Springtime Ahead for Turkey
Turkey is truly passing through a difficult period. The continuation and scope of the Ergenekon case is going beyond the ordinary. However, there is immense pressure - especially from the judiciary - to prevent justice from being served.
Furthermore, there are people who are extremely disturbed with the way events are developing and are issuing threats for what lies ahead. When I began writing this article, I decided I would write about what, God willing, will happen in the future. Then I recalled the message the revered Fethullah Gülen sent to the Parliament of the World's Religions, which was assembled in Cape Town, South Africa, on Dec. 1-8, 1999.
I would like to share a portion of the message Gülen wrote 10 years ago.
“I believe and hope that the world of the new millennium will be a happier, more just and more compassionate place, contrary to the fears of some people. The individual is coming to the fore, making it inevitable that democratic governments that respect personal rights will replace oppressive regimes. As individual rights cannot be sacrificed for society, social rights must depend on individual rights.
“Rights and freedoms, starting with the right to live; the freedom of religion and belief, thought and expression; the right to own property and the sanctity of one's home; to marry and to have children; to communicate and travel; and the right to and freedom of education will be indispensable in the new millennium.
“Other rights such as the protection of life, religion, property, reproduction and intellect as well as the equality of people based on the fact that all people are human beings, and the rejection of all racial, color and linguistic discrimination will be indispensable and essential in the new millennium.
“The several-centuries-long religion-science conflict will come to an end, or its absurdity will at least be acknowledged. The end of this conflict and a new style of education that will fuse religious and scientific knowledge together with morality and spirituality will produce genuinely enlightened people with hearts illumined by religious sciences and spirituality, minds illuminated with positive sciences, characterized by all kinds of human merits and moral values and cognizant of the socio-economic and political conditions of their time. Our old world will experience an excellent springtime before its demise.
“This springtime will see the gap between the rich and poor narrow; the world's riches distributed most justly according to one's work, capital and needs; the absence of discrimination based on race, color, language and worldview; and basic human rights and freedoms protected. Individuals will come to the fore and, learning how to realize their potential, will ascend on the way to becoming the most elevated humans with the wings of love, knowledge and belief.
“In this new springtime, when scientific and technological progress is taken into consideration, people will understand that the current level of science and technology resembles the stage when an infant is learning how to crawl. Humanity will organize trips into space as if traveling to another country. Travelers on the way to God, those self-immolators of love who have no time for hostility, will carry the inspirations in their spirits to other worlds.
“This springtime will rise on the foundations of love, compassion, mercy, dialogue, acceptance of others, mutual respect, justice and rights. It will be a time in which humanity will discover its real essence. Goodness and kindness, righteousness and virtue will form the basic essence of the world. No matter what happens, the world will come to this track sooner or later. No one can prevent this.”
I believe Turkey will have the biggest role to play in this millennium and in preparing the springtime in question. I truly believe our nation and sister nations are capable and ready to take on this mission. My observation is that although there are many dismal scenes on the surface, there are actually very optimistic developments in our country. The virtuous character of our nation increases our hopes even further.
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