Erdoğan using fatwas to justify own policies

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues to use religion to achieve political gains at home and justify his foreign policies, the World Fatwa Index, which was created by Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta to regulate the issuance of Islamic religious edicts (fatwas), said.

Over 92% of religious edicts issued inside Turkey aim at strengthening Erdoğan's grip on power in his country, the index said.

The Turkish president uses the mosques to rally up public support ahead of each election in his country, it added.

It said Erdoğan has converted the Hagia Sophia Church into a mosque, only with the aim of placating religious members of the Turkish society.

The index noted that the Turkish president resorts to issuing edicts to denigrate the faith of his opponents and consider them as apostates.

It said Erdoğan uses religion to stabilize his country and defeat his opponents, especially after the failure of his government to deal effectively with the coronavirus outbreak and rampant poverty and unemployment in his country.

Erdoğan's backers outside Turkey use religious edicts to justify his actions, the index said.

It added that 50% of his backers in Libya use edicts to do this, 15% in Egypt, 15% in Syria, 10% in Sudan and 10% in Yemen.

The members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt hope the Egyptian economy will collapse, the index said. On the contrary, they support the Turkish economy and back the Turkish lira, it adds.