Imam Khatib School System: Trustees of Islamic Traditions An exclusive interview of Mehmet Fatih Selenr

Mehmet Fateh Serinli, BA Political Science, MA Islamic Law, MSc Economic History, President of Imam Khatib Schools Ankara Association, holds advisory and administrative positions in several universities and non-governmental organizations, including Ibn Khaldoun University, Ostum Technical University, Foundation for History of Islamic Science and Technology, Al-Quds Forum, etc.
has been working as the Director of Training and Technical Cooperation at the Statistical, Economic, and Social Research and Training Center (SESRIC) of the OIC for 10 years.
I had an exclusive interview with Mehmet Fateh Salineri to understand the history and system of Imam Khatib School in Turkey. His love for Pakistan is not hidden from anyone. Because of this love, he took time out of his busy schedule for the interview. I extracted and answered all the questions in detail.
In conversation with him, I learned the following history of Türkiye:
That
After the end of the Ottoman Caliphate, Türkiye was declared a republic through a constitutional amendment on May 29, 1923. The veil was banned, a Western-style constitutional and parliamentary government was established, the powers of the ulama were abolished, and Westernization was completely abolished. It was adopted, the people were reminded that the source of supreme power is the people, nationalism was raised, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments was abolished, and Turkey was declared a secular state in the 1928 constitution; thus, Islam became the official religion of the state. It is no longer the case that, with the passage of time, the aversion to religion increased.
In 1932, the Turkish government decided that the call to prayer would be given in Turkish instead of Arabic. In the same way madrasahs and Sufism were banned, there was a strong struggle to remove Arabic and Persian words from the Turkish language. The Latin alphabet was adopted for the Turkish language, and an attempt was made to inculcate this ideology in the young generation. Türkiye is not a warrior nation, but a nation that teaches civilization to the world.
Efforts were made to separate the Turks from Islam and to solidify the nationalism in their minds.
These were the actions that made every member of Turkish society suffer from anxiety and trouble, and the Turkish Muslims did not let their relationship with Islam break despite all these intrigues and conspiracies.
Despite the secular reforms, the Turkish people continued to strengthen their relationship with Islam. The Imam Khatib school system played the most important role in eliminating secular influences.
The current president of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the majority of government officials have graduated from the same Imam Khatib School.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan completed his education under Imam Khatib in 1973. He memorized the Qur’an with memorization, then got his master’s degree in Economics and Administrative Science from Marmara University in Istanbul, and he entered politics and brought Turkey to the heights of success.
Currently, there are more than twenty thousand mosques in Türkiye that are running under the auspices of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, and about sixty thousand imams and preachers have graduated from the theology faculty of the same schools and universities. Preference is given to degree holders from the Faculty of Theology.
According to research, there are currently 30,000 imam-khatib schools in Turkey, in which millions of children are studying.
The children of the majority of Pakistanis living in Turkey are studying in these schools and are highly influenced by their teaching style and curricular activities because these schools contain not only religious but also modern worldly sciences.
Children are given free education, and modern courses are conducted. After passing the entrance exam (twelfth), students who graduate from these schools get admission easily to universities in Turkey and other countries.
I asked Mehmet Fateh Salineri, When and how did Imam Khatib School come into existence despite the ban on Islamic rituals?
Mehmet Fateh Salineri revealed the history of madrassa schools and said that
The first centers of Imam Khatib High Schools were Medresetü’l-Vaizin, opened in 1912 to train preachers in the late Ottoman Empire, and Medresetü’l-Eimme ve’l-Huteba, opened in 1913 to train imams and preachers. These two madrasahs were united in 1919 under the name of Medresetü’l-Irşad.
Two years later, on May 8, 1921, the Madrasa Ilmiya Nizam, i.e., the “Law of the Madrasahs of Science”, came into effect, setting the curriculum of the schools, which can be considered the first model of Imam Khatib.
After the adoption of the Tevhid-i Tedrisat law in 1924, the schools were closed. The name “Imam Khatib” was used for the first time in the new law. The new law envisioned the opening of “Imam Khatib Schools” for the training of preachers.
This number decreased slightly every year, and in 1932, Imam Khatib schools were closed completely.

Although proposals were made in 1946 to include religious studies courses in primary schools, the demands were rejected by then-Prime Minister Rijep Pekar. However, as demands grew, in December 1947, religious education was again brought up for discussion in the Republican People’s Party, Congress, and parliamentary negotiations. In this discussion, Hamdullah Sipi Tanveer complained about the acute shortage of imams with examples and said that no imams are available to bury the dead on time. Ahmad Hamdi, the head of religious affairs at that time, also wrote in his report that people are facing severe difficulties due to the absence of imams and preachers in mosques to lead prayers and deliver sermons. In some villages, dead bodies lie for many days because there is no one to perform their funeral.
Given this difficulty,
When the schools reopened in 1949, they were called “Imam Khatib Courses”. After the Democratic Party came to power, the plan for the Imam-Khatib School was drawn up by Jalaluddin Oktan and accepted by the government.
On October 13, 1995, the Imam-Khatib schools were formally reopened with approval.
The first school was Istanbul Imam Khatib High School, and six more schools were established after that. In the same year, the first Imam-Khatib schools were opened in Istanbul, Ankara, Konya, Adana, Sparta, Kayseri, and Qahar Man Marash.
Imam-Khatib schools began to provide education at the secondary school level based on the primary schools in Konya, Kayseri, Marash, and Sparta.
In the 1954–1955 school year, a three-year high school section of these schools was opened. In the middle part of Imam Khatib schools, the Quran, Tajweed, Arabic, Tafsir, Aqeed, Kalam, Religious Lessons, Jurisprudence Method, Behavior and Ethics, Hadith and Hadith Method, Turkish Speech, Writing, Psychology, History, Geography, Civics and Law, mathematics, physics, chemistry, physical education, music, natural science, health information, Islamic art, foreign language, art lessons;
In the high school section, the Holy Quran and Tafsir, Arabic, Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Fiqh and Faraz, Religions, History of Islam, Methodology of Hadith, Psychology, Sociology, Ethics, Logic, Turkish Islamic Arts, Turkish Language and Literature, History, there were courses in Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Health Sciences, Mathematics, Cosmography, Physical Education, Music, National Defense, Painting, and Foreign Languages.
In the curriculum of Imam Khatib schools, the weightage of vocational courses was set at about 40% and the weightage of cultural courses at 60%, and this ratio was maintained in subsequent regulations.
Later in 1969, the first religious school for girls was founded in Sparta.
While these developments were taking place regarding the Imam Khatib School, the “Istanbul Imam Khatib School Alumni Association” was established in 1958 by the first graduates of the Istanbul Imam-Khatib School.
After the revolution of 1980, the word “Istanbul” was removed from its name, and the word “ÖNDER,” which is synonymous with the word imam, was named ÖNDER Imam Khatib Association.
There were many innovations and changes in the years that followed, but the lives of Imam Khatib students were always a struggle.
In response to my question, which other countries have this school system?
In response, Mehmet Fatih Salineri said that
There are 54 Imam Khatib high schools in 22 countries, including Pakistan, in the fields of science and social studies, language, arts, sports, and memorization, along with international Imam Khatib schools under the title “Project Schools” in Turkey.
Imam Khatib schools in Turkey are modern religious model schools in which physics, chemistry, physics, Quran, hadith, and jurisprudence are taught.
Under this, there is a mufti in every city. And under him, each district and town has a separate mufti; the management of mosques is also under him. The imams of our mosques are modern, literate, with pantsuits and ties, with beautiful recitations and hearty sermons, and imams and khateebs who are well paid at the government level.
28 schools are working in Pakistan under the Maarif Foundation, under the management of Turkey. But in these schools, O-level education is being given as per the desire of Pakistan.
He said that the Imam Khatib school system can be started in other Islamic countries, including Pakistan, and it is included in our action plan and future plans.