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Cyprus Religion
Nearly all Turkish Cypriots were followers of Islam,
but,
unlike most predominantly Muslim societies, the "TRNC" was
a
secular state, as specified in the first article of the
1985
constitution. There was no state religion, and Turkish
Cypriots
were free to choose their own religion. Religious leaders
had
little influence in politics, and religious instruction,
while
available in schools, was not obligatory. The few Greek
Cypriots
who lived in the "TRNC" were free to follow their Greek
Orthodox
faith. The tiny Maronite community had its Christian
Maronite
Church. In addition, there were Anglican and Roman
Catholic
churches.
The position of Islam and Islamic institutions in the
Turkish
Cypriot community differed from that of Greek Orthodoxy
among Greek
Cypriots. In contrast to the Greek Cypriot millet's
ethnarch, there was no Islamic religious figure with
political
power. Where the Church of Cyprus was intimately
identified with
Greek nationalism and the campaign for enosis, Islam
played
virtually no role in Turkish Cypriot nationalism. The
great figure
of this latter movement was Atatürk, a man famous for
secularism,
and in many respects the polar opposite of Archbishop
Makarios III,
who was both a religious and political leader. It was
Atatürk who
established the secular Turkish state, which has generally
adhered
to his doctrines ever since. Although Atatürk had no
jurisdiction
over Cyprus, Turkish Cypriots adopted most of his program
voluntarily and with little controversy. Turkish Cypriots
were
among the first to adopt Atatürk's prohibition of Arabic
in
religious services and to use the Quran in Turkish
translation.
Since Atatürk's death, Turkish Cypriots have usually
followed the
religious practices of Turkey. When in 1951, for example,
Turkish
authorities once again allowed the use of the Quran in
Arabic and
directed that the call to prayers also be in Arabic,
Turkish
Cypriots followed suit. Despite these lapses from
Atatürk's
policies, both Turkey and the "TRNC" remained
fundamentally
secular.
The Islamic faith arose from the teachings of the
Prophet
Muhammad in Arabia in the seventh century. It is based on
a
monotheistic belief in God (Allah) as all-powerful in the
universe
and in human subservience to God's will. All devout
persons should
submit to the divinely willed plan; the word Muslim means
one who
has surrendered to God's will. This will has been made
known
through the prophets, including those of the Old Testament
and
Jesus, with Muhammad being the last of them. The Quran,
held to
have been revealed by God to Muhammad and dictated by him
to
scribes, is thus a guide to practical living and the basis
for law
covering all spheres of life.
The principal religious observances, often known as the
five
pillars of Islam, are the profession of faith that "there
is no God
but God and Muhammad is his messenger"; daily prayer;
fasting
during the month of Ramadan when the Quran was revealed;
almsgiving; and once in one's lifetime if feasible the
pilgrimage
to Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad and eventual home of
his
community of disciples. The daily prayers are called from
the
minaret of the mosque at dawn, noon, midafternoon, sunset,
and
early evening. Devout Muslim males also attend community
prayer
services at the mosque on Friday, the weekly holy day.
Turkish Cypriots, like most Turkish nationals, are
followers of
Sunni Islam. After the Prophet's death, his followers
split over
the question of the method of choosing his successors. The
Sunnis
(from sunnah, tradition) argued that Muhammad had
prescribed
no definitive procedure; the Shias (from Shiat Ali, party
of Ali)
insisted that his designation of his cousin and son-in-law
Ali
established a hereditary succession. Basic questions of
theology
and practice deepened the split. Sunnis consider the Quran
and the
hadith, a separate collection of the sayings and
deeds of
Muhmamad, to be a complete, comprehensive, and eternally
correct
source of religious guidance requiring only deductive
elaboration
by scholars. Shias accept an additional body of esoteric
lore
handed down by Muhammad to Ali, which may be revealed and
expanded
by divinely inspired Imams who were descendants of Ali.
Within
Sunni Islam, Turkish Cypriots have traditionally followed
the
Hanafi school of legal interpretation, a rather austere
variety of
Islam.
Evkaf Idaresi (Turkish Religious Trust, usually known
as Evkaf)
was the prime institutional representative of the Turkish
Cypriot
community. Until 1915 it was governed by delegates chosen
by the
sultan and the British, with the Turkish delegate
generally
exercising wide discretion; after formal annexation of the
island,
the British appointed both delegates. The Evkaf functioned
during
the colonial period as a government department. However,
in the
intensely nationalistic period before independence,
control was
given to a new elective council, and the constitution of
1960
assigned religious matters as one of the major powers of
the new
Turkish Cypriot Communal Chamber. Since 1973, the Evkaf
has been an
independent foundation with its own budget, insulated to
some
extent from the political leadership of the Turkish
Cypriot
community. Whereas the Evkaf operated Muslim schools in
the past,
in recent decades it has simply provided funds for the
salary of
the mufti, the highest religious figure, and for the
construction,
repair, and maintenance of the mosques. The Evkak's
revenues were
derived from its large landholdings and other property
placed in
trust for religious purposes. Before 1974 it was the
second largest
landowner in Cyprus, surpassed only by the Church of
Cyprus.
Because much of its property was located in territory
occupied by
the Republic of Cyprus, however, the de facto partition of
the
island cost the Evkaf half of its agricultural property
and nearly
all of its building sites.
The mufti was the spiritual head of the Turkish Cypriot
Islamic
community. His office underwent dramatic changes after the
Ottoman
period, when religion and administration were fused under
the
sultan as God's representative ruling over the Islamic
community.
The mufti's role was essentially that of supreme authority
in
religious law rather than high priest or administrator. He
was
appointed by the sultan until Atatürk abolished the
caliphate. The
British abolished the position in 1928 and transferred its
duties
to a new official in the Evkaf. The office was revived in
1956 as
part of the reforms that gave Turkish Cypriots control
over the
Evkaf; the new mufti was elected by the island's Muslims
and his
retirement age set at seventy-five. Because of the
secularization
of the Turkish Cypriot society, however, the mufti lost
his
jurisdiction over such matters as law, marriage, and
education.
Turkish Cypriots were among the most secular of Islamic
peoples. Wedding ceremonies were civil, rather than
religious, for
example. The eight decades of British rule contributed to
this
secularization. More significant was the Turkish Cypriots'
close
adherence to Atatürk's reforms in Turkey. Religion came to
be a
personal matter among Turkish Cypriots, and they did not
attempt to
impose their religious beliefs on others. Although there
was some
fasting during the month of Ramadan, moderate attendance
at the
Friday prayers, and widespread observation of the holy
days, few
Turkish Cypriots were orthodox Muslims. Most of those who
fasted
during Ramadan, for example, lived an unorthodox life the
rest of
the year, and Turkish Cypriots generally did not abstain
from
alcohol as standard Muslim teaching requires, but followed
traditional Mediterranean drinking customs.
There were groups and organizations in the "TRNC" that
opposed
traditional Turkish Cypriot secularism and religious
tolerance.
Some Saudi Arabian and Libyan aid came from groups that
wished to
see an upsurge of Islamism (sometimes seen as
fundamentalism) on
the island. Some of the aid funded new mosques and Quran
schools
around the island and the new Islamic university in Lefka
(Lefke).
The Cyprus Turkish Islam Society (CTIS) was one of the
organizations that was working for an expanded role for
Islam in
the "TRNC." The group's program, the Turkish-Islamic
Synthesis
(Türk-Islam Sentezi) called for the union of Turkish
nationalism
and Islam, a coalition between government and military, a
society
built on Islamic foundations and the rule of religious
law, sharia
(seriat in Turkish). The Turkish-Islamic Synthesis
also
identified enemies to be controlled or eliminated,
including
atheists, communists, Western humanists, members of other
religions, and those who blame Islam for the collapse of
the
Ottoman Empire. It maintained close ties to Sheyh Nazim
Adil
Kibrisli, a Cypriot living in London, who was a leading
member of
the Naksibendi order of Sunni Islam in Europe. The
Naksibendi order
also advocated a return to sharia and openly opposed
Atatürk's
reforms.
Given the secular traditions of Turkish Cypriots, these
and
other like-minded groups had an uphill task to realize
their aims.
Nevertheless, some Turkish Cypriots would certainly find
these aims
attractive. This fact and the access of Islamic groups to
the
financial resources of oil-producing nations made it
likely that
their presence would continue to be felt in the "TRNC."
Data as of January 1991
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