Ali Erbaş (born in 1961) is a Turkish

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

scholar and president of

Directorate of Religious Affairs Directorate may refer to: Contemporary *Directorates of the Scottish Government * Directorate-General, a type of specialised administrative body in the European Union * Directorate-General for External Security, the French external intelligence ag ...

(Diyanet) in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Education

Erbaş attended elementary school in Yeşilyurt, and graduated from the Imam Hatip School in Sakarya in 1984. Erbaş received a master's degree at the

Marmara University Marmara University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Marmara Üniversitesi'') is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey. The university, named after the Sea of Marmara, was founded as a university in 1982. However, its ...

in 1987, and achieved a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

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 (), frequently referred to simply as SAU, is a public research university located in the city of Serdivan, a district of the Turkish province of Sakarya. Considered one of the largest universities in Turkey with more t ...

. 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 an associate professor in November 1998 and professor in January 2004. In 2016 he was nominated as the rector of the Yalova University. 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 (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

on the 24 April 2020 that

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

leads to illnesses, which drew criticism from the

Bar Associations Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar *Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of ...

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

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, it is ...

. 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 is a Turkish name deriving from the Arabic name Rajab. It may refer to: People Surname * Aziz Recep (born 1992), German-Greek footballer * Sibel Recep (born 1987), Swedish pop singer Given name * Recep Adanır (1929–2017), Turkish fo ...

who mentioned that an assault on the Diyanet's head would not be tolerated. Erbaş also claimed that HIV and all the evil and pandemics in the world are caused by homosexuality. A student in Istanbul Technical University faced disciplinary action after distributing a leaflet that called Erbaş "reactionary". Erbaş holds the opinion that the islamic prophet Isa passed awa

Personal life

Ali Erbaş is married and has four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erbas, Ali 1961 births People from Ordu Living people Turkish Sunni Muslims 20th-century Muslims 21st-century Muslims 21st-century Muslim scholars of Islam Imam Hatip school alumni Marmara University alumni Academic staff of Sakarya University Religious affairs ministers of Turkey