Posted on 04/12/2004 5:58:24 PM PDT by blam
Over-zealous imam boycotted
By Amberin Zaman in Kotanduzu
(Filed: 13/04/2004)
Turkish villagers have boycotted a hardline imam who accused women of indecency simply for travelling on the same buses as men.
Since being appointed to the mosque in the village of Kotanduzu a year ago, Mustafa Platin has also ordered women to don full chadors and instructed their husbands to force them to remain indoors if they refused to comply.
The imam's behaviour sparked a near-unprecedented rebellion. Villagers in the community perched high on a plateau in eastern Turkey have demanded his sacking and promised to boycott daily worship in the local mosque until a replacement imam is found.
Leyla Karsli, a 35-year-old mother of six, makes an unlikely temptress. She is shrouded in a headscarf concealing her mouth and buried in a shapeless, ankle-length gown.
She was none the less a target for the imam. "He even wanted these ones to cover their heads," said Mrs Karsli, pulling her six-year-old twin daughters close to her.
Mr Platin's militant rhetoric could land him in deep trouble under Turkey's rigidly pro-secular laws.
These laws are strictly implemented even though the country's 17-month-old government is led by a group of Islamists, albeit moderate ones.
The country's priority, say its leaders, is to secure Turkey's membership of the European Union.
That is perhaps why the imam's superiors in Erzurum, the provincial capital, have ordered the cleric to undergo a series of medical examinations to shield him from prosecution.
"He suffers from epilepsy and is mentally unstable, poor man," said Mustafa Ucar, the official in charge of supervising religious life in the province.
Villagers confirm that Mr Platin would often fall to the ground in epileptic fits while leading prayers, causing panic among their children.
According to other villagers, the imam had other complaints against them.
"He told me that riding the minibus [running to and from the nearby town of Pasinler] was sinful because my shoulders rubbed against male passengers," said another woman, who refused to be identified.
The Telegraph spoke to Mr Platin in a dry cleaner's shop in Erzurum. He glared at this correspondent's bare head. "Are you Muslim?", he asked, although I had already assured him that I was.
What did he think of honour killings - the practice of murdering women thought to have stained their family's reputation - for crimes such as going shopping unaccompanied by a male relative.
"They must be dealt with as prescribed by sharia [Islamic law]," he said.
What did he think of the physical abuse of women? "I don't know anything, I cannot talk, the mufti ordered me not to," he said. Minutes later, his brother-in-law stepped through the door and hauled him off.
Back in Kotanduzu, villagers vowed to keep him out. "I hope he finds a new job, after all he has three children and a wife to feed," said Mrs Karsli. "But we won't let him or any other imam interfere in our lives again."
Turkey has been fighting against Islamists decades before Americans ever knew they existed.
Of course, in the decades before that, they were committing genocide against Christians, and they would like the world to just forget about that.
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