e-Makalat Mezhep Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

Imam-Hatip High Schools is one of the educational
institutions which educates students to the Faculties of Theology and Islamic
Sciences and educates qualified personnel to work in various institutions of
the Presidency of Religious Affairs. However, it is a fact that the students of
Imam-Hatip High School cannot be educated in the knowledge and equipment
required about sects while shaping the worlds of knowledge on various religious
subjects through official education programs. One of the main reasons for this
is that Imam-Hatip High School curriculum does not include the History of
Islamic Sects directly and that the notion of sect cannot be taught
sufficiently in other courses on the subject. Nature does not accept spaces; it
is observed that the gap in this field is mostly filled by circles operating in
the informal field and exploiting religion. As a result, the students of
Imam-Hatip necessarily find themselves directly in the support of a sect or a
religious group and may have the wrong mentality that perceives the sect as a
religion and the others as non-religious. The fact is, however, that the sect
is not a religion, but a human form that arises from the interpretation of
religion. For this reason, the establishment of the Islamic Sects History
course in the curriculum of Imam-Hatip High School, the re-evaluation and
development of the teaching program and method of this discipline in today's
conditions, the teaching of the textbooks written according to the objective
criteria related to the sects, and the teaching of the sects it must be
redesigned to help make sense and comprehension of events. In this article, the
Imam-Hatip High School curriculum will be evaluated from 1963 to the present,
which includes the first sectarian issues in terms of the teaching of the
Islamic sects will be provided.

Key words:
İmam-Hatip Shools, Education,
Cirriculum, Religion, Sect.

Summary

One of the foremost secondary educational
institutions that provide students for the Faculties of Theology and Islamic
Sciences and qualified personnel to be employed in various functions at the
Presidency of Religious Affairs is Imam-Hatip High Schools.  Imam-Hatip High Schools represents a new type
of educational institution that answers the needs of the society of the New
Republican Turkey, which originates from the traditional education of Nizamiyah Madrasahs of Seljuks Dynasty
and Ottoman Madrasahs.

When Imam-Hatip High Schools established
officially for the first time, they had two official objectives: the first was
to reconcile the political and social demands of religious citizens with that
of the political and administrative structure of the Republic of Turkey which
adopted secularism as one of its foundational tenets. The second objective was
to train “imams” and “orators” in order to meet society’s needs of the
“religious officials.” However, Imam-Hatip High Schools have always been
institutions that represented something beyond the official objectives for
society. Since the perception of this institution in the society was
“religious-moral education institutions” rather than vocational high schools,
this laid the groundwork for the formation of two separate groups namely:  “supporters” and “opponents” of Imam-Hatip
High Schools. The main reason why these schools have always been at the
forefront of political polemics stems from the extraordinary interest that was
shown by the religious and conservative sections of society, which constitute
the main body of society and the opposing voices coming from those who define
themselves as "secular" or "modern." This particular group
argues that Imam-Hatip High Schools go against the principles of the law on the
unification of education.

From its inception to this day, Imam Hatip
High Schools’ efforts on introducing the traditional side of the east along
with the modern side of the west made these schools become a “model” for many other
Muslim countries in recent years. Hence, this unique educational method of the
Imam- Hatip Schools caught the attention of many countries in the Islamic
world. Pakistan, among other countries that follow this trend, leads the
movement of following the curriculum of these schools. On the other hand, how
the classical and current structure of sect, disposition, and current
corresponds in the world of students is a question that remains unanswered. It
is common knowledge that through the official curriculum, the students of
Imam-Hatip High School learn about a variety of religious subjects but their
training and knowledge about sects is not yet where we desire.

There are two main reasons why the students of
Imam-Hatip High School are not educated in the desired level about sects: The
first one is because Imam-Hatip High Schools curriculum does not include a
separate History of Sects, History of Islamic Sects, Contemporary Islamic Sects or Modern Religious Movements and books
that students read do not follow the discipline’s methodology. Because
Imam-Hatip High School’s curriculum does not include a separate History of
Sects class and since there are no books that were written by experts that
adhere to the objective criteria, results in the inability to sufficiently
explain to the students the significance of Islamic sects and make them better
understand the fact that sects are not separate religions by themselves but
they are different groups that occurred inevitably and even necessarily due to
the natural development of the religion. Therefore, it is beyond doubt that an
addition of a history of sects class that is built on the foundations of the
true religion based on Quran and Hadith/Sunnah to the curriculum of Imam-Hatip
Schools will help the students to perceive the sects in a better way and
interpret the current religious issues in the best way possible.

 The
other reason is that in the courses such as Kalam
and Fiqh the sufficient information
about sects is not transmitted to students. This situation leads to having
inadequately informed graduates of Imam-Hatip High School who are appointed as
official clergy with titles such as Imam, Hatip, and Qur'an Course
Manager.  These graduates are not able to
adequately fulfill their duties of informing, enlightening and leading the
society concerning Islamic sects. However, a change in the Imam-Hatip High
School’s curriculum regarding a new course created to serve the purpose of
disseminating knowledge about sects in accordance with the understanding of the
true religion will help Imam-Hatip High School graduates to enlighten, inform
and lead the society.

Nature does not allow a vacuum. It is observed
that the gap in this field is mostly filled by circles operating in the informal
areas and they exploit the religion. As a result, the students of Imam-Hatip
find it necessary to support a particular sect or a religious group and this
leads to having pupils who wrongly perceive their sect as a religion and
exclude other sects by arguing that they are outside of the religion. However,
the reality is that sects are not separate religions, but they are natural
developments of the religion which stems from different interpretations.
Therefore, it is necessary to have a separate class in the name of History of
Sects, History of Islamic Sects, Contemporary Islamic Sects or Modern Religious
Movements and develop a methodology which is in accordance with the current
developments of the world. In addition, it is vital to redesign the subject
headings of the textbooks in order for the students to better understand and
interpret both the classical and current religious topics.

This article reviews the curriculum of
Imam-Hatip High Schools from 1963, when sectarian issues were first introduced in
the textbooks, to this day in terms of educational methods related to the
History of Islamic Sects.  In addition,
the article explores the ways of rearranging the curriculum of Imam-Hatip High
School in accordance with contemporary problems and in this context, the
article offers new ways of developing the curriculum in the light of new
information and ways of interpretation that is available for us today.