The session has started, please send in your questions!
Answer
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Name
Saladin
- United States
Profession
Question
How do you feel about a Turkish court banning the Virtue party?
Answer
This decision of the constitutional court has been viewed as a violation of the Turkish Constitution and the International Convention that Turkey is a signatory to. The decision has been criticized by lawyers and one of the members of the constitutional court have said that the decision was rather a political decision, in other words, it was dictated by the powers that be and the constitutional court played a role finding an excuse to closed down the party. The decision contradicts with the basic human right, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion.
Name
Islam
-
Profession
Question
Alsalamu alaykum,
What do you believe is the future for the Virtue Party in Turkey? What are they planning to do next? Jazaki Allah khair and May Allah SWT help you stay strong in your faith.
Answer
Thank you very much. The members of the party will transfer to a new party with a different name, but with the same ideology. The Virtue Party was established in 1998 after the closure of the Welfare Party. Although they have closed down the party itself, they were not capable of diminishing the ideology. Then it will be the same for Virtue Party. We will continue to the struggle of freedom in Turkey.
Name
Salma
- United States
Profession
CPA
Question
Do you think that corruption and the Turkish establishment are the two major factors that contributed to the ban of The Virtue Party?
Answer
The corruption is the main reason behind the all out war against Islam including the closure of the Virtue Party, any sort of anti democratic development are results of the threat they cause to the corrupt system, which allows the flow of the taxpayer’s money to the pockets of the minority wealthy elite. Among them are a handful media owners, retired generals, former secretaries, members of the parliament, and high bureaucrats. This powerful group of people see Islam, in other words, a reflection of decency that threat to their ongoing system. This minority elite group, members’ names frequently come out in bank embezzlement schemes, phony export schemes, bribing, and other kinds of corruption. They are always known to be that active members of the all out war against Islam. In other words, in order to cover up for the corruption, they choose to insult Islam, the Prophet, peace be upon him, or apply the ban of hijab as a means of promotion.
Name
Yunes
- Belgium
Profession
Engineer
Question
Recently, we heard a Turkish European footbal star playing in England complaining about the difficulties that he encountered in his home country to perform his prayers during a game, while he can easy do that in Britain. What is your assesment on this case?
Answer
That is a typical picture from Turkey. The violations of basic rights, including freedom of religion and expression are carried out in the name of secularism, which is a norm we adopted from the Western world. The problem is the secularism we have adopted is completely different from the ideology of secularism in the West. In the West, secularism is the separation of the church and state. Both do not interfere with each other, but in Turkey secularism is a means of prevention of religious freedom. Religion cannot interfere with the state, but the state has all the right to interfere with religion even in the boundaries of your home. That is why we have a law that bans the teachings of Qur'an to our children under the age of twelve at home or outside the home. This is regulated by the state. That is also why we have a ban of wearing hijab (scarf) in public life.
Name
Ali
- United States
Profession
Student
Question
Based on your experience and what happened to Mr. Arbakan, do you think that Turkey is a democratic country?
Answer
Definitely not. It is a country that is walking very slowly in the path of democracy, trying to be more Western to fit into the developed world, but I think Turkey has the mistake of imitating the West in a shallow way rather than adapting the respect to human rights and values. It is more democratic looking, but a totalitarian country where the government as well as the parliament do not hold any power. They only work under the commands of the military.
Name
Mustapha Ibrahim
- United States
Profession
Question
What is the feeling in the street towards the ban on Virtue, and are the people sympathetic to the Islamic movement there?
Answer
Most of the people, including the intellectuals are against this decision. The very secular anti-Islamist lawyers commented on this “as a legal murder”. Majority of people are sympathetic with the Islamic movement not because they have a good grasp of Islam, but simply because the Virtue members are known to be decent human beings who will not steal for the nation, who will not take from the poor and give to the elite, and who will violate the rights of the orphan. They are like “al Ameen” was in the country. That is also why people of the nation were very happy with the Welfare Party government in 1997, the government of Erbakan. There was an end put to the corruption, people were getting raises in their salaries, but the military and the corrupt elite were the only ones who were not happy and basically the military forced the government. This is known as February 28 postmodern Coup.
Name
Hassan
- United States
Profession
Question
How fascinated are secular forces in Turkey with becoming a part of Europe?
Answer
I am not sure how fascinated they are at the moment because there has been a change of roles between the secularists and Islamist since we became an official candidate to EU in 1999. In the past, the secularists were the ones who wanted to be part of Europe in the name of Contemporarism, yet the Islamists were on the opposite end. But recently, the secularists, especially the military members had a change in view and expressed that the standards of Europe as far as human rights are concerned were excessive for the Turkish people “ Turkish people wouldn’t be able to handle this much freedom”. The Islamists, on the other hand, are pushing towards membership of EU so that the Turkish people can have an opportunity to lead their lives as decent human beings with freedom of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of praying or wearing hijab. As we became a candidate in 1999, EU has asked Turkey to improve in human rights issues and eliminate the violations and discriminations. It was more of an ultimatum that was given to Turkey, which was called “ Copenhagen Criteria”. Yet, nothing has changed in the positive direction ever since. That is why even the secularist thinks that the closure of the party is an unexplainable obstacle on the way to the EU. On the folk level, I believe that Turkish people are ready to have a free country and they all deserve to be treated as free human beings, who can live with tolerance at each other, but unfortunately at the top of the country, there are people who are ruling the country, but they cannot digest the freedom in their system. They hold the power and they love the power and they do not want to let it go to the nation.
Name
Nader
- Egypt
Profession
Question
Turkey is trying very hard to become a member of the EU. Do you think if the impossible happens and there is Islamic Law in Turkey, the EU would not consider Turkey as a candidate?
Answer
I think with this current law system in Turkey the consideration of Turkey by EU is even now debatable. There is an intellectual opinion that says that EU will never be a member of the EU because it is a Muslim country; that the EU is a union of Christianity. It is very natural for Turkey to stay out of this union now or later, but I think the geopolitical status of Turkey is very essential in the battle of power in Europe. That is why Turkey’s demand to be part of Europe cannot be ignored by EU.
Name
Ercan
-
Profession
Question
I want to say that I think that what you did was a great thing, to stand up for Islam like you did. I am curious where are the roots of the Turkish government being ashamed of the fact that they are Muslim and that Turkey is Muslim majority country. Why do they act this way?
Answer
I think that some are blinded by the impression of westernism to the extent that they are ashamed of their history, they are ashamed of their ancestors, and they want to look western, dress and act, drink and gamble as westerners. They think of the west as wearing earrings, having tattoos, having boyfriends and girlfriend and as being anti Islam. Most of them do not know the basics of Islam. They were not taught in the schools. Their parents did not know much about Islam. Actually it is especially the youth that are in a stage of “looking for the truth”.
Name
Kalim
- United States
Profession
Management
Question
Assalamo Alaikum wa Rahmatullah,
What can the American Citizens can help to promote democracy in Turkey?
Answer
Americans are the ones who can do the most for the Turkish people since Turkey and America has a very strong alliance. Any signals that might come from the government of the United States would be considered to be an order by the Turkish government. The American authorities concerning the human rights violations through the State Department very closely watch Turkey. In the last three years religious freedom has become an issue in the Federal Government report and Turkish government is very uncomfortable about that. American citizens can put pressure on the American government through local and federal representatives as well as working with the Muslim communities in the US who have already taken the Turkish case on.
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I ask my brothers and sisters to pray and not forget their brothers and sisters and their difficulties in Turkey.
