During the government of the
Democrat Party,
İmam Hatip schools which offered religious classes and were run by the Diyanet, were re-opened. The number of schools offering
Quran classes rose from 61 in 1946 to 118 in 1948. From 1975 onwards, graduates of
İmam Hatip schools were given the same status as regular high-school graduates and therefore they were granted permission to study at universities. In 1975 there were more than 300 İmam Hatip schools, with almost 300,000 students. Türkiye Diyanet Foundation () was established in 1975 to support the works of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, spread Islam, and raise clerics who would take on religious services. One of its major works is the 44 volume TDV Encyclopedia of Islam (), which is available online. A 2021 academic publication summarized the Diyanet's growing activities as such: in 2012 it launched its own 24-hour satellite television channel,
Diyanet Television, alongside presence on social media. The number of preschool Qur’an courses it offered went from 3,000 in 2000 to 16,200 in 2018, employing 24,463 instructors by the end of 2019, with nearly 4 million attending the summer Qur’anic courses in 2018 while aiming for 24 million by 2023. It had published 1,734 books as of 2019 and distributing 9 million books free of charge as of 2018. Prior to 2010, the Diyanet had taken some non-traditional stances on gender and health issues. In 2005, 450 women were appointed vaizes (who are more senior than
imams) by the Diyanet, and it deemed
in vitro fertilisation and
birth control pills "proper according to Islam". In 2012, Turkish President
Abdullah Gül visited the institution and said "it is undoubtedly one of the most important duties of the Religious Affairs Directorate [i.e. the Diyanet] to teach our religion to our people in the most correct, clear and concise way and steer them away from superstition".
Turkish Muslims outside the Diyanet The Diyanet has been criticized for following the
Hanafi school and being "indifferent to the diversity of other Turkish Islamic creeds", i.e. the non-Hanafi who make up "a third to two fifths" of Turkey's population. Additionally, during the early 2000s during a trial in the Turkish
Court of Cassation, the Diyanet was strongly opposed to the recognition of Alevi associations or to research on Alevi heritage as it would lead to "separatism". The
Ministry of Culture and also the Council of State criticized this approach as the Alevi represented a part of the Turkish culture.
2010 and after In 2010–2011, Diyanet began its transformation to "a supersized government bureaucracy for the promotion of
Sunni Islam". The Diyanet has been accused of serving for the ruling AKP party, and of lavish spending (an expensive car and Jacuzzi for its head Mehmet Görmez). Following the
July 2016 coup attempt, President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan removed 492 religious officials from the Diyanet. Also in 2016, Diyanet instructed affiliated imams and religious instances to collect detailed information on the
Gülen movement. It handed 50 intelligence reports from 38 countries over to the Turkish parliament. The Diyanet's
imams are involved, under the auspices of the
National Intelligence Organization, in the Turkish state's efforts to monitor its citizens abroad, particularly those suspected of involvement with the
Gulen movement, the
Kurdistan Workers Party, and the
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front. In 2017, some argued that "Diyanet’s implication in Turkish domestic and foreign politics opens a new chapter on Erdoğan’s increasing authoritarianism". In 2018
Mustafa Çağrıcı claimed “The Diyanet of today has a more Islamist, more Arab worldview”. The same year, Diyanet has suggested citizens practice e-
fasting during Ramadan. E-fasting refers to cutting down on use of technologies such as smartphones, laptops and
social media. == Criticism ==