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.”
Fethullah Gulen: Erdogan is not Fit to be President
Legal experts discussed Erdogan’s eligibility to serve as president, because of questions about his college education. Other have questioned the fairness of the elections and there are allegations of electoral fraud. But aside from this, if the Turkish people elect a shepherd as their leader, I respect their choice. But personally I don’t see Erdogan is fit to be president.
How does PM Erdoğan hurt the liberal pious of Turkey?
Turkey has been vigorously debating the nature of its democracy and popular Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling style, which has increasingly authoritarian tendencies, as never before since the Gezi Park protests in May. From my perspective, the Gezi protests, on which everyone was almost forced to take sides, is a grey area since both the government and the protesters made their share of mistakes.
Islamic scholar Gülen offers condolences to Berkin’s family
Dismayed by unconstructive language adopted by government officials over social issues, Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullan Gülen offered his deep condolences to family of Berkin Elvan, the latest victim of Gezi Park protests, in a statement late on Tuesday.
The witch-hunt reaches Turkey’s media
“If this is a witch-hunt, yes, we will carry out this witch-hunt,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a few months ago to confront criticism that his government has gone too far in removing police officers and prosecutors who carried out a corruption investigation against his ministers and son.
Another Police Chief Jailed Over Alleged Gülen Links Dies In Turkish Prison
Fifty-two-year-old Ahmet Tatar, a police chief who was arrested as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement in Osmaniye province, has died in prison, the TR724 website has reported.
PM Erdoğan also slammed me for my questions on Uludere, says journalist
Ahmet Dönmez, a leading correspondent based in Ankara with the Zaman daily who was sharply rebuked by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after asking him a question about recent allegations of corruption during a press conference on Feb. 12 and who was proclaimed both a national hero and a traitor on social media outlets shortly thereafter, says that he was also reproached by Erdoğan once before and that this is indicative of the state of journalism in Turkey.
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