Key ruling by Turkey's top court on religious classes

The formal name of a controversial mandatory class in Turkish schools is "religious culture and moral knowledge" but the content of the class is actually general "religious education," the Council of State has ruled, adding that it is not lawful to make it compulsory for everyone. 

The Council of State's 8th Chamber said in its ruling that "it is unlawful to make the "religious culture and moral knowledge" course compulsory for the plaintiffs in a case regarding the class who said the course did not comply with their religious and philosophical beliefs, regardless of the fact of whether the plaintiff was a member of any religion or an atheist.

The decision comes after the family of a student in the southern province of Antalya applied to the Muratpa?a District Governor's Office in 2008 to exempt their child from the "religious culture and moral knowledge class." This application was rejected, prompting the family to file a case at the Antalya 3rd Administrative Court, which ruled for the child to be exempt from the classes.

That decision held for three years while the child was at school, but upon an appeal by the Governor's Office, the Council of State's 8th Chamber reversed the local court's judgment. The reversal was based on the claims that the textbooks prepared for the course did not prioritize any specific sect or religious order and took into consideration a "supra-religious perspective." 

Nusret Gürgöz, the family's lawyer, said the local court in Antalya had not insisted on its own ruling when the Council of State reached a verdict. At the time, they were preparing to apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which has criticized the classes in the past and said religious education courses should not be...