The struggle between religious and secularist forces in Turkey has reached a new level. According to today's Turkish Daily News, the country's chief prosecutor has filed a 162-page indictment against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), charging it with trying to turn Turkey into an Islamic state. Alleging that AKP's activities are inconsistent with the secularism required by Turkey's constitution, the indictment asks Turkey's Constitutional Court to ban top AKP leaders (including the country's President and its Prime Minister) from politics for 5 years. Today's Zaman reports on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's speech responding to the indictment. Commenting on the political and economic uncertainty that the case is likely to cause, Reuters points out that in the past Turkish courts have banned more than 20 parties for having Islamist or Kurdish separatist agendas.
Meanwhile Human Events today reports that Turkey's Department of Religious Affairs (the Diyanet) is attempting to modernize and reinterpret Islam. It has announced that 35 religious scholars in the Theology Department at Ankara University have nearly completed a three-year forensic examination of the Islamic Hadiths. The authenticity of some Hadiths-- handed down orally-- have been questioned by some scholars. However an op-ed in Today's Zaman questions more generally the ability of the Directorate of Religious Affairs to maintain the existing system of state-controlled Islam.
UPDATE: Today's Zaman reported on Wednesday that two separate complaints have been filed against Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, claiming he prepared a wrongful indictment seeking closure of the AKP. One complaint was filed by lawyer Lawyer Sabri Erdoğan; the other was filed by a private organization, Young Civilians.
