Turkish parliament’s education commission member says ‘no use in teaching math to students who don’t know jihad’

ANKARA

A member of the Turkish parliament’s national education commission has said there is no use in teaching mathematics to students who don’t know jihad. 

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker Ahmet Hamdi Çamlı praised a recent move to include the concept of “jihad” to the country’s new education curriculum, saying that “jihad is Islam’s most prior element.”

“Jihad comes before prayer. When we look at Ottoman sultans, nearly all of them didn’t even go to hajj in order not to abandon jihad,” Çamlı told daily Habertürk on July 22. 

The final version of Turkey’s national school curriculum has left evolution out and added the concept of “jihad” as part of Islamic law in books, Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz said on July 18, causing major controversy. 

“Jihad is an element in our religion; it is in our religion… The duty of the Education Ministry is to teach every concept deservedly, in a correct way. It is also our job to correct things that are wrongly perceived, seen or taught,” Yılmaz had announced at a press meeting in the Turkish capital Ankara.  

Çamlı praised the ministry for including “jihad” in the curriculum. 

“Our ministry made a very on-point decision. If prayers are the pillars of the religion, jihad is the tent. Without the pillars the tent is useless. There’s no use in teaching mathematics to a child who doesn’t know jihad,” Çamlı also said.