Fethullah Gülen: I am not pro-Said Nursi

The Gülen Movement landed on the agenda once again, because of a slander tape which allegedly targeted Meral Akşener, a deputy from the Nationalist Movement Party MHP.

Meanwhile, Mustafa Yeşil, the president of the Journalists and Writers Foundation -affiliated with the Gülen Movement- who first mentioned the slander tape is on the run.

We have a history with “tape politics”.

There was a period when politics was designed by tapes.

They resulted in the resignation of MHP's deputy chairpersons and Deniz Baykal to lose his seat as the chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP).

The famous 'parallel 'police Chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer did not say “Enter their lives” for no reason.

There was not a single life they had not entered.

But as it could be understood from the Akşener incident, “blackmailing with tapes” had worked in both ways.

They did not only use this method to eliminate the targeted politician, bureaucrat, judge or prosecutor.

They made the actual elimination within themselves.

Within the inter-movement power balance, they had eliminated their opponents through “blackmailing tapes” or unlawful wiretappings.

Come to think of it: a movement which claims to cherish faith and Qur'an based service conducts its internal settlements through such flagrant tapes.

Can a faith and Qur'an based service be of such nature?

There is no need to come up with resolutions at the National Security Council (MGK), or put them as official threats in the Red Book.

This congregation has already decayed from within.

Nuh Mete Yüksel, a State Security Court (DGM) prosecutor was brought to the agenda by allegations that he has fallen into the Gülen Movement's sex trap.

A religious movement and sex trap…

How can the two come together?

Nuh Mete Yüksel was a prosecutor who represented the DGM mindset of the 1990s.

He once turned up at Merve Kavakçı's (An elected deputy who was thrown out of the Turkish Parliament in the 90s for wearing a headscarf.) door in the middle of the night.

He was a brutal man.

I am not after his personal weak points.

Nuh Mete Yüksel had filed a lawsuit about Fethullah Gülen.

Right when he declared Gülen a “müctehid” (someone who can come up with religious decrees) during the February 28 post-modern coup period.

We had strongly opposed Nuh Mete Yüksel back then for attempting to judge Islamic services rather than Gülen in his 79-page long bill of indictment.

If it happened today, I would oppose him again.

But rather than defending Islam, Fethullah Gülen had preferred to save himself once again.

When looked at from this perspective, there seems to be a problem between Gülen and Said-Nursi supporters which needs to be solved.

In 1971, while facing trial in the “Nurculuk” case at the İzmir Martial Law Court along with Said Nursi's lawyer, Bekir Berk, Fethullah Gülen was quoted as saying, “I am not a Said-Nursi supporter” contrary to the rest of the defendants.

In his 56-page long defense no 2000/124E submitted to Ankara State Security Court No 2 for the trial initiated by Nuh Mete Yüksel, Gülen again says “I am not a Said-Nursi supporter.”

Here is the section from Gülen's defense where he says, “I am not affiliated with any movements including the Said Nursi congregation, except for being Muslim:”

“In the indictment, it is alleged that I am a Nursi supporter or that I am the continuation of his movement. At this point, the indictment dictates the Nur movement is included in the accusations directed against me. Like the rest of the allegations, these have no solid base. Because up until now, I have expressed many times that I am not affiliated with any movement and therefore am not a “Nursi supporter.” For instance, I had explicitly talked about this matter in an interview with weekly Aksiyon magazine on June 6, 1998 and the Yeni Asya daily on Jun 11 1998 has published this under the title of 'Fethullah Gülen: I am not a Nursi supporter.'

Fethullah Gülen nourished himself through the Risale-I Nur Collection written by Said-Nursi. However, he refrained from using Nursi's name. He concealed it by referring to him as “His holiness the founder of the Nur order.” He highlighted his own name instead, while distorting the Risale-I Nur. Below the piece it says Said Nursi is the writer. However, some parts have been either omitted or written by Fethullah Gülen. How bad could it get when someone who does not cite the name of his own master and distort his works, even if he was a Nursi supporter?

He is someone who did not feel like visiting Said-Nursi because he was Kurdish.

He edited that section in his book entitled “My small world.” However, in his interview published on Zaman daily he had said “I thought, why would God bring such a genius from the Kurds rather than the Turks who have served as the sword of Islam. My Turkish pride prevented me from visiting Said-Nursi and kissing his hand.”

Mehmet Kırkıncı Hodja, one of the students of Said-Nursi who introduced Gülen to the Risale-i Nur collection, confirms this section on a website called “risalehaber.com.”

“I lived during the period of Said-Nursi and had heard of his name and his Risale-I Nur collections. However, just like anybody else from Erzurum, we also have a sense of pan-Turanism, hence the reason why I did not visit Said-Nursi.

Imam Abu Hanifa is the scholar of one of the four main Islamic schools of jurisprudence.

For the sake of not changing Islamic principles, he refused to submit to the Abbasid ruler and was imprisoned, tortured and died through poisoning in a dungeon.

He lost his life, but did not give up his ideals.

Said-Nursi did not submit to the single-party rule period which prohibited the Holy Qur'an and the call to prayers known as athan.

He took the risk of imprisonment, torture and exile for the sake of preserving Islamic principles.

“If they found pieces of my head as much as the pieces of my hair, and each piece is cut every day, I will not bow this head down -to the disbelievers-, which is ready to be sacrificed for the Qur'an.

They were exposed to unimaginable types of torture for writing an interpretations of the Qur'an, teaching it, or calling people to prayers, as they saw them as a truth of Islam.

But they had never been accused of preparing blackmailing tapes.

But they had never faced trial for unlawful wiretappings.

But they had never been accused of spying for other countries.

Islamic movements have suffered a lot. They have experienced torture and oppression.

However, for the first time in the history of Islam, a religious congregation is accused of preparing blackmailing and fabricated tapes.

For the first time, a religious congregation is standing trial for unlawful wiretapping and accused of spying for other countries.

This is precisely the point which marks the end of Fethullah Gülen.