Islam, April 1996
Halil Necatioglu
Praise to Allah, we are Muslims. Our purpose in life is to obtain the pleasure of Allah; our job is to serve the nation of Muhammad (pbuh), to do good deeds, to obey the commands of Allah, to be useful to mankind, and to return to Allah with pleasure. We do not have worldly ambitions; on the contrary, we can give up all of our worldly belongings including our lives in the way of Allah. May He keep us on the straight path, save us from going astray, and keep His guidance with us at all times.
Our Muslim forefathers have entrusted these lands to us, so we have responsibilities to be fulfilled. We have to protect these lands and the interest of our people on these lands. We have to look after our rights.
We also know that there are those who have ill intentions about these lands, and they work in solidarity against us. They want to divide us, create enmity among us, and wipe us from the face of the earth. It is not my imagination or suspicion; it is a solid, cold and bitter truth with thousands of evidences. Many Muslim countries are still under Russian oppression because of their oil reserves or strategic importance. America, Europe and Israel are after the Middle-East oil fields; their occupation in Middle-East is spreading and gaining strength. Greece wants to swallow the Aegean Sea, Western Anatolia and Istanbul. Armenia wants to spread from the Black sea to the Mediterranean, from Samsun to Adana. Many Armenians are purchasing real estate in the eastern provinces of Turkey. Sometimes secretly, sometimes openly they work to attain their goals.
Unaware and uninformed, we are in deep sleep of unheedlessness. No cooperation has been established among Islamic countries to protect their freedom, rights, natural resources or interests. Good, pure, sincere, and true Muslims in each country have been taken under oppression, belittled, jailed or killed for some baseless, trivial reasons.
There has been very important developments in Turkey; we must be very alert, attentive, prepared, strong and brave. To prevent the division and loss of the country, we must think a lot, work hard, cooperate, move fast, and take necessary precautions. They have been trying to eliminate our human potential. They have had plans to reach this goal and have been carrying out effectively. Here are some examples:
1) They have been working for long years to initiate a Turk-Kurd civil war. Their real purpose is to set up a puppet state in the region to control the oil resources, to establish a greater Armenian state, and to help Israel spread into the region. We have to be very alert against this scheme. We have to emphasize that Turk, Kurd, Arab, Bosnian, Circassian, Azerbaijanian, Chechen, no matter what race they belong to, all Muslims are brothers, and that the kufr unites as a single nation against Muslims. We have to point out that any action which may jeopardize the unity of Muslims has grave consequences in this world and in the hereafter. We have to help the wounds heal, establish peace and try to improve the economic condition of the people in the region as a whole.
2) They have been working for years to provoke a Sunni-Alawi fight. They support and organize the Alawi/Shi'ite minorities in Sunni dominated countries; they declare the Alawi/Shi'ite dominated countries as terrorists so that they create enmity among Muslim countries and have them destroy one another. There have been similar attempts in Turkey. Both sides should be well aware of this scheme. We must emphasize that Sunnies, too, are on the side of Ali ibn Abu Talib and that they love him very much. Carrying the ancient disputes to our time has no meaning but ill consequences. The communities which are "closed" and "misinformed" from a religious point of view must be reached and enriched with authentic information about Islam, Ali ibn Abu Talib, his children and their path. The two groups must be brought closer, and a friendship between them must be established. We all must work for this purpose.
3) Another danger that has been growing since the beginning of the Republic Era and trying to surface nowadays is that they have been trying to make the military and people enemies of one another.
Throughout the history, Turkish people loved the military duty, jihad, and martyrdom. With this ideal, they were victorious in countless battles. Nobody would dare to fight against the Turkish military. The enemy has found a way to beat the Turkish military: to instill among the officers atheism and indulgence in drinking, gambling, bribery, luxury, adultery, other unlawful acts to a degree of dependency.
Another way to beat them is to eliminate the god-fearing, religious officers from the military and put their puppets and agents in control.
Yet another way to beat the Turkish military is to present the military as atheist and anti-Islam to people, make it lose its credibility and have the support from people cut off. That would make people dislike the military duty and see the military as a major enemy.
This is the gravest scheme threatening our national unity and future. We have to pay utmost attention not to be a part of this scheme. The military already has to deal with the terrorists that throw bombs to the bases and kill the soldiers; we must not create new problems for the military to deal with. We should not be like Algeria; we should not be enemies of one another. I submit the matter to the highest military officers and the representatives. They should look at the situation with a broader perspective and examine the European and American military moral standards. They should consider our traditions and come up with necessary regulations to provide freedom of religion, thought, conscience, and worship and eliminate the rules which are offensive to people.
4) Another social clash has been tried between the elite (educated, informed) and the masses. A small minority considers education equal to atheism, attacks Islam at every opportunity, offends Muslims, and provokes them intensively. What would happen to a nation in which the elite dislike the masses, traditions, customs, language, religion and culture of the nation and do not protect them? In the presence of an intense cultural imperialism, it would be nothing but a treachery for the elite to take a stance against the national culture.
Praise to Allah, our people have common sense and good manners; they appreciate love and respect, and they love the truth and good deeds. Our culture has old and strong roots; it is magnificent, beautiful and valuable. Our religion is based on truth; our belief, straight; our spirituality, firm. Some "quasi-elite" are not aware of these facts. May Allah correct them. Thank God, their number is small and getting smaller day by day. Their abode in the hereafter will be the hell fire.
I sincerely wish that the government institutions and administrations do not listen to these "quasi-elite," not take a stance against religion, and not oppress the religious people. Our people are well aware that the representatives have serious responsibilities and duties on these areas and that they have to make laws and regulations to provide freedom of religion, conscience, worship and dressing to people.