Mr Erdogan's first controversial target was rules that make it hard for graduates of religious training (imam hatip) schools to attend Turkish universities.

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Mr Erdogan, who is himself an imam hatip graduate and whose four children also attend such schools, feels strongly that he is in the right.

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Mr. Erdogan changed the system: By equating Imam Hatip degrees with high-school degrees, he enabled Islamist students to enter university and qualify for government jobs without ever mastering Western fundamentals.

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Islamic clerical-training schools, known as imam hatip, mushroomed.

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It is true that, in deference to his party's grassroots, Mr Erdogan has sometimes touted a few overtly religious measures: the criminalisation of adultery, new privileges for imam hatip clerical-training schools, an Islamist as head of the central bank.

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