TURKS INTOLERANT OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY, SAYS POLL

Today’s Zaman
01 October 2009, Thursday

A survey conducted by a private research company has shown that a great
majority of the public does not want atheists, Jews or Christians
for neighbors and also disapproves of their employment at top state
institutions, the Radikal daily reported yesterday.

Conducted by the Frekans research company as part of a project to
promote the Turkish Jewish community and its culture, the poll gauged
Turks’ views on different ethnic and religious groups in Turkey,
the Jewish community in particular. Fifty-seven percent of 1,108
people surveyed in the poll said they did not want to have atheist
neighbors, while 42 percent said they did not want Jewish neighbors and
35 percent of respondents were reluctant to have Christian neighbors.

Furthermore, when asked whether they would feel uncomfortable if
people from Turkey’s non-Muslim communities were employed by top
state institutions, 57 percent of respondents expressed discomfort
with the idea of someone from these groups being employed by the
National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T), while 55 percent stated
that they did not want non-Muslims to be members of the judiciary or
the police force.

When participants were asked whether they have close friends who are
Alevi, Kurd, atheist, Greek, Armenian or Jewish, 64 percent stated that
they had a Kurdish friend, while 53 percent said they had a friend
from the Alevi community. The participants were also asked how they
defined themselves. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they defined
themselves as "citizens of the Turkish Republic," while 19 percent
described themselves as "Muslim" and another 19 percent identified
themselves as "Turkish." Two percent defined themselves as Kurdish.