Hagia Sophia Istanbul turned back into a Mosque

biko

biko wrote: »

Turkey’s president has said he wants to create a “pious generation” to change the nation.
So the government is pouring money into schools that teach Islamic values.

Thankfully he appears to be failing miserably; the young are increasingly irreligious, or at least not religious in the way Erdoğan would like. That also applies to those in the state run religious schools.

ohnonotgmail

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

in the normal course of events the military would stage a coup and push the country back towards secularism. that failed miserably the last time they tried it but i wouldn't bet against them trying again.

Following the last 'coup attempt' the military was gutted of those felt to be less than fully loyal to Erdoğan. Sadly it seems the military is now under his control. Anecdotally the police are also increasingly loyal to Erdoğan and he recently created an auxiliary force of sorts - there has long been a 'night watchman' force who would patrol and sought to combat crime by announcing their presence, they had no real power but in the last month or so they have been armed and are now allowed to detain people for the purposes of identifying them.

donaghs

Yakov P. Golyadkin wrote: »

Following the last 'coup attempt' the military was gutted of those felt to be less than fully loyal to Erdoğan. Sadly it seems the military is now under his control..

The Turkish military was already gutted of moderates and secularists before the "coup" 4 years ago.

Erdogan's people invented a military secularist plot in 2003: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledgehammer_(coup_plan)

Promoting Islamists in their place seems to have led to an Islamist split and the 2016 coup shambles. Erdogan easily crushed that and then went on to further strengthen his power.

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

The only difference between the past and today is that most people ignore what the RCC says.

In the developing world the RCC pushes a hard anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality line - in several Latin American countries a woman can be jailed for having a miscarriage unless she can prove it wasn't an abortion. In countries like Uganda, RCC was at the forefront pushing for the recently introduced laws to persecute gay people. In Poland they are pushing a hard nationalist, anti-gay, anti-liberal line, "LGBT free zones" are being established, and the RCC is trying to get Poland's already very limited abortion law removed entirely.

Where they have the power, they're not shy about using it, and in other countries where they're the dominant influence, Protestant Evangelicals/Anglicans are doing the same. It's quite possible African and American churches will split off from the Anglican communion in the next few years, because they see the Church of Ireland, Church of England etc. as far too tolerant.