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A legislative push in Turkey is drawing sharp rebuke over what many view as a direct assault on religious freedom: a proposed law that would empower the state’s top religious institution to confiscate and destroy Quran translations it deems theologically unacceptable.
The bill, recently approved by the Turkish Parliament’s Planning and Budget Committee, would grant the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) the authority to initiate legal action against any Quran translation it considers to contradict Islam’s “core principles.” If the Diyanet-appointed board flags a translation, it could petition a court to halt its publication, remove existing copies, and in the case of online content, block or delete it entirely.
Under the proposed changes, the judicial process offers little protection to publishers. Even if an appeal is filed within the mandated 15-day window, the order to destroy or suppress the materials would go into effect immediately. If no challenge is mounted or if the appeal fails, the targeted translation would be permanently eliminated.
Independent MP Mustafa Yeneroğlu condemned the move, warning it opens the door to ideological policing of scripture. “This turns the Diyanet into a censorship body,” he stated, asserting that religious interpretation should not be filtered through a government-approved lens. “No one has the right to classify the Quran according to an official ideology as ‘acceptable’ or ‘objectionable.’”
Yeneroğlu also flagged the bill’s broad language as a threat to legal consistency, calling the criteria for banning a translation dangerously vague. He argued that the measure undercuts constitutional protections on religious practice by allowing the state to determine what constitutes correct belief.
The proposed law fits within a wider campaign by Turkish authorities to tighten control over religious narratives. Since the failed 2016 coup attempt, the government has systematically purged books and materials associated with the Gülen movement, including numerous religious texts and commentaries. Though Ankara blames the group for orchestrating the coup, its followers and Fethullah Gülen himself have denied any role in the events.
The Diyanet, with a budget exceeding that of many key ministries, is already deeply entrenched in regulating religious life, overseeing sermons in more than 80,000 mosques and issuing official religious rulings. This new legislation would allow it to silence divergent interpretations by labeling them as doctrinal violations, bypassing any real public or theological debate.
Should the bill pass the full parliament, where the ruling AKP and its allies maintain a legislative majority, it would cement the Diyanet’s power to act as a gatekeeper of permissible religious thought. Such a move risks criminalizing theological diversity under the guise of defending orthodoxy, with minimal legal safeguards to protect against misuse.
Lawmakers are expected to begin formal discussions on the bill in the near future.
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