The opening and operation of so-called Imam Hatip religious secondary schools in predominately Muslim Thursday has dramatically increased during the tenure of Recep Tayyip Erdogan — as both prime minister and today as president.
The number of such schools around the predominately Muslim country, originally foreseen in the pre-war period as vocational institutes to train imams, rose from roughly 450 prior to 2000, to now more than 5,000 – with approximately 1.3 million boys enrolled as pupils.
