Religion in Turkey

Religion in Turkey consists of various religious beliefs. Turkey is officially a secular state and various surveys claim Islam as the country's most common religion. In the official records, 99.8% of the population is initially registered as Muslim, and the remaining 0.2% are Christians and adherents of other officially recognised religions such as Judaism. However, because the government registers everyone as Muslim at birth by default, the official statistics can be misleading. There are many people who follow other religions or do not adhere to any religion, yet they are officially classified as 'Muslim' in official records unless they make a contrary claim. These records can be changed or even blanked out on the request of the citizen using a valid electronic signature to sign the electronic application. Most surveys estimate the percentage to be around 94 to 98% of Turkey self-identified as Muslim. A significant percentage of those are non-observing cultural Muslims.

Turkey was historically a religiously diverse country in the past. On the eve of World War I, the predecessor of today's Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, had 20% of the population as non-Muslims. The non-Muslim population significantly decreased following the late Ottoman genocides, population exchange between Greece and Turkey and emigration of Jews and Christians.

Turkey has officially been a secular country since its 1924 constitution was amended in 1928. This was later strengthened and entrenched with the wider appliance of laicism by President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk during the mid-1930s, as part of the Republican reforms. The rights of Armenian Apostolic, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish citizens were recognized under the Treaty of Lausanne. Although the Turkish state guarantees the freedom and security of all religious groups, religious minorities in Turkey have continued to face discrimination within society.

Beginning in the 1980s, the role of religion in the state has been a divisive issue, as influential religious factions challenged the complete secularization called for by Kemalism and the observance of Islamic practices experienced a substantial revival. After the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, strict regulations on religious insignia in the public sector, including a ban on Islamic attire, were imposed in 1982. In the early 2000s, Islamic groups challenged the concept of a secular state with increasing vigour after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) came into power in 2002.

While the state is officially secular, all primary and secondary schools have been required to teach religious studies since 1982, and the curriculum focuses mainly on Sunni Islam. The extent to which other religions are covered depends on the school and students can be exempt from these classes on-demand. These policies have been met with controversy and criticism by both the foreign media and the Turkish public. The high school curriculum, however, teaches religious studies through a philosophy course and incorporates more information about other religions. The country also has public Islamic schools called İmam Hatip schools, which came to prominence in the 1950s.