Ali Erbaş (born in 1961 in Kabadüz,

Ordu Province Ordu Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey, located on the Black Sea coast. Its adjacent provinces are Samsun to the northwest, Tokat to the southwest, Sivas to the south, and Giresun to the east. Its license-plate code is 52. The capital ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

) is a Turkish

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

scholar and president of

Directorate of Religious Affairs The Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey ( tr, Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı, normally referred to simply as the Diyanet) is an official state institution established in 1924 by the orders of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk under article 136 of t ...

(Diyanet) in Turkey.

Education

Erbaş attended elementary school in Yeşilyurt, and graduated from the

Imam Hatip School Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic worship services, ...

in Sakarya in 1984. Erbaş received a master degree at the

Marmara University Marmara University ( Turkish: ''Marmara Üniversitesi'') is a public university in Istanbul, Turkey. The university is named after the Sea of Marmara and was founded as a university in 1982. However, it was created in 1883 under the name of ''H ...

in 1987, and achieved a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in the Department of History of Religions in 1993 at the same university.

Professional career

In 1993 he was nominated lecturer at the Theological Faculty of the

Sakarya University Sakarya University ( tr, Sakarya Üniversitesi), frequently referred to simply as SAU, is a public research university located in the city of Serdivan, the capital of the Turkish province of Sakarya. Considered one of the largest universi ...

. Then he carried out studies in his field as a guest member of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Strasbourg for a full year as of the beginning of the academic year 1996-1997. He returned to Turkey at the beginning of 1997-1998 academic year and became Associate Professor in November of 1998 and professor in the January of 2004. In 2016 he was nominated as the rector of the

Yalova University University of Yalova ( tr, Yalova Üniversitesi) is a university in Turkey's Yalova Province. University of Yalova (UYA) has been founded under the Law no 5765 on May 22, 2008 and Prof. Dr. M. Niyazi Eruslu has been appointed as the first rector ...

. Ali Erbaş was appointed President of the

in September 2017.

Controversy

Ali Erbaş, in his capacity as the head of the directorate of religious affairs, has stated during a sermon in the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

on the 24 April 2020 that

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

leads to illnesses, which drew criticism from the

Bar Associations A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence. The word bar is derived from the old English/European custom of using a physical railing to separ ...

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

and

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

. Both Bar associations resulted being investigated for insulting religious values over their critical remarks on Ali Erbaş. During the dispute, Erbas was supported by the

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Recep may refer to: People Surname * Aziz Recep (born 1992), German-Greek footballer * Sibel Recep (born 1987), Swedish pop singer Given name * Recep Adanır (born 1929), Turkish footballer * Recep Akdağ (born 1960), Turkish physician and poli ...

who mentioned that an assault on the Diyanets head would not be tolerated. Erbaş also claimed that HIV and all the evil and pandemics in the world are caused by homosexuality.

Personal life

Ali Erbaş is married and has four children.

References

1961 births People from Ordu Living people Turkish Muslims Turkish Sunni Muslims 20th-century Muslims 21st-century Muslims 21st-century Muslim scholars of Islam Imam Hatip school alumni Marmara University alumni Sakarya University faculty Religious affairs ministers of Turkey {{Turkey-academic-bio-stub