A 2018 survey revealed that, over the previous decade, there had been a 4% decline — from 55% to 51% — in the number of people in Turkey identifying as “religious,” accompanied by a rise in the visibility of non-believers. Turkey: A Religious Backlash?
In a radio interview on 23 July, Temel Karamollaoğlu — leader of the Islamist opposition Felicity Party — accused President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of alienating young people, especially those from religious families, from Islam and driving them toward deism—the belief in a non-interventionist creator.
This shift appears supported by a 2018 KONDA poll, which indicated a growing number of young Turks no longer consider themselves religious Muslims. The survey reflects a broader trend in Turkish society, where traditional labels are giving way to diverse expressions of belief or non-belief.
It is important to recognise that Turkey’s population is not religiously or ethnically monolithic. While officially presented as a Muslim-majority nation, much of Turkish society descends from diverse ethnic and religious groups—Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Jews, Alevis, and others—many of whom converted to Islam over centuries due to social pressure, forced assimilation, or fear of reprisals. Historical trauma, suppression, and legal discrimination often led these populations to publicly adopt Islam while quietly maintaining elements of their original faiths or worldviews in private.
In modern Turkey, remnants of these hidden identities may be finding renewed voice, especially among younger generations who, empowered by information and freer global discourse, are questioning inherited beliefs. This may partly explain the emergence of organisations such as the Deist Society, founded in Istanbul in 2018. At the group’s inauguration, its leader, Özcan Pali, remarked:
“Because we do not belong to any religion, we have been subjected to heavy insults. Our dignity has been attacked. Government officials have even labelled us ‘perverts’. But we are like Adam and Eve—without religion, book, or prophet—believing only in God. If that makes us perverts, then they insult Adam and Eve too.”
Despite the AKP’s long-standing efforts to Islamise education—particularly through expanding Imam Hatip religious schools—the intended “devout generation” has not fully materialised. Indeed, Erdoğan’s push appears to have produced the opposite effect among many young people, who increasingly question or reject religious orthodoxy altogether.
This trend became especially visible in 2018, when Professor İhsan Fazlıoğlu of Istanbul Medeniyet University publicly shared that numerous veiled students had come to him privately to confess their atheism. Their reasoning, they said, stemmed not from secular philosophy, but from disillusionment with those who claim to represent Islam.
A subsequent Youth and Faith workshop, organised by the Konya Provincial Directorate of Education, revealed similar patterns. Teachers from Imam Hatip schools reported that students increasingly voiced theological doubts, especially about the existence of evil, justice, and divine silence.
These concerns sparked backlash at the highest political levels. Erdoğan reportedly rebuked his education minister at a party meeting over the spread of deist ideas. Religious authorities dismissed the workshop’s conclusions and labelled deism a perverse ideology.
The Atheism Association responded sharply to this narrative, condemning the verbal targeting of non-believers by government figures and warning against their social exclusion and stigmatisation.
Selin Özkohen, the association’s president, attributed the rise in religious scepticism partly to the digital age, saying that youth today no longer depend solely on religious institutions for information. She noted:
“There’s a performative religiosity in Turkey—many follow religion for appearances, not conviction. This makes others wonder, ‘If this is religion, I want no part of it.’”
Prominent intellectuals echo this sentiment. Professor Murat Belge has called the state-promoted version of Islam “loveless” and emotionally hollow. Meanwhile, Professor Yasin Ceylan, a retired scholar of Islamic philosophy, stated that Islam’s focus on the afterlife deprives believers of a meaningful vision for life on Earth. He noted:
“There’s no emphasis on happiness, beauty, or joy in the present. Without happiness, there is no morality, no love, no social solidarity.”
Ceylan believes that only a dramatic shift—where religion retreats from public imposition and becomes a matter of private conscience—can allow space for modernity and personal freedom. But he doubts this transformation will come from within religious institutions. Rather, he argues, modern values will force Islam to adapt, gradually becoming a personal, rather than political, matter.
Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist. Her story was published at Gatestone Institute
