‘Dictatorship based on Shariah'

Mümtazer Türköne

Some pro-government newspapers have been using the above phrase in their headlines lately, in an “it's come to this” sense.

And the topic is always the same: the "parallel state structure" and the Gülen movement. The allegations and accusations are huge and the talk is of a devilish and illegal organization that has managed to infiltrate the very nuclei of the state. And so it is that the allegations point to what would be, if they were true, some very serious crimes. The crimes mentioned in these allegations are ones that the prime minister has done his best to keep fresh in the news since Dec. 17, promising, “We're going to follow up on these things.” At the same time, there doesn't seem to be any concrete evidence, or even any real investigation, emerging. And in fact, the news stories filled with these allegations are based on information which no official source or department is confirming.

One such piece of news was carried in the Star newspaper, regarding an alleged investigation by the Ankara chief public prosecutor investigation into Fethullah Gülen. This piece of news was in fact never confirmed by the prosecutor. And in fact, the content of this news story was very strange; baseless allegations that seem to have emerged from determined efforts to ruffle through files, looking for something, anything. One of the allegations is as follows: "The Gülen movement wants to see the government brought to an end, creating in its place an ‘Islamic state' based on Shariah law.”

Let us pause here for a moment to remind readers that these are precisely the kinds of allegations used by military circles throughout the Feb. 28 process to blame religiously conservative factions. In fact, the AK Party government itself was targeted directly with just such allegations and accusations, though after military tutelage came to an end, these sorts of things were no longer heard. The fact that such allegations are being voiced today by a conservative government -- for the sake of propaganda -- shows that in fact the forms and patterns political competition have not really changed at all.

The other allegations that crimes have been committed are all based on the premise that there is a very real attempt at hand to see an Islamic theocracy created in Turkey. But it is a very curious situation, is it not? A government that had previously been accused by so many of “Islamicism” and trying to bring about a state order based on a religious foundation is now trying to accuse Fethullah Gülen -- the man they have declared their greatest enemy -- of trying to form a theocracy, and of aiming to carry out a coup to this end.

The phrase “Islamic state,” along with some of the other accusations being thrown around, in fact shows that those doing the writing on this topic are not entirely familiar with the subject at hand. After all, many of these expressions -- “the exploitation of the state regime” and “trying to keep alive the religious-political structure” -- can be heard from students who still haven't mastered the whole topic of political Islam. This is the kind of unrestrained, loose jargon one wouldn't find in a legal text or where there are real accusations based on concrete evidence.

But let us not forget an important aspect here. A leader of a religious-social movement who is often portrayed as in fact being one of the biggest barriers to “political Islam” is now being accused of “trying to create a dictatorship based on Shariah foundations.”

The Gülen movement is after all a movement that has embraced the principle of remaining distanced from politics, as did “Nurcu-ism,” the most powerful religious-social movement of the Republic era. In fact, the Gülen movement is based on the idea of being an apolitical organization. Pointing to the fact that political ideals can lead to unending political battles, the Gülen movement limits itself to the social arena. The movement's principles -- which invoke concepts like dialogue, tolerance, compromise and living in unity and peace -- are accepted throughout the world.

They have been the subject of many academic studies. And in fact, with schools in 180 countries all over the world, the Gülen movement is bringing its rich experience and its ideal of learning to live as one -- no matter what our differences -- not only to the Islamic world, but everywhere. In the meantime, radical Islamicists try to label this strong social movement as “moderate Islam”; in Turkey, the government lashes out, accusing it of trying to create a dictatorship based on Shariah.

Is all this not enough on its own to show how the government has tried to turn everything upside down in the wake of Dec. 17, simply to escape an investigation.

Published on Today's Zaman, 31 May 2014, Saturday