What was the ottoman's religious policy?

Answer 1

The Ottoman's were predominantly Sunni Muslim, with various minority religions (such as Christianity) tolerated.

Answer 2

While Non-Muslims were permitted to worship, there were a number of regulations. Admittedly, life under the Ottomans was far superior to most contemporaneous Empires. Spain was by far a more religiously and culturally intolerant place during this period as were France and England.

Non-Muslims who lived in the Ottoman Empire were called Dhimmi, or second-class citizens. They lacked a number of fundamental rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of settlement, access to all occupations, and additional taxation because they were Non-Muslim. Each Dhimmi group, like the Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and so forth were organized into Millets which were community representative groups. Each Millet would report to a centralized Millet representative in Istanbul who would have direct dealing with the Imperial Palace. This would allow the Millets to air their grievances, but was more often used as a method to control the Millets and make them less resistive to Ottoman Occupation.

Muslims other than Sunni Muslims, like the Alevis, Alwaites*, Druze* and Twelver Shiites were not organized into the Millet system and the Ottomans refused to recognize these other religions as being valid. They were subject to intermittent persecution and acceptance depending on the mood of the sultan. The Twelver Shiites were also under great suspicion since the Ottomans considered Twelver Shiites to be a possible fifth column for their enemies to the east, Safavid Persia, which was a Twelver Shiite Theocracy.

Finally, the Ottomans' most egregious crime was the policy of devshirme, where Christian families in the Balkans region had to submit to Ottoman soldiers stealing their children to bring to them to Istanbul where they would have no contact with their parents for years and be trained to be the elite Janissary Core and be converted to Islam. No Muslim was even allowed to join the Janissaries, because the devshirme system was so effective in producing recruits loyal only to the Emperor because they feared him.

*Today, Alawites and Druze are generally considered to be Post-Islamic Religions, but they were not recognized as distinct religion during the Ottoman Period.

Answer 3

The Ottoman's were predominantly Sunni Muslim, with various minority religions (such as Christianity) tolerated.