"New Ottoman madrasahs' - Turkey to launch new imam-hatip school for international students.

 “Minarets are our bayonets, the domes our helmets, the mosques our barracks, and the believers our army.” 

"New Ottoman madrasahs' - Turkey to launch new imam-hatip school for international students.(TZ).A new international imam-hatip school, providing religious education, will be launched in the Anatolian province of Konya to meet the demand of an increasingly growing number of international students wanting to receive an education with scholarships in imam-hatip schools in the hope of addressing the shortage of religious servicemen in their respective countries. İmam-hatip schools are at the heart of recent debates about changes to the education system as part of a new education reform package, popularly known as 4+4+4 -- four years of primary, middle and high school -- which lowers the school starting age to 60 months plus, from a previous 72 months plus. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has been under fire by critics who claim that the government is trying to de-secularize Turkey’s education system by making it possible for imam-hatip schools, previously shut down during the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup, to open secondary schools. The perceptions of imam-hatip schools across Turkey are deeply divided. Experts warn that the possible increase in the number of imam-hatip schools as a result of the new education system is not in line with people’s expectations and described it as a “top-down” process. Critics note that with the new education system, there seems to be revenge being taken for imam-hatip schools that were shut down en masse in 1997 through the wave of openings of these new schools. Currently, 541 international students from countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan and Senegal are being educated in imam-hatip schools. An additional 180 international students will be enrolled in those schools, which initiated the opening of an international imam-hatip school in Konya. The General Directorate of Religious Education and the Turkish Religious Affairs Foundation kicked off a project in September 2007 that made it possible for international students to be educated in imam-hatip schools. The project also helps develop cultural and educational collaboration between their home countries and Turkey. Associate Professor Mahmut Zengin from Sakarya University’s divinity school stated that the opening of international imam-hatip schools should be considered in a historic context. “In addition to being a modernized version of madrasahs, imam-hatip schools are also means of maintaining traditions stemming from Ottoman times. People from various cultures and ethnicities used to be trained in Ottoman madrasahs. Therefore, the international imam-hatip schools can be regarded as the new model of those educational facilities,” Zengin said.Hmmmm.....Obama's BFF Islamist Erdogan.Read the full story here.