Labor Minister Faruk Çelik (L) is also responsible for the government’s Alevi initiative. AA photo
Turkish primary school children will now learn about Alevism from trustworthy sources, Labor and Social Security Minister Faruk Çelik has said in reference to a new curriculum that includes sections on the Alevi faith.
“Our children will receive healthy information [about the Alevi faith] in the fourth grade. They will begin to receive information not from false sources but from the right sources,” Çelik said. The inclusion of the Alevi faith in school books represents a significant change over previous practices, he said.
There was a lot of criticism during a series of workshops that were begun in 2009, ostensibly to consult Alevis on the problems facing them, Çelik said, adding that those workshops would finally yield their fruits in the new school term.
The Alevi workshops were criticized by many Alevis as an election ploy designed to obtain their vote in the short term.
The subjects in the books were also selected by Alevis who had expertise on the issue, and the new class books will soon be shared with the media, Çelik said.
Compulsory courses
Alevis, members of a community widely perceived as a liberal branch of Islam, have long raised several demands, including the recognition of cemevis as legitimate places of worship, an end to mandatory religious education and the halting of the construction of mosques in their areas of settlement. Many Alevis have also harshly criticized the contents taught in Sunni-oriented mandatory religious courses
