While responding to a question on hate speech, the Religious Affairs Directorate said on Monday that Islam does not allow its followers to use such discourse.
A man identified as Mustafa Petek asked the Religious Affairs Directorate on March 24 if Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the Hizmet movement, deserves to be a target of hate speech by state officials. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and several government officials have been targeting Gülen and the movement, calling him a “false prophet,” “fake saint” and “bogus scholar,” and Hizmet a “parallel state,” a “gang,” “cave dwellers,” “tools,” a “virus,” a “tumor,” an “illegal organization” and “raving Hashishin,” which was a medieval order of assassins.
The Religious Affairs Directorate, in response to the man’s query on hate speech, said, “In Islam, no one is allowed to humiliate a person or refer to him using adjectives that don’t represent him.”
UN slams Thailand, Myanmar over deportation of Turk
The United Nations expressed grave concern on Saturday over the deportation by Myanmar and Thailand of a Turkish national over alleged connections to a July 2016 coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Muhammet is at least the sixth person to be deported from Southeast Asia over alleged connections to Gulen’s movement, the UN said.
Government circular bans Gülen followers from collecting sacrificed animal skins
A recent government circular sent to police departments across Turkey told police to seize the skins of sacrificed animals during Eid al-Adha collected on behalf of the “Fethullah Gülen terrorist organization” (FETÖ) — a derogatory term President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his political associates developed in order to disparage the faith-based Gülen movement, which is […]
Targeted by dictator, Turkish family seeks refuge in Albany
Three generations of a Turkish family were stripped of their livelihoods, life savings, friends and culture in a sweeping purge by the authoritarian regime of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They languish as political refugees in a cramped apartment along a busy commercial stretch of Delaware Avenue.
Academics, civil society call for freer, more diverse universities in new law
BURAK KILIÇ / HASAN KARALI, İSTANBUL Participants of a meeting hosted by the Zaman daily have called on the Higher Education Board (YÖK) to grant universities broader freedoms instead of the existing centralized structure under a new YÖK Law. The current YÖK Law is considered outdated and carries traces of former coups as it was […]
Turkish Teachers In Kazakhstan Fear Going Home
Despite promises by Nazarbaev not to return Turkish citizens to Turkey, the country’s bureaucracy is throwing up roadblocks to make it possible to stay in Kazakhstan. Political scientist Aidos Sarim accuses low-level bureaucrats of failing to follow Nazarbaev’s orders.
Erdoğan’s house of cards
In a long statement, the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chair is Gülen, has called on the government to submit whatever evidence it has on conspiracies, such as those involving a “deep state” and “parallel structures” as well as accusations of “treason,” “espionage” and “collaboration with international powers” against the interests of Turkey. In other words, Gülen is standing firm and not blinking in the face of Erdoğan’s preposterous threats.
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