ISTANBUL (Islam Online) – Last month an imprisonment case appeared in the top news of the media in Turkey. Known as "Cuppeli (Robe-wearing) Ahmet Hoca," Ahmet Unlu was arrested and the State Security Court (SSC) filed a lawsuit against him. He has been accused of provoking the people against the state and army, and of “creating hatred and discrimination among the people on a religious basis.”
The process was the usual one: as his video and audio tapes were disclosed in the secularist media, which generally serve as the agent of the status quo, the police detained him and collected all his tapes from the market. The material that appeared in the media was accepted as grounds for the suit. The first trial will be held soon.
Turkey is famous for its unique "crime of thought and expression" laws. Those who were punished by the SSCs brought many such cases to the European Court of Human Rights. Most of the time, these cases have cost the Turkish government a serious amount of money. Its reputation on human right issues has become more of a global issue, especially since Turkey is aiming for membership in the European Union.
Several months ago, Mr. Hasan Celal Guzel, a former minister and a founder of Ozal's Motherland Party, was punished by the SSC and imprisoned because he expressed his ideas. After many years of serving his country by his efforts and achievements, he now spends his “retirement days" behind bars. The real irony is that he neither aimed to weaken the Turkish state nor army. He only fought against those who benefit from the status quo based on the totalitarian, militarist mentality. He only advocated a real democratic, secular system and freedom in the western sense, but this was deemed insidious by the establishment.
In Unlu’s recent speeches, the ones that caused the government to take action against him, he mostly discusses the August 17th earthquake that occurred in the Marmara region, a huge catastrophe that took over 20,000 lives. In these excerpts, he explains why the earthquakes occurred from a "divine punishment" point of view:
"Look, where did the earthquake hit?" he asks "Right in the region where there are those who get interest, commit adultery, and other big sins!"
“They say," he continues, "the reason of the earthquake is the faults under the earth. No! Wrong! Whoever says the reason for the earthquake is the fault (beneath the earth); he or she is a Satan! The reason is divine punishment!"
“Our white donkey is much more clever than their scientists and devices because it can detect the quake before it happens!"
"Some people ask: 'OK, God punished those adults who committed sin. But why did God not have mercy the children?' What a sinful question! It is not punishment, but a rescue (for) them from Hell! Because if those children did not die, and actually grew up, they would have been sinners and would have gone to Hell!"
The incident causes one to pause and think about the discourse of some Islamic leaders. Unlu is just one example of a type of religious leader, and his case reflects the pathetic situation of Islamic education. Such so-called sheikhs or mullas are even less qualified than high school graduates in terms of intelligence, command of the language and civic-mindedness.
Unlu, and many like him, never had a proper education. They cannot speak proper Turkish. They claim that they had madrasah (Islamic school) education. According to the secular laws of the state, madrasahs are banned, and only a few people are allowed to follow the classical Ottoman Madrasah curriculum to graduate as Ulama (scholars).
His case points to the need to go beyond the memorization of texts in Islamic education, for the Muslim must be able to understand and interpret contemporary phenomena from all points of view.
