Turkey bars religious school graduates from joining police

Turkey's parliament voted to bar religious school graduates from joining the police force, reports said today, a move aimed at restricting the role of political Islam in the staunchly secular state.

Turkey's parliament voted to bar religious school graduates from joining the police force, reports said today, a move aimed at restricting the role of political Islam in the staunchly secular state.

The law was passed despite severe opposition from pro–Islamic lawmakers. Deputies of the Islamic Virtue Party walked out of parliament's hall during the vote.

Turkey's secular establishment, led by the powerful military, says that religious schools encourage fundamentalism.

About seven percent of the 160,000–member national force are religious school graduates. Those officers will be allowed to continue in the force. Religious school graduates are already barred from serving in the military as officers.

The bill was drafted after a militant Islamic Kurdish group assassinated a police chief and five other officers in southeastern Turkey in January. The police chief had spearheaded a crackdown against the outlawed Hezbollah group, which is fighting for an Islamic state. The group is not linked to the Lebanese group of the same name.

The military, which staged three coups since 1960, has been pushing for harsher laws curbing Islamic groups since it pressured Turkey's first Islamic–led government out of power in 1997. The government has since curbed Islamic education, restricted the establishment of pro–Islamic foundations, fired civil servants linked to Islamic groups and rigorously enforced a ban on Islamic style head scarves in schools and public offices.