- Ali Bardakoğlu
Ali Bardakoğlu (born 1952) is the current president of "
Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı " (Presidency of Religious Affairs) and as such the highestIslamic authority inTurkey .Background
Ali Bardakoğlu was born in 1952 in
Tosyar in the province of Kastamonu. He has been the President of Diyanet Isleri since May 2003. In 1975 he completed his studies of law at theIstanbul Marmara University and gainedBachelor title at this faculty. Later he became assistant forIslamic law at the High Islamic Institute inKayseri . In 1982, he earned hisPhD in Islamic studies at theAtatürk University and taught as Assistant professor at the theology faculty of theErciyes University . From 1991 to 1992 he lived in theUnited Kingdom and in 1994 he visited theUnited States for the first time.He is well known in Turkey and Europe as a moderate Islamic leader. He announced, in 2005, two women from Diyanet Isleri as vice
mufti s (i.e. professional jurists who interpret Islamic law and counselor who help local Muslims on religious issues) for themosques of the Turkish cities ofKayseri andIstanbul . In February 2006 he participated as an honored guest in the opening ceremony of aProtestant church inAlanya .He met with
Pope Benedict XVI onNovember 28 ,2006 inAnkara to help further interfaith dialog between the Pope and Muslims.He speaks Turkish,
Arabic and English. He is married and has three children.External links
* http://www.diyanet.gov.tr/english/default.asp
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