One of the Most Dangerous Documented Lectures! How Turkey Transformed - Compare with What's Happening Now in Some Arab Countries

Introduction: Challenges of the Islamic State

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The Islamic state has faced existential challenges since the days of the companions, from the days of Abdullah ibn Saba, then internal coups and secret movements like the Qarmatians and the Hashashins, and the emergence of a competing Shiite state by the Ismaili Fatimids who called themselves Fatimids, then the disasters of the Mongols, Tatars, and Crusaders.

But thanks to Allah, all these dangers did not destroy the Islamic state in its various forms, and there was always a sultan or caliph or whatever you want to call it, and there were institutions that ruled in the name of Islam, implemented Islamic law, collected zakat, and preserved the waqfs that formed civil society and provided civil services.

All this continued with all its challenges until the balance of civilization shifted globally, and the Muslims entered a long slumber in parallel with the awakening of the West from its deep sleep, and the beginning of the conspiracy.

Collapse of the Ottoman State: Internal and External Conspiracies

The Ottoman state achieved great accomplishments, perhaps surpassing previous Islamic states. For example, it conquered Constantinople, the stronghold of the Orthodox Church and the capital of the ancient Byzantine Empire, and opened up all of Eastern Europe, reaching the gates of Vienna.

However, as Ibn Khaldun says: "States are like humans; they age after youth, and when they reach the peak of greatness, they fall into complacency and luxury until their enemies pounce on them." However, the collapse of this state was influenced by significant internal conspiracies, more so than previous Islamic states.

The Beginning of Internal Weakness

After weakening internally, it collapsed militarily in World War I. The reason is that European intelligence agencies became stronger in the modern era than before, and because the civilizational disparity was in favor of the West this time, unlike previous phases of Islamic history. Also, internal tyranny was immense, creating a huge gap between the people and the authority.

Because the plans of the Children of Israel to infiltrate Europe through secret societies and closed sects began during the Crusades, these attempts finally succeeded in the eighteenth century by reaching the top of power in several European countries.

The book is titled "100 Projects to Divide the Ottoman State from 1281 to 1913." This book is 600 pages long, but after translation, Shakib Arslan summarized it, added his comments, and named it "European Bigotry or Islamic Bigotry." Reading the book is very tiring; it presents a hundred conspiracies from the days of the Crusades, meaning before the establishment of the Ottoman state until 1913, i.e., ten years before the last conspiracy's victory by Ataturk.

You will feel while reading the book that Europe had no other concern but to invade the lands of the Muslims, kill them, or convert them to Christianity, and recently convert them to secularism. Thanks to Allah, the Muslims faced all these conspiracies, and even if they failed in some, they would return to rise again. However, the last disaster has passed a century and is still insurmountable until now.

From the seventeenth century, the Ottoman state began to collapse internally when the sultans and the elite indulged in pleasures. For those who want to see for themselves, I advise them to visit Topkapi Palace, Dolmabahce Palace, and the rest of the palaces open to tourists in Istanbul. The transition from a life of asceticism in the era of Muhammad the Conqueror to competing with Europeans in grandeur is very clear in these palaces.

The first thing that happened was the retreat of the zeal for conquests that had reached the heart of Europe, as the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "No people abandon jihad except that Allah will afflict them with humiliation," and in another hadith: "Allah will impose humiliation on you that will not be removed until you return to your religion." Therefore, when expansion stops, contraction begins, and thus the Russians and Serbs took some areas. Although the Ottomans engaged in skirmishes and continued fighting, all the battles were to restore what was lost, not to conquer new lands.

In the eighteenth century, several battles broke out with the Russians and Austrians, and the Muslims resisted and won several times. However, the Russians eventually resorted to a plan of internal sedition by inciting the Christians inside. Military defeats on the state multiplied, and the Europeans all allied to form sleeper cells within the Ottoman state through Christian religious minorities and others. Unfortunately, at the same time, some sultans continued their lives of luxury despite these crises, and conspiracies and assassinations within the palaces were at their peak.

The Masonic and Donmeh Jewish Infiltration

The official Masonic infiltration began in the Ottoman State with the establishment of the first lodge in 1721, which was in Istanbul. Then, the establishment of the lodges and the recruitment of elites and thinkers to them followed. The lodges sought to spread secular ideas in Europe, America, and the Ottoman State at the same time. The prominent theorists of the philosophies that drew the ideological map of the modern age were almost all members of the lodges, including liberals, communists, racial nationalists, and libertine secularists, among others. All non-religious ideas were cooked there and reshaped the systems, policies, and cultures of the entire world. This is part of the declared and non-secret activity of Freemasonry.

At the same time, there was a sect called the Donmeh Jews who moved with all means. They were a group of Ottoman Jewish citizens who agreed to hide their Judaism and show Islam. Their story is long and dates back to a Jewish rabbi named Shabbetai Zvi who claimed in the seventeenth century that he was the messiah and was pledged by the Jews of the world. Then, when he feared execution, he announced his Islam, and his followers continued to appear in the name of Islam and work to destroy Islam secretly from within.

It is said that this group played the most prominent role in opening the Masonic lodges and introducing nationalist ideas to the Ottoman State, all with overt or covert Western support. Therefore, many of the famous secular figures in Ottoman history and perhaps even today we know them only by Arab and Islamic names, while they are actually Jewish.

The Zionist Movement and the Young Turks Association

In 1876, some countries seceded and allied with the enemy, and at the same time, the Zionist movement appeared and boldly went to the caliph to ask him to sell them Palestine, and the story of his refusal is well-known. During his reign, Freemasonry also made a significant leap, and the Young Turks Association was formed, raising the same slogans of Freemasonry literally. Interestingly, the first headquarters of this association were opened in Paris and Berlin before its branches were opened inside the Ottoman State. The plan was to infiltrate the Ottoman army officers and form a secret wing called the Ottoman Union Organization. All of them openly opposed the sultan and relied on the West without shame.

In 1906, the Young Turks joined the bloated military organization to a new association called the Committee of Union and Progress. Its role was to repeat the experiments of the Masonic lodges in igniting the French and American revolutions, among others, by recruiting officers and intellectual, political, and financial elites. Sultan Abdulhamid tried to resist these associations and called for the idea of the Islamic Union, but there is no life for those who call for it. The Arabs were at the weakest stages of their history, and Western conspiracies had infiltrated everything. The Arab elite in Paris also founded the Young Arab Association in 1911. From within these lodges, the ideas of Arab nationalism emerged.

The Dethronement of Sultan Abdulhamid II

Let's return to Istanbul, which was the capital of the caliphate and is now Istanbul. The Committee of Union and Progress forced Abdulhamid II to change the constitution and changed the entire system of the state. Finally, their power reached the point in 1909 that the Jew Emmanuel Karasu, the head of the Salonika Masonic lodge, entered his palace, handed him the resignation decree, and appointed Muhammad Rashad instead of him, with Abdulhamid being exiled to Salonika itself, which was a stronghold of Freemasonry and is now within the borders of Greece.

All the facts I have mentioned to you so far are documented and declared in the references of secularists and Freemasons. This is not a secret conspiracy they are ashamed of but a source of pride for them. And whoever is frightened by the word conspiracy and considers it a delusion and a primitive conspiracy theory should just read.

Crimes of the Committee of Union and Progress

Now take this surprise: most of the disasters that are attributed to the Ottoman State today were committed by the Committee of Union and Progress and the Donmeh Jews. For example, the deportation of the Armenians was orchestrated by them, the persecution of the Arabs in Syria and the Levant, and all attempts to Turkify the Arabs, Circassians, Kurds, and Armenians were carried out by these criminals. Jamal Pasha the Butcher, who was the governor of Iraq and then Syria and tried to rule Egypt as well, most Arabs until today do not know that he was one of the officers of the Union and Progress and was involved in all the previous crimes. He was one of those who conspired to dethrone Sultan Abdulhamid.

Nevertheless, even today, after a century has passed, the educational curricula and Arab series still present Jamal Pasha the Butcher to us as a representative of the Ottoman occupation, and they attribute these crimes and persecution to the Islamic caliphate, even though he himself was an enemy of the caliph and the caliphate more than the Arab nationalists.

The funny and sad thing is that the enemies always deal with the same enemy and fight among themselves. That is, the Young Turks and the Young Arabs were both taught by Freemasonry in Europe and in the same lodges and by the same teacher, and their common enemy was the caliphate and Islam. And they even carried the same slogans with one difference: the first carried Turkish nationalism, and the second carried Arab nationalism, both with the same fanaticism and the same foolishness, then each fought the other and fell into the same trap and still has the same mentality. Today, you see the Republican People's Party in Turkey is the exact opposite of Nasserism and the Ba'ath Party and all forms of Arab nationalism.

World War I and the End of the Caliphate

Let's return to history and what happened after the dethronement of Abdulhamid. The rest of the story is known. World War I broke out in 1914 and forced the crumbling Ottoman State to engage in it, not knowing that it would be its end. During the war, there was an officer from the Committee of Union and Progress named Mustafa Kemal who was in the last ranks of the conspiracy and no one noticed him. Historians believe he was also from the Donmeh Jews, and there are suspicions that they agreed with Mustafa Kemal from the beginning to withdraw and pretend to be defeated so that he would become the military and national hero. I advise you here to watch the movie "Gallipoli" starring Mel Gibson, where we see at the end of the film that the English officers give stupid orders to the soldiers and sacrifice them all to die for nothing.

World War I ended in 1918, and the Western armies occupied Istanbul, the capital of the caliphate. A new catastrophe began, similar to the catastrophe of the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols and the fall of Jerusalem to the Crusaders. The occupiers immediately began to divide the body of the sick man and distributed the Arab countries among France, Britain, and Italy. This was after they promised to liberate them from the Turks but betrayed them.

Sultan Mehmed Vahideddin was sitting on a weak throne, and the enemy occupied his country. They forced him to sign the Treaty of Sèvres, which tore apart this state. But to bring the alternative hero, Mustafa Kemal refused and declared resistance. Of course, he did not resist France, Britain, and Italy together, but he went to resist the weak Greece, which had occupied parts of the Ottoman State during the war, and the Western countries sat watching him until he became a national hero, while the sultan had no power.

The battle ended, and the allies told Greece: "Come and sign a renunciation to the hero Mustafa Kemal." Sultan Mehmed was deposed, and Abdulmajid was put in his place to sign the Treaty of Lausanne and renounce all Ottoman lands to the West except Turkey, meaning he was brought just to sign and then deposed.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: Abolishing the Caliphate and Westernizing Turkey

Mustafa Kemal declared himself the president of the Turkish Republic in late October 1923. The people, who were still in shock from defeat and occupation, did not know whether to celebrate or protest. They presented the situation to him as a defeat of the weak caliph against the Western enemy, not as an internal conspiracy, and denied the entire Ottoman dynasty with him.

At that stage, Mustafa Kemal was conducting a public relations campaign. He would give Friday sermons as if he were a sheikh, take pictures with sheikhs, make supplications, and pray. On every occasion, he would recite the Fatiha, and people would rely on his supplication. During all his tours, he would bring his wife Latife Hanum with him, wearing a hijab and a jilbab. Therefore, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (the parliament) naively decided to pledge allegiance to the believing president for the position of the caliphate. However, he asked them to wait a little. He had only five months left to rewrite history.

Our brothers in India were living in the same delusion. The Muslim Scholars Association there was seeking independence from British rule and declaring allegiance to Mustafa Kemal as a sultan and caliph. The Indian association, along with scholars and sheikhs in Egypt, worked to present an official letter to Mustafa Kemal, asking him to accept the caliphate. The first point stated literally: "The great mujahid Mustafa Kemal Pasha, you must accept the caliphate to protect us, the enslaved people, from division." The third point stated: "We, the Indians, cannot work with the Egyptians, the Hejazis, the Syrians, or even the Iraqis, for they are like us, enslaved people, and in this regard, they have no opinion or even the right to speak," because, of course, all Islamic and Arab countries were under French or British occupation at the time.

Imagine, after all these generous offers, Mustafa Kemal refused! Is there any ruler in the world to whom other peoples come, offering their allegiance and pleading with him to accept being their ruler, only for him to refuse?

The Shock of the Fall of the Caliphate

Finally, Mustafa Kemal cut off all their dreams. Just five months after assuming the presidency on March 24, 1924, he announced that the new Turkey would be a European-style republic, meaning a republic like the enemies that the Ottoman Empire had fought. He issued a decree abolishing the caliphate. They found themselves at the mercy of the treacherous occupier. The tragedy was that they had no armies, no state, no institutions, no military or economic system, and nothing to fight with except rifles. The occupation did not leave these countries until it had established secular systems similar to or worse than Mustafa Kemal's system.

The oppressed Muslim peoples, who were still reeling from a devastating war and occupation, were completely ready to receive the shock. I previously discussed the term "shock therapy" in an episode of the program "The Guiltless Atheism," and under the same title, I see what happened to the Muslims at that stage as the shock of the fall of the caliphate. Under the influence of the shock, there were those who raced against time to put Islamic rule, Islamic law, and Islamic morals in museums. Before the oppressed peoples could wake up from that shock, Mustafa Kemal was implementing the plan in the fallen capital of the caliphate, and the direct European occupation was implementing the rest of the plan in the rest of the Muslim countries.

For those who still justify Mustafa Kemal's leaning towards the West, they should reread the Treaties of Sèvres and Lausanne. The Ottoman State did not sign agreements forcing it to become a Western state that fights Islam. The surrender treaties were not as humiliating as those imposed on Japan after its defeat in World War II, turning it into a Western state. It is also true that the allies of the victors wanted to humiliate the Ottomans and Germans after their defeat in World War I and plunder their wealth. However, note how this humiliating defeat in Germany led to a popular feeling of oppression that Hitler exploited after only two decades to rise to power and turn this people into a raging beast that resembled no one in history except the Mongols, and even went out to occupy all the great empires of the world in World War II.

As for Mustafa Kemal and his group, their role was the opposite. It was the application of external humiliation internally to combat the culture and religion of this people. Hitler was looking for any myth in history or fake science to prove to his people that they were the chosen people, descended from the most advanced Aryan race in humanity. As for Mustafa Kemal, although he was indeed nationalist, his role was to destroy the only factor that the Turkish people were proud of, which enabled them to overthrow the great Byzantine Empire and conquer half of Europe, which is Islam. He himself was content with slogans of heroism, considering that he achieved feats in war and forced the people to sing about them. As for the people themselves, they must submit and renounce their religion and completely cut off their connection with their history. If he had done like Japan, it would have been less evil.

For example, Japan faced military defeat, and its pain did not turn into hatred like the Germans. It turned its energies, which were allocated to military industries, into technology, and its ambition shifted from political influence and occupying neighboring countries to economic ambition. When the victorious Europeans were busy keeping up with military developments, Japan, on the other hand, was surpassing them technologically in everything. As for Mustafa Kemal, he did not restore the dignity of the defeated people like Hitler, nor did he incite them to prove themselves in the fields of knowledge and technology like Japan. He only turned into a tool in the hands of the victors to destroy Islam in his country. If the capital of the caliphate had been directly occupied like Damascus, Cairo, and others, the occupation would not have avenged Islam in the same way that a person named Mustafa Kemal did.

Arbitrary Decisions of Ataturk

Unfortunately, Mustafa Kemal was racing against time to sever the connection between the Turkish people and their Islamic heritage, which the Ottomans had built over six centuries. Here are some examples of the oppressive decisions that were issued one after another:

In 1928, a decree was issued to change the alphabet from Arabic to Latin, so that the new generation would be unable to read any old Ottoman text, and consequently, any Arabic text, especially the Quran. Due to the secularists' intense hostility towards Islam and the entire Ottoman heritage, they launched a project to sell the Ottoman document archives to anyone who wanted them as paper to be recycled, with the price per kilogram being only three piasters. The neighboring country of Bulgaria decided to buy fifty tons of this paper without knowing what was in it. Later, it was discovered that it had purchased a million and a half documents containing all of modern Ottoman history, so it kept them because they were an invaluable treasure. Imagine, for example, that the Vatican recently bought some of these documents from Bulgaria because they relate to the deportation of Armenian Christians for millions. Imagine the foolishness of the secularists when hatred fills them, to what extent they go!

Among the spiteful decisions was the prohibition of the adhan in Arabic, the closure of imam and preacher schools, the closure of thousands of mosques, Sufi lodges, and religious waqf institutions, the ban on hijab for women in government institutions, and the forced wearing of European-style hats for men. The educational curricula were changed to become purely Western, the weekly holiday became Saturday and Sunday, the same as that of Jews and Christians, the Gregorian calendar was adopted instead of the Hijri calendar, and the Italian penal code and Swiss civil code were adopted. Even Islamic names became forbidden; the Turkish Muslim who wanted to name his son Muhammad was forced to distort the name to become "Mehmet." Imagine! And dozens of other decisions that culminated in the inclusion of the principle of secularism in the constitution in 1937. All these arbitrary measures happened in less than 15 years. Imagine the shock of the Turkish people who saw this enormous upheaval before their eyes in a short period of time.

Ataturk: A Model of Blatant Extravagance

By the way, Mustafa Kemal was a model of blatant extravagance after the end of the hypocrisy phase. He personally applied secularism, detachment from religion, and fought it. His veiled wife was the first woman to remove her veil in the state, and soon the wives of officials followed her, and the unveiling spread throughout the state. The most famous of them was Sabiha Gokcen, who was the first female pilot in Turkey, and they named the Asian Istanbul Airport after her.

Now, if we look at the reality of the world at that stage from a higher angle, we find that most peoples after the First World War were ready to receive a wave of what is called "state terrorism." Communism began to be applied practically in Russia, China, and others. Extreme fascism devoured Italy, and the educated, civilized people began to applaud a madman named Mussolini. Nazism also rose in Germany after a short period, and Hitler learned from Mussolini how to exploit democracy to transform in a record time into a totalitarian terrorist state. Franco in Spain applied the same principles and was a friend to both of them. In fact, more than half of Europe was suffering under terrible dictatorial systems, and most of the world's countries became a stage for the worst repression operations. But it was systematic repression in which the latest sciences were used to turn humans into slaves and even to force them to atheism and worship new forms of gods in the name of progress and the rejection of backwardness.

Extremism of Secularism in Turkey

Even in the Western liberal camp, which did not know communism or totalitarianism and whose slogan was democracy, secularism, and liberalism, other interpretations of applying secularism appeared, and it became possible under the name of liberalism itself to force people to secularize their personal lives. Thus, secularism became sacred like religion. This secular extremism was unfortunately included in the constitution in only two countries: France and Turkey. But France was not a central country in Christian Catholicism, but it was originally the cradle of heresy and satanic secret societies for centuries, so revolutions started from it to other Western countries. As for Turkey, it was the capital of Islam and secularism was imposed on it.

Imagine, for example, that the Vatican would turn into a radical secular state! This does not happen with internal social movement. The army of conquests that was fighting in the east and west to spread Islam and protect the frontiers turned into a guard for Freemasonry, Donmeh Jews, and secularists. Their enemies were no longer the Byzantines, the Safavids, the Serbs, the Russians, the Hungarians, the Bulgarians, and the Greeks as in the past. Unfortunately, their enemies suddenly became a huge segment of the Muslim people who did not want secularism. With this terrorism, Mustafa Kemal wanted to catch up with the West, as he says. Imagine, then, the magnitude of the catastrophe that our grandparents endured just a few decades ago.

Ataturk: Father of the Turks and the End

In 1934, Mustafa Kemal named himself "Ataturk," meaning "Father of the Turks," and the law stipulated that this title should not be given to anyone else, meaning see how deification is legislated. After about two years, secularism became a sacred principle in the Turkish constitution, which was not stipulated in most European constitutions. In 1930, Ataturk's liver became cirrhotic, and the doctors were unable to treat him. There are multiple narratives about his bad end on his deathbed in the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, which was one of the Ottoman palaces.

Those who followed him continued the path of oppression and war on Islam. I also visited his mausoleum "Anitkabir" in Ankara, which is one of the largest mausoleums in the world to consolidate the image of the individual god. If I did not know that he was a Freemason, I would have been satisfied with what I saw from the architectural style, which carries every stone in it the imprint of the Freemasons who called themselves "Free Masons." For those who want more, I refer them to the article "Freemasonry" in the Sebil Encyclopedia, in which there is documentation of the regular visit of members of the Masonic lodge to the mausoleum of their teacher Ataturk. You can find the link in the description of this video.

This is a picture of the grave of Ismet Inonu, the successor of Ataturk, who is also buried in the same place in the same mausoleum. He was not less extreme and hatred of Islam than his teacher Ataturk. He assumed the presidency of the army and the government several times and the presidency of the republic before he died in 1973.

Attempts to Restore the Application of Islam

Of course, many Turkish Muslims did not accept the coup against their religion and history. When Mustafa Kemal issued the decision to abolish the caliphate in 1924, Sheikh Said Piran declared an armed revolution, but he had no weapons or power, just an emotional popular revolution. Therefore, when he asked Sheikh Bediuzzaman Nursi to join him, Nursi refused and said to him: "This revolution will drive a brother to kill his brother," meaning a civil war. Although Nursi refused the revolution, the secularists arrested him and exiled him with many others to Bordeaux, and he spent about 25 years wandering between prisons and trials. At the same time, he was composing the famous Risale-i Nur and peacefully fighting against secularism.

Said Nursi and Badiuzzaman Nursi

In the last ten years of his life, Nursi, may Allah have mercy on him, realized that political reform was impossible. It was clear that what the Ummah was going through was unprecedented in the history of Islam since the mission of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Even after the assassination of the last Abbasid caliph by the Mongols, after the fall of Jerusalem to the Crusaders, and even after the fall of Andalusia to the Castilians, none of these trials reached the stage of the collapse of the caliphate itself. The caliphate would disappear in one place and emerge in another, but this time was the first time there was no back for the Muslims on the face of the earth. All their lands were occupied and torn apart, and their capital, Istanbul, which Muhammad the Conqueror named "Islambol" meaning the land of Islam, unfortunately became a stronghold of Freemasonry and secularism.

Here, Nursi turned to popular reform and attempted to bring faith back to the hearts, or at least to confront the secular tide in society in the hope that a new generation would emerge carrying the banner and restoring the glory of the defeated Ummah.

Hassan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood

This was in Turkey, but in the Arab countries, the struggle was against the British and French occupiers, as we said. And although some countries began to regain their freedom in what was called the "withdrawal of the colonizer," the occupier would not leave any country unless he ensured that the military, political, and commercial elite had become Westernized, culturally defeated, and obsessed with imitating the West.

Al-Banna devised a practical plan to prepare the peoples to regain their strength and dignity and to lay the foundations for the caliphate from scratch. He traveled throughout Egypt to establish youth associations to be the nucleus of the project, and then the idea spread abroad and other groups emerged carrying the same message in the rest of the Islamic countries. The rest of the story is known, of course; al-Banna was assassinated and he was only 43 years old, and the secular governments pursued the group everywhere. Of course, there is a long debate about the group's responsibility for violence and assassinations during that stage, and we will not delve into this matter now because each side has its narrative. However, it turned out in the end that the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood were lofty, and perhaps their means were full of romanticism, but the tools were very weak, especially in comparison to the tools of the opponents, whether the governments that the occupation raised on its hands or the West, which had become dominant over the whole world. This applies particularly to all the groups that carried arms, whether from within the Brotherhood or those who split from it or were influenced by its message.

It seems that the Arabs were still not free from the shock and had remnants of vigor and determination. You do not need to know what the Muslim Brotherhood has become now, regardless of its cumulative catastrophic mistakes. Now, the group has become completely out of time, not just out of the political scene after the Sisi coup and its declaration as a terrorist movement in several Arab countries.

Adnan Menderes and the Military Coup

Returning to Turkey. After 21 years of secular terrorism and one-party rule (the Republican People's Party founded by Atatürk), Adnan Menderes and some of his friends split from the party and founded the Democratic Party, thus defying the measures to prevent parties. He participated in the 1950 elections and won by a landslide, which was the biggest evidence that the majority of the Turkish people were against blatant secularism. Menderes became the prime minister and carried out economic reforms, winning more hearts, and then won by a landslide again in the 1954 elections. During his reign, Turkey joined NATO and established strong relations with the United States so that America would not support the secular army against him.

In 1960, he attempted to create a religious current to mix religion with politics, restore the caliphate system, and apply Islamic law, and all of this was considered crimes to them. Here, the army moved immediately, arrested Menderes and his minister friends, and executed them in a formal trial on an isolated island while the people knew nothing of what had happened. Thus, secular terrorism returned to suppress the people for ten years.

Necmettin Erbakan and Resistance to Secularism

In 1970, the young engineer Necmettin Erbakan began to stir the stagnant waters, so he founded the National Order Party with a relatively conservative identity and challenged the secularists, but they eliminated his party after only nine months. So, he returned and founded another party after two years called the National Salvation Party, and was able to participate in the elections and enter parliament. In 1974, he became part of the coalition government with the People's Party and Atatürk's group themselves. He tried to move within the margin available to him as deputy prime minister, presenting a draft decision to ban Freemasonry in Turkey, opening relations with Muslim countries, supporting the Palestinian cause, and showing hostility to Israel. He tried with every step to see how far he could go, but it seems he did not realize that Israel was a red line. In 1980, he dared to call on the people to demonstrate against Israel. Here, the army told him, "Keep your place," and the army commander Kenan Evren carried out a new military coup, suspended the constitution, dissolved the parties, arrested Erbakan and his group, and the eighties witnessed a new wave of repression and secular terrorism.

This archival video you can find the link to it completely below this episode, and you will see in it how the Turkish citizen who wears the hijab was oppressed in her country because she covers her head.

Merve Kavakci and the War on the Hijab

In 1984, the state intervened with all its might to issue a decision banning pieces of cloth from the heads of university students, and the goal was not only to tighten the screws on the hijabis but also to prevent them from education, just as Atatürk had previously prevented them from working, so that science would be the monopoly of the secularists only. This was an open war on the majority of the people. Merve Kavakci, whose father was one of the university professors, and whose story I will return to later, was forced to leave her Muslim country and continue her medical studies in America without her hijab preventing her from science and understanding there.

Erbakan did not despair and returned after three years to found the Welfare Party, won a majority in the 1996 elections, and became the prime minister this time. He launched like a rocket towards the Islamic countries forming a global alliance with them. He thought that power was in his hands, although he tried to flatter the army and show them that he was secular and even signed agreements with Israel after the army threatened him with a new coup. All of this did not avail him with the secularists, and they began to move the media and the street against him as usual. When he felt that the coup would happen again, he decided to save the country from chaos and resigned. Of course, the army dissolved the Welfare Party, but Erbakan, who never tires, founded a new party and named it Virtue and ran in the elections again.

During this period, Merve Kavakci returned to Turkey and joined the Virtue Party and ran for parliament in 1999 with her hijab and won amidst the astonishment of the world. Her story is long, and you can read it on Wikipedia, and I expect that most of the youth who were born after that stage will not believe that the modern era had such secular foolishness. The parliament was established when the elected deputy from the people entered the hall of the House of Representatives with her head covered with the covering that most of the women of the people wear, meaning if she entered the hall naked, they would not have been struck by this madness. The whole country entered a crisis after this resounding event. In the end, Merve was forced to return to America and continue her studies at Harvard, the strongest university in the world, while the rulers of her homeland stripped her of her nationality and considered her an enemy. The Virtue Party itself was banned in 2001.

The End of Erbakan's Journey

However, Erbakan, known for his stubbornness, returned after three years and founded the Felicity Party, and the secularists welcomed him. When they grew tired this time, they governed him and imprisoned him at the age of 77, and he remained banned from political activity until he died in 2011.

Attempts to Restore the Application of Islam (Continued)

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: The Rise of Justice and Development

In 2001, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Abdullah Gül split from the Felicity Party and founded the Justice and Development Party. They participated in the 2002 elections and won by a landslide. They then won the elections of 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2018.

Erdoğan was the mayor of Istanbul, Abdullah Gül was the president of the republic, and Ahmet Davutoğlu was the prime minister, then Erdoğan became the prime minister and later the president of the republic.

All of them were students of Erbakan, but they learned from their teachers' mistakes and were more cautious and intelligent in dealing with the military and the secularists. They did not raise explicit Islamic slogans and focused on economic reform and development, achieving great success in this field.

They opened the door to the hijab in universities and government institutions, reintroduced the teaching of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet in schools, and opened thousands of mosques and Sufi lodges that were closed. They restored the call to prayer in Arabic and restored the consideration of Ottoman and Islamic history.

However, they faced fierce resistance from the secularists and the military and were subjected to several coup attempts, the most famous of which was the failed 2016 coup attempt. But they stood firm thanks to the people's support for them.

Contemporary Challenges

Today, Turkey is a strong economic and military power with significant influence in the region and the Islamic world. However, it still faces significant challenges, including:

• Extreme Secularism: There is still a strong secular current in Turkey that rejects any role for religion in public life and tries to obstruct any Islamic reforms.
• The Military: The Turkish military still considers itself the guardian of secularism and may intervene in politics if it sees a threat to secularism.
• The Kurdish Issue: The Kurdish issue remains a significant challenge for Turkey, affecting its internal stability and foreign relations.
• Foreign Relations: Turkey faces challenges in its relations with the West, Russia, Iran, and Arab countries, and tries to play a balanced role in the region.

Comparison with Arab Countries

What happened in Turkey is similar to what is happening now in some Arab countries, where some secular regimes try to suppress any Islamic current and impose secularism by force on the people.

However, there is a significant difference between Turkey and Arab countries. Turkey has a long history of Islamic resistance, and its people have a strong Islamic awareness. As for the Arab countries, most of them are newly established, and their people have not undergone the same historical experience as the Turkish people.

Moreover, Arab countries suffer from economic and political weakness and significant foreign interventions, making them more susceptible to repression and tyranny.

However, in the end, the will of the people prevails. The Turkish people have proven that they are capable of resisting extreme secularism and restoring their Islamic identity. This gives hope to the Arab peoples that they are also capable of achieving that.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Turkey's story is a long struggle between Islam and secularism, between identity and Westernization. It is a story full of lessons and morals for Muslim peoples everywhere.

We must learn from the mistakes of the past and be cautious of internal and external conspiracies that target our religion and identity. We must hold fast to our religion and values and work hard to build a better future for our nation.

And Allah is dominant over His affair, but most people do not know.