Fethullah Gülen Describes Malatya Event as Terrorism
Prominent Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen has described the gruesome murder of Christian missionaries in Malatya last week as terrorism.
"The state must take every possible measure to protect minorities in our country for the sake of protecting the prestige of our nation and our religion," Gülen said, adding that a real Muslim believer would not be able to commit murder.
Gülen assessed the issue on the www.herkul.org Web site. He explained that Islam condemns the act of murder. Noting that some groups opposed to the work of dialogue have endeavored to attach baseless allegations to innocent people, Gülen said that some people are against dialogue because of jealousy or concerns of disloyalty and have accused sincere believers of opening churches, distributing bibles and supporting missionaries.
The number of Muslims who convert to Christianity is not as high as is claimed by nationalists, Gülen said, adding that while people of different beliefs have coexisted since the Ottoman Empire, some people have only recently decided to reveal their religions by registering them in their records. Gülen, who believes true believers in Islam would never convert to Christianity, said 14 centuries of Islamic history have never witnessed such horrible acts of murder like those witnessed this year. Referring to the debates over the deep state in Turkey, Gülen said: "A deep state exists. They apply every means, whether legal or illegal, to reach their specific targets. Some swear on guns to kill people. Some naive youths are persuaded. The state must take precautionary measures. Turkey must be the world's trusted nation. Secularism and democracy should not be limited to words in the law. Everyone must be at ease and live in a democratic environment."
"Those who commit murder for the sake of their religion should be ashamed. They should be ashamed for embarrassing their Prophet by these acts. These events can create problems with international laws. There are Muslims living in Britain and Germany. There are individual criminal actions there against Muslims. You condemn them, but if you commit such acts yourselves, then you become like them," Gülen said and added: "Have those who are disturbed by the distribution of bibles ever tried to explain the teachings of the Koran?"
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