How are young Turks fleeing Islam?

Until recently, I did not shake hands with men”, she says at an Istanbul café.

But now I don't know if there's a God or not and I don't care at all”, reports BBC News Report. In the 16 years the president's party, Rexhep Tayyip Erdogan, has been in power, the number of religious high schools throughout Turkey has increased more than ten times.

It has repeatedly legalized to bring about a devout generation.

In recent weeks, however, religious politicians and clergymen have discussed whether godly youths have begun to renounce religion.

One day Merwe's life changed after she woke up very depressed, wept for hours, and decided to pray.

While she prayed, she realized that she doubted God's existence.

I thought I'd be crazy or kill myself”, she says. The next day I realized that I had lost my faith”.

This is the only thing connected to Islam”, says Merve, showing her bright red headscarf.

But Merve is not alone. One professor has been quoted as saying that more than many women wearing headscarves have claimed to be atheistes.

But it is not just atheism that students are embracing.

At a worker in Konya, one of Turkey's most conservative cities, there have been claims that students in religious high schools are moving towards deism, due to what they called “Moscows within Islam”, according to reports in the opposition newspapers.

Deism has its roots in Greek culture. His followers believe that God exists, but they reject all religions.

Until there are statistics or polls to show how widespread this phenomenon is, it is enough to worry Turkey's leaders.

Leyla, student:

One day, I went to the market and removed the veil and stopped putting it. My father doesn't know I'm a vat. If he finds out, I'm afraid he can stop my little sister from having a university degree. Your sister went to college and that's what happened to her, she might say. I have not asked Yahweh to create me, so that God may ask of me for nothing. I have the right to live as free as a bird.

Turkey's chief cleric, head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Ali Erbas, has also denied the spread of deism and atheism among the country's conservative youth. No member of our nation would ever adhere to such a deviant and invalid concept”, he said.

Theology professor Hidayet Aybar is also convinced that there is no such shift towards deism.

“Deism rejects Islamic values, rejects the Koran, and rejects the prophet, rejects heaven and hell, angels and reincarnation, all of which are pillars of Islam”. Deism acknowledges only the existence of God”, he says.

According to de·sist philosophy, God created the universe and all his creatures, but he does not intervene in what has been created and does not establish rules or principles.

I can assure you that there is no such tendency towards deism in our conservative youth”, he argues.

Turkey's only atheistic association believes Prof Aybar is wrong about the current trend and claims that atheists also exist.

“Here has television shows that debate what to do with atheists”, says its spokesman, Saner Athik. “Some say they must be killed, they must be cut to pieces”.

It takes a lot of courage to say you're an atheist under these circumstances. There are women in Niqab who secretly admit to being atheistic because they are afraid of their family or their own” environment.

When the journalist met Merven for the second time at home. She said goodbye without the headscarf.