About 10,000 Turkish Islamists demonstrated yesterday against a ban on Islamic attire in the largest of recent street protests that have unnerved the government of the Prime Minister, Mr Mesut Yilmaz.
"Muslims won't bow down to repression," students chanted, as they marched through streets near Istanbul University. The large, 16th-century Beyazit mosque was not big enough to hold the protesters when they broke for Friday noon prayers. Islamists filled the building while around 2,000 others prayed outside amid a heavy police presence.
It was the fourth protest this week against the university's ban on female students wearing Islamic headscarves and male students with beards, seen as signs of Muslim piety. The marchers later dispersed peacefully, calling for all students to join a general university boycott from Monday.
The demonstrations have grown despite a decision by the university to suspend the ban. The focus of Islamist dissent has now switched to a decree enforcing an existing nationwide prohibition on headscarves in schools.
Anatolian news agency said police detained directors of four religious foundations after uncovering links between them and the outlawed Welfare Party.
The Istanbul protests have exposed cracks in the minority conservative-led coalition government under Mr Yilmaz.
The Hurriyet newspaper said Muslim traditionalists in Mr Yilmaz's wing of the government were angry with their secularist leftist partners for pushing the headscarf ban too far.