COVID-19 patients’ contact info illegally obtained by religious authority for ‘spiritual guidance’

Diyanet, the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs, has been obtaining the contact information of COVID-19 patients without their permission under the guide of their “Spiritual Guidance” program, daily Cumhuriyet has reported.

Friday December 03 2021 02:14 pm

Duvar English

Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) has been using its “Spiritual Guidance” program in hospitals to illegally obtain the contact of COVID-19 patients, daily Cumhuriyet reported on Dec. 3.

Diyanet founded the “Spiritual Guidance” program in 2015 in conjunction with the Turkish Health Ministry. The program aimed to provide “spiritual support” to patients in hospitals and prisons, and established “Spiritual Guidance Units” in hospitals throughout the country. What began as a pilot project in six hospitals in 2015 has now expanded to a massive network of these units in hospitals, prisons, schools, and women’s shelters throughout the country.

The program is now attempting to expand even further. Diyanet used its partnership with hospitals to obtain the contact information of patients sick with COVID-19, without the patients’ consent. After they tested positive, a person who introduced themselves as the district governor’s religious officials would call these patients and say they were praying for them.

These “Spiritual Support Specialists” claim that “illness is a test given by God” and that “patients get better faster” as a result of these calls.

The people who got the calls reported they were told to pray for the Health Ministry, as well.

“You are sick, we are praying for you. We hope you get well. Please pray for us, too,” they reportedly said on the phone.

Topics Turkey Turkish Diyanet Covid-19 Directorate of Religious Affairs