Turkish religious teacher dismissed after defence of atheists stirs controversy

[trotsky]

https://ahvalnews.com/religion/turkish-religious-teacher-dismissed-after-defence-atheists-stirs-controversy

A Turkish theologist has been targeted with legal action and removed from his teaching position at an Istanbul high school after his comments on religion sparked outrage from a fundamentalist newspaper, German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s Turkish language news site reported on Tuesday.

On January 6, Cemil Kılıç, a writer and teacher at the Rami Atatürk Anatolian High School in Istanbul, was interviewed by DW after a poll by the Konda research firm revealed a rise in the number of Turks who identified as atheists from 1 percent to 3 percent.

...

Kılıç went on to say that Turkey’s atheists and deists tended to act more morally and conscientiously than the country’s self-professed Muslims.

Days after the interview was published, columnist Faruk Arslan targeted the theologist in an article for the fundamentalist Islamist newspaper Yeni Akit under the headline, “Why is a religious education teacher who is an enemy of religion being protected?”

A teacher making such mild remark defending non-believers is targeted for being an "enemy of religion." This is why atheists care about religion. This is why many atheists don't want to mince words when discussing religion.

And it's depressing that a consistent reaction - from fundamentalists in Turkey to allegedly progressive believers on DU - is to want to target, attack, and silence the voices they don't like.