conviction at least in the first instance.

Many of these cases are not even reported due to the psychological damage suffered by the victims or the fear of their families, as a minor explained to the

after it was made public that in his boarding school students were beaten with hammers, they were forced to massage their teachers or sleep and shower with them: “At least 30 children were abused, but they kept quiet for fear that the bad guys would chase them spirits of the masters.

Recently, the sheikh (spiritual leader) of the Ussaki religious community, in Sakarya province, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a 12-year-old girl, the daughter of the woman who cleaned in the congregation, although it is suspected that abused more minors.

The sheikh tried to convince the victim's father to withdraw his complaint on religious grounds, then urged him to kill the girl and disguise it as suicide, and when he refused, he sent his followers to beat him up and try to bribe him.

The influence of the 'tarikat'

As a result of the suicide of Enes Kara, some commentators and left-wing parties have called for the outlawing of the

or for the management of educational centers to be withdrawn, to which the leader of one of the parties in the government coalition responded: “If religious congregations have to be closed due to the death of a child, when a drunk dies, taverns should be closed.”

Indeed, the main opposition party, the secular, center-left CHP, has been unusually cautious.

“The government tries to show the CHP as an enemy of religion and stir up the fear of its constituents by saying that if the opposition comes to power it will force us to take off our veils and shave our beards, it will close our Koran courses and

, so the CHP has preferred not to enter into the controversy”, says Saymaz.

And it is that these brotherhoods are deeply rooted in the social fabric of the Muslim world, as they have served for centuries to convey popular religiosity and spirituality.

Many are Sufi-inspired—if only formally—although most of those today embrace an orthodox and even fundamentalist version of Islam.

After the establishment of the Republic and the abolition of the caliphate, the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, decreed a ban on

in 1925. But they survived underground and began to resurface in the 1950s thanks to the support of successive right-wing governments.

They thus grew in political influence—the support of the sheikh of a

to a certain political formation can drag the votes of thousands of followers of the congregation—and economically, since they extended their investments "until they became large business groups, with interests in Education, Health and the media," Saymaz explains.

"In addition, they have established foundations and associations that maintain protocols with the State and thus receive public funds, in addition to private donations," adds the journalist.

Expanding through the educational sector is an essential objective for religious congregations, since through the indoctrination of the youngest they can attract future disciples.

And for students, in addition to religious or ideological motivation, there are more practical issues: given the extension of the influence of these organizations, whose members have positions of responsibility in numerous ministries, in many cases they serve to place in the Administration or seek employment to its members.

The most paradigmatic case is the

movement of the followers of the preacher Fetulá Gülen, who came to amass such power that he was able to control the entrance exams for civil service and the police force.

ambition brought him face to face with his former ally Erdogan, against whom Ankara claims they led the 2016 coup attempt

. — have been distributed by the Government among different foundations linked to the Erdogan family and numerous

, each one more conservative.

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