ABSTRACT
The emergence of the current system of state funding of religious institutions and services in Turkey has been gradual and piecemeal. This process has been shaped both by the legacy of the former Ottoman system and the radical break from it, namely the creation of the secular Turkish Republic. The Diyanet which is the leading actor in the current regime of state funding of religion therefore provides salaries for imams, preachers and other religious personnel and is in charge of the administration and maintenance of mosques. There are basically two main sources of the differential treatment in state funding of religion in Turkey: firstly, the existence of the Diyanet as an administrative organ to manage all places of prayer and to pay imams' salaries and, secondly, the absence of legal entity status for religious communities. It is this exclusively Sunni-Hanefite dimension of the Diyanet that constitutes the basis of the differential treatment of the current state funding regime in Turkey.
