Sevgi Evleri (Houses of Love), which are child rehabilitation centres established by the Ministry of Family and Social Policies for the purpose of "bringing up abandoned children in a family environment", have come to be known as places of a religious imposition to children and corruption. These rehabilitation centres continue to be a religious propaganda apparatus of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) rather than giving public services to abandoned children.
In the days when the AKP government de facto ruled the country together with Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen religious sect, the Houses of Love were one of the institutions that the Gülen community organized. Today, under the guise of being associations or welfare foundations, other religious cults and sects are active in these centres.
The Houses of Love are indeed a project of the Ministry of Family and Social Policy. They consist of house-type buildings, and aim to bring up 10-12 abandoned children in each building every year.
FROM HOUSES OF LOVE TO THE GÜLEN RELIGIOUS SECT’S CAMP MEETINGS
In the period when the AKP and Fethullah Gülen governed the country together, the Houses of Love became one of the organizational centres for the Gülen religious sect.
On November 30, 2016, it was claimed that the administrators of the Houses of Love placed the orphaned children in the Houses of Light belonging to the Fethullah Gülen religious sect in the southern province of Adana. The Houses of Light was a Foundation of this religious sect, where young loyal servants to Islamic preacher Gülen are raised and taught.
OFFICES OF MUFTIS ALSO GIVE 'EDUCATION' IN THE HOUSES OF LOVE
Nine preachers working an in provincial offices of muftis (religious civil servants) have been granted to authorize to give religious education to children staying at child rehabilitation centres including the Houses of Love with a protocol signed between the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, and the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) in 2011.
In this direction, the children, who are accommodated in the House of Love in the central Anatolian province of Sivas, had religious education imposed on them for three years. Then, eight children were sent to Umrah (an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca). The Provincial Director of Family and Social Policy Sefer Buğrul had said that they noticed very visible changes in the children after this imposing of religion through 'education'. It was later revealed that in training given in the northwestern province of Bursa that Buğrul’s understanding of 'education' included the imposition of anti-secularism to the children.
SHARIA 'EDUCATION' IN THE HOUSES OF LOVE IN BURSA
Children aged 7-12 years are taught a 'Values Education Program' in the Houses of Love in Bursa. The program is directed by sociologist of religion Selma Karışman. Children are expected to be aware of their personality, certain values, and to determine their own perspectives in future periods under the name of "Values Education". Yet, it is understood that "being aware of certain values" means raising religious generations.
Selma Karışman, in an essay on a reactionary website, writes: "Love should be emancipated from the spiritual burden of emotions, from the rises and falls of daily life, it should be emancipated from the breaks from spirituality resulting from seductive offers of secular life, it should be freed from spells of alienation."
