On 26 October 2009, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. Department of State released its International Religious Freedom Report 2009 on Greece. It is stated in the report that an officially recognized Muslim minority of 100,000 to 120,000 members resides in Thrace, and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne gives the Muslim minority the right to maintain wakfs, allows muftis to render religious judicial services under Islamic law, Shari’a in the area of family and inheritance law, and provides the right to Turkish-language education.
In the report, it is expressed that while some members of the Muslim minority accepted the authority of the government-appointed muftis, others elected two unofficial muftis to serve their communities, objecting that the government of a non-Islamic country had no right to appoint muftis. In addition, it is expressed that while the Government accepts Shari’a law in the area of family and marital issues, the National Human Rights Commission does not recognize the Government’s Shari’a law and therefore gives the advice that duties of Mufti should be restricted to only those of religious matters.
Under the title “Improvements and Positive Developments in Respect for Religious Freedom”, it is noted in the report that the Government planned to hire 240 imams on contractual basis in 2007. But in addition, it is pointed out that Government officials did not hire the full 240, because the remaining candidates could not certify that they had completed primary school. With regard to restrictions on religious freedom related to the Minority, it is emphasized that members of the Muslim minority in Thrace were underrepresented in public sector employment and in state-owned industries and corporations. Moreover, it is noted that in 2008, the Government passed legislation establishing a new programme to assign 0.5 percent of civil service jobs to Muslims.
The report notes that the Government took steps to address controversy over the management and taxation of wakfs in Thrace, and expresses that in 2007, the Government passed legislation allowing wakf management committees to be directly elected and writing off all tax liens against the wakfs, amounting to approximately $ 9.1 million, yet problems have been experienced in practice.
With regard to the report, Halit Habipoğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF), stated that “In the released report on religious freedom, more room was given for official opinion. Especially in relation to the law, expressed as the Minority’s problem of “Appointed Imams Law”, the report completely portrays the nature of supporting the official government thesis. Another important deficiency is that in the area of religious freedom with regard to the issue of hate-based or racist attacks, the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace is not mentioned. Before the early general elections in Greece on 4 October 2009, the mosque of Okcular was set on fire for the third time, and during the month of Ramadan, the drummer of Koyunköy was attacked”.
The entire report can be retrieved here.
