Islam, August 1997

Invitation to Common Sense and Fairness

Prof. Dr. Halil Necatioglu

We are the grandchildren of the martyrs, veterans, mujahedeen, and Sultan Muhammad The Conqueror--may their abode be paradise in the hereafter. We overpowered and wiped out the Byzantine Empire, the superpower of its time, and brought Islam, the belief of tawheed, and an excellent code of conduct to Europe. We introduced Islam to the Balkans and Mid Europe. With justice and mercy, we ruled lands extending into three continents. We established the highest spiritual civilizations in the world; we produced matchless works of art, literature, architecture, science, and engineering. We attracted the interest of the whole world. We accomplished all of these because of Islam, our belief, our excellent code of conduct and our pure traditions. We also had spiritual support from many scholars and Sufis such as Rumi, Yunus, Haji Baktash Wali, Haji Bayram Wali, Abus-Su'ud Efendi, Tashkopruzade, and Katib Chelebi.

We have always benefited from Islam. We have derived a strength from it. We won many battles by the power of faith despite the deficiency in men-count. During peace times, we lived with Islamic rules in peace and harmony. Mothers with hijab nursed us with halal milk while they said prayers. We were fed with the lawful earnings of fathers who kept themselves busy with remembrance of God. We kissed the hands of grandfathers whose faces were illuminated; we got their prayers. We observed the recommendation of the grandmothers who were the symbols of love, respect, and manners; we memorized what they taught us. From head to toe, our clothing, our method, our rule of conduct, our etiquette, our response, our style, our intentions, our mentality, our activity, our commerce, and our traditions are from Islam, from the Qur'an, from the tradition of the prophet, and from the Shariah.

We were born as Muslims; we live as Muslims. God willing, we will return to Him as Muslims with a desire of perfected faith and of a degree of martyrdom.

Turkey is our very own country, a trust from our forefathers. We are not aliens from outer space; we have lived and ruled on these lands for centuries. During the World War I and the War of Independence, our families lost many lives to protect this country from the enemies of Muslims and of Islam. We saved this country and started to rebuild it. We started a race of development and advancement. We have a great determination to make our nation stronger. This government is ours; this nation is ours, and so is this country.

Nowadays some individuals stepped forward overlooking the history, knowledge, reason, logic, fairness, and mercy to challenge and accuse our people that Islam and Muslims posed greater danger than that of the terrorist organization PKK. What a grave and baseless claim! What a disgusting thought! Verily, the Justice of God will prevail someday, and those who have such false claims will get what they deserve.

Who are these individuals, anyway? How dare they make such an accusation? How could they attempt to insult our people? What do they think of this nation? How do they get this outrageous courage? Who are they counting on? That is very strange and unimaginable.

The information from the domestic and international media, from private sources, and from the authorities is not pretty but confusing. The government, the nation, the military, the judicial system, the police force, the House of Representatives, political parties, the representatives, businessmen, social organizations, worker unions, and people are drifted towards a strong division.

Some powers have the intention of dividing the country with a civil war. These powers fear a strong and advanced Turkey, and do all they can to prevent Turkey from developing. They intend to create chaos, disturbance and confusion, so they can get what they want easily. They want to take Cyprus away. Israel would like to have the fertile lands of Southeastern Turkey. The Armenians would like to have the Eastern Anatolia. The Greeks would like to have the Western Anatolia, Trachea and Istanbul. Perhaps some salty land around Salt Lake would be left for Muslims.

We can confront these powers only with unity and cooperation, upholding the Islamic values and our faith. We have to be very alert not to be fooled by the rhetoric of loosing the secularism. There should be no fooling and cheating. There will be no freedom of belief and conscience without love for Muslims and respect for Islam, nor would be a democracy without the freedom of belief and conscience. We must not consider one another or our governmental, political, social, administrative, military, and judicial establishments as enemies. We should not provide the enemy an opportunity to use these establishments to accomplish its goals. We must guard our freedoms and rights as well as our lands. We must let the constitution and the laws be in effect, identify those who violate the law, and bring them to the court of justice. We must establish and keep the peace, tranquillity, stability and freedom.

The Turkic world and the Muslim world look up to Turkey as their only hope and stronghold. There are many oppressed nations and poor people who love us very much and have high expectations of us. Hundreds of millions, even billions, of people are expecting us to be the leader of the Muslim world.

Given these facts, nobody should be fooled by the imperialist enemies of Islam or cooperate with the oppressive, merciless, bloodthirsty and infidel powers. Nobody should take part in turning the government against the people and making the people confront the government. Nobody should have a desire of putting the democracy on hold to bring dictatorship and oppression. That would be wrong, very dangerous and disastrous. None of us would benefit from such a disturbance and bloodshed.

It is just a reminder from us. The true friends tell the bitter truth; enemies flatter. Nobody should attract the wrath of God by being an object of malediction by a Muslim or causing an innocent to suffer.