15.8 Turkey:
Secularism Without Sharia

It is estimated over 90% of Turkey’s population identifies as Muslim. Turkey provides an example of a legal system in a Muslim-majority country where government is formally separate from Sharia.

It is a secular republic, meaning that laws are created by elected officials and are not based on religious law. Although the majority of Turkey’s population is Muslim, the country does not use Sharia as a source of law.

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Turkey has a presidential system.

At the top of the system is the President, who is:

1. Directly elected by the public
2. Both head of state and head of government
3. Responsible for executive decisions and national policy

Turkey also has an elected parliament, known as the Grand National Assembly. Parliament:

1. Passes laws
2. Approves budgets
3. Represents the population

This means Turkey’s system is based on elections and legislative authority, not religious leadership.

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Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Atatürk introduced reforms to separate religion from government and modernize the state.

In 1924, the Ottoman Caliphate was abolished, ending the last widely recognized caliphate and removing Islam from formal political authority.

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Turkey’s legal system is fully secular and codified.

Turkey adopted legal codes based on European models, including:

1. Civil law (influenced by Switzerland)
2. Criminal law (influenced by Italy)
3. Commercial law (influenced by Germany)

This means that laws governing areas such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and criminal justice are not based on Islamic law.

Courts do not apply Sharia, and laws are based entirely on secular legal codes.

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Although Turkey’s government is secular, religion still exists within society and is managed in certain ways by the state.

The government oversees religious institutions through a state body called the Diyanet, which administers mosques and provides religious services.

However, religious authorities do not have the power to make laws, or override government decisions.

Unlike countries such as Iran or Saudi Arabia, Turkey does not have religious or morality police. There is no enforcement of Islamic dress codes by the state. Individuals are free to practice religion privately. Public behavior is governed by secular law, not religious rules.

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Turkey’s system can be understood as one where:

1. Law is fully separate from religion.
2. Political authority comes from elected institutions.
3. Religion exists in society but does not control the state.

This is the clearest example in this module of a Muslim-majority country where Islam and government are formally separated.

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Turkey represents the final point on the spectrum:

Saudi Arabia → Sharia is the foundation of law

Iran → Sharia is built into the political system

Pakistan → Sharia influences and constrains the system

Indonesia → Sharia applies mainly to personal and regional law

Turkey → Sharia is not part of the legal system

In section 15.9, we will briefly recap the five examples of how Sharia is implemented across Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Turkey.