Fear Scenarios and the Truth
I'm talking about a powerful minority that gets lonelier as it distances itself from the people, that gets peevish as it gets lonelier, that goes berserk as it gets peevish and whose attempts to assertively interfere in the democratic preferences of the people are getting more dangerous as it goes berserk. It is a known fact that these segments, which have formed an oligarchic group of privileged people in this process, have controlled the country's political, economic, cultural and social power for decades, and now are doing their utmost to maintain the privileges seized from people. It is indeed pitiful that these groups, which have never been willing to share with people the power and privileges they have held in their hands as a monopoly, get into an extremely irritable mood as they lose their power and privileges one by one as a natural result of the country's progress on the way to democracy.
Maybe we should try to understand through empathizing what this sort of dangerous mood, caused by great frustration, can be like. While doing this, we also shouldn't overlook the risks and dangers that can be caused by this schizophrenic mood. If what we are talking about were to be a complete state of depression triggered by a psychological trauma suffered by one or more persons as a result of the massive failures in question, our job would be made a lot easier. We would leave the problem to psychiatrists and expect them to overcome it through professional methods. However who we are calling "sick" is not limited to a few people; the group in question is a segment of society that has so far tried to correct society with the "white man's burden-type" manners of a missionary, and was a very powerful group yesterday. But today it is a segment ready to do anything to restore its former strength as it is used to shaping society with various moulds and through impositions. I don't know whether an exclusive field by the name of "social psychiatry" exists, but if it did it would probably be very beneficial in the collective treatment of this segment.
I know what I'm writing are heavy words. However nobody can expect me to respect this powerful, rabid minority that deems it a mission to insult and humiliate the cultural and religious values of this country's people, who they belittle at every opportunity. This segment, which cannot tolerate and respect people's will, has again been at work in recent days. They are busy perpetrating what they know the best: taming the public will, from which they distanced themselves deliberately, through all sorts of fears. They are in fact very skillful in generating scenarios based on fear. They will never allow this skill to be blighted by facts and are so determined that they don't care one iota about the danger of their atrocities, which are fanning the flames of hatred and anger among the segments of society.
I will not go back to the subject of "Malaysialization" as I dwelled on it in my previous article; however, their attempt to pump fears today through the "Malaysialization danger" after having done the same thing with the "Iranization danger" for years is the best indicator of the extent they to which have alienated themselves from this society and of the pathetic and preposterous situation they have gotten themselves into.
On the other hand, I cannot pass this subject off without, albeit with only a few words, touching upon Cumhuriyet newspaper, which has long been unable to read the path of the world, falling behind the modern world, and which is the spokesperson of a segment that has taken on a neo-reactionary character. An ideological bulletin rather than a newspaper, for years it has been shamelessly and tirelessly trying to tarnish and blacken the most civilian movement of the country supported by the largest number of people. A columnist of this paper, whose cerebral facilities have obviously stopped functioning, did not hesitate to write this the other day: "It is a reality that Turkey has been undergoing a process of becoming more conservative under the guise of 'moderate Islam,' that the efforts to achieve this were initiated in the middle of the 1980s and that it has accelerated under the support of the United States and the European Union since the beginning of the 1990s. The United States and the European Union started using Fethullah against the radicals in the middle of the 1990s. Providing financial support to Fethullah followers, the United States and the European Union have backed 'moderate Islam' through 'educational institutions'." (Cumhuriyet, Sept. 26)
The person disrespectfully referred to as Fethullah by this obsessive and neo-reactionary columnist is the venerable Mr. Fethullah Gülen. Those he labels as "Fethullah followers," on the other hand, are hundreds of thousands of selfless children of Anatolia who open schools all around the world within the framework of humanitarian ideals to foster peace, tolerance and fraternity around the whole world and who are ready to sacrifice anything for dialogue between religions and cultures.
This columnist thinks of telling the lie that this movement is supported by the United States and the European Union in order to spread a moderate version of Islam, but he doesn't allow the story he made up to be supported by facts. What are those facts? There are more Turkish schools in Christian, Hindu and Buddhist countries than there are in Islamic countries, and they operate in Central Asia, Africa, Europe, Asia, North and South America.
So what? Are we supposed to conclude because of that column that "the United States and the European Union are trying to spread moderate Islam in Christian, Hindu and Buddhist countries as well in Muslim countries by providing support to a civil Turkish movement?"
I'm at a loss for words!
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