Banned Books Has No Relation to Gülen
It has been confirmed that a case that has been ongoing in Russia since August 2006 involving the works of religious writer Said Nursi has nothing to do with Fethullah Gülen. Prosecutors claim that Nursi's books discriminate between religious and non-religious people.
The case involving Said Nursi's works is being tried at Moscow's Koptevski Regional Court. Speaking to the press, lawyer Sergey Sicov, who represents the Culture Foundation which has published some of Nursi's works in Russian, said some media organs had, either intentionally or unintentionally, confused the subject matter at hand. Sicov, underlining that Gülen had nothing to do with the trial, said: "The subjective news published in the Rosiskaya newspaper didn't even mention Gülen. We have made note during the trial of the news coming out aimed at affecting the outcome of the trial. In addition the Russian Rosbalt News Agency published an article listing all the misinformation and lies about this case on a Web site. This case is about four works of Said Nursi. Aside from this, there is neither a particular person nor a particular institution being tried."
Russian Mufti Council involved in trial
Speaking exclusively to the Cihan News Agency, Sicov also said the Moscow-based case against Said Nursi's works was the continuation of a case that had been originally been filed in Tataristan, but dropped from the dockets when no one was found guilty. Sicov, noting that it was due to a move by the Tataristan prosecutor that the case had been re-opened in Moscow, said, "The case that opened in Moscow is constantly being postponed due to the use of the files left from the Tataristan case, the fact that expressions of fear are being used in the place of concrete evidence and errors in the way the trial is being conducted."
Sicov noted that the subject of the prosecution's court application to open the case was a report from a panel of experts made up of four linguists and psychiatrists. The prosecution's case cites "discrimination between believers and non-believers" and "systematic portrayal of believers as superior to non-believers."
The report depicts this situation as possibly not a direct call for action but notes that there is no guarantee that at least one part of society won't operate according to these beliefs in the future. Sicov, noting that the information from the Tataristan trial against Said Nursi's works alleging that the books encouraged discrimination between ethnicities and religions was not included in the new report, said, "The Russian Mufti Council, which wrote the opening remarks in the works' Russian translations, and the Culture Foundation, which published the works, are both participating in the trial as figures involved."
Answering questions from Cihan about the Said Nursi case, Russia's greatest authority on religion, Co-President of the Mufti Council Nefiullah Asirof, said the sensitivity in Russia to Russian books that have to do with religion is most often misdirected. Talking about the court examination of Said Nursi's books, Asirof said: "There is not a single word that backs radicalism in these works which talk about the religion of Islam. The fact that it is said that non-believers will go to hell is given as proof of discrimination. But it is not [just] Nursi who is saying this. This is something which can be found in the Koran, the Bible and the Torah. All religions say this."
He then noted that the best "gift" possible for terrorists would be if a ruling to ban the Nursi books came out due to one side's incorrect information and political stances on the matter. He said: "The radical factions are always blaming the state and religious figures in Russia. The religious figures respond by noting that mosques are open, that prayer is free and that the state shows tolerance and good will. But if these books are banned, won't these radical factions just say 'We told you so'? The youth will be encouraged to radicalize. In Russia we call this cutting off the branch you are sitting on."
Said Nursi is perhaps the best-known Islamic thinker of the early 20th century. (Faruk Akan, Moscow)
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