TURKEY: Rise of Secular Priest Seen as Threat By Islamicists

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Nadire Mater

ISTANBUL, Feb 22 1995 (IPS) - A moderate Islamicist spiritual leader is increasing his support among a Turkish electorate concerned about the challenge of the reactionary Welfare Party who are keen to see a return to ‘Shariat’ Islamic law.

The arrival of the secular Islamicist Fettullah Gulen Hodja to public prominence has shocked fundamentalists who expected to gain even further impetus in upcoming general elections after successful local election results last year.

Hodja, is a retired state preacher, who has spent 25 years gaining control of over a one million followers in the Islamicist ‘Nur’ order.

By holding spiritual command over one out of 30 eligible Turkish voters, Fettullah Gulen appears in politics just at a time when Turkish government seeks to counterbalance anti-western Islamicist fundamentalism.

In addition, the ‘Nur’ sect holds a relatively moderate pro- western interpretation of Islam, political analysts here say. Assisting his political ambition Hodja is supported by a media network which consists of the daily newspaper ‘Zaman’, the television channel ‘Samanyolu’ and the popular radio station ‘Burc FM’.

In addition, the sect runs over 100 schools plus some university courses and student hostels for followers.

On subjects such as emancipation for women Hodja has progressive views. “The veiling of women is not necessary. No one cannot suppress the progress of women through the clothes they have to wear.”

In addition, he believes there should be freedom of worship or philosophy in Turkey. “No one should condemn the other for being a member of a religion or scold him for being an atheist.”

He has now become a favourite of the Turkish media with his moderate interpretation of Koranic rules. At the same time the Turkish prime minister Tansu Ciller is backing Hodja whom she hopes will help to counterbalance Necmettin Erbakan’s Welfare Party votes in the forthcoming general elections.

In the past the influential ‘Nur’ order has given its support to right-wing parties and particularly to present president Suleyman Demirel’s True Path Party (DYP) as well as its forerunner the Justice Party (AP).

According to the order’s claims Fettullah Hodja is a direct descendent of the prophet Mohammed. He is a cleric who was taught the Koran at home by his father.

He started his religious career as a state salaried preacher in 1953 when he was 18. He was arrested for clandestine religious activities during the military rule of 1971 and spent seven months in prison.

Having survived police prosecution during late seventies, Hodja survived as result of the then ruling military Junta’s relative tolerance for Islamicism. Hodja gained official protection during late Turgut Ozal’s rule in government during eighties.

However, the present prime minister Tansu Ciller is the first Turkish politician to recognise and encourage Hodja as a person of influence and importance.

In fact, the Turkish prime minister hosted a dinner for Hodja in her official residence recently and in return Hodja invited the then prime minster Ozer Ciller to his home.

“I cannot say that Fettullah Hodja is not collaborating with the government,” claims Iskender Savasir an expert on Islamicist studies from Istanbul. “Further, his attitude is also in line with the United State’s search for moderate Islamicism opposed to fundamentalism,” he adds.

“The Welfare Party’s radical practices in local government frightens not only secularists but also a considerable section of the Islamicists,” Savasir observes.

Having walked home victorious in 1994 March local elections the Welfare Party affiliates are charged with manipulating unlicensed violent mass demonstrations of support for Bosnia and Chechnya.

They are also charged with instigating the bloody Sivas events which ended with the death of 37 people. The Welfare Party presently controls 26 cities, including the capital Ankara and Istanbul — and the most southerly city Diyarbakir.

Secularists were enraged last week when the capital’s Ankara’s Islamicist mayor Melih Gokcek attempted to close down shops on Friday (the Muslim holy day) in a shopping center controlled by the municipality.

Weary of Fettullah Gulen’s increasing popularity among Turkish political leaders and in the media Welfare Party leader Necmettin Erbakan has made the claim that Ciller is backing the moderates in a serious political campaign.

Erbakan is seemingly justified in this statement following Hodja invitation to prominent politicians, senior officials, businessmen, academicians, army officers and media stars and journalists to attend his important religious ‘Iftar’ dinner in Istanbul last week.

Yet, Erbakan himself, although invited by Fettullah Hodja, was absent and he appeared in another ‘Iftar’ together with Istanbul’s Islamicist mayor Tayyip Erdogan.