The Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports of Karaman province of Turkey distributed a book entitled "Hitchhiking in Heaven" to high school students to be discussed in debating circles under the provision of teachers. The book consists of stories of people converted to Islam, including a Taliban militant, local media reported.
Youth Services and Sports Provincial Directorate conducts the services of the Ministry of The Youth and Sports in the provinces.
One of the stories in the book, "A Taliban From Australia", praises the merits of being a jihadist militant of Taliban. The story comprises an interview with a jihadist nicknamed "Australian Taliban" who had fought in Afghanistan. A photograph of the jihadist holding a Kalashnikov was also included in the book. The jihadist says, "I started to fight against the NATO under the ranks of Taliban after I became Muslim. The living standards of Australians may be higher than the Afghans. And yet, there is no peace in Australia". The jihadist also encourages people to join the ranks of Taliban.
İsa Çetin, the chairperson of the Union of the Labourers of Education and Science (Eğitim-Sen) Karaman branch, revealed the incident. Çetin said, "it is a great shame that a government institution responsible for the healthy upbringing of the youth distributed such a book," adding that they were investigating whether the book had been distributed in other schools as well.
The general secretary of the union, Orhan Yıldırım, reminded, "when we handed in our petition of objection to the integration of the concept of jihadism in textbooks at the beginning of the month, the Minister of Education stated that we are raising a protest without actually knowing what jihad means. The minister argued that jihad meant 'putting in effort.' The real meaning of the word is provided in this book using an armed jihadist."
Yıldırım also added that the Ministry of Education should have been trying to prevent such a "weird sympathy towards jihadists," considering that there are a significant number of people from Turkey who joined several jihadist organisations like the IS."
Yıldırım also noted that they would never let such propaganda in Turkey.
