The Prime Minister says that his words have been deliberately misinterpreted. (From our private correspondent.)
Ankara: Prime Minister Adnan Menderes replied as follows to a question asked by the newspaper Zafer concerning press reports of his speech in Konya.
"I too have regretfully seen how the part about secularism (laiklik) in the speech I delivered to my esteemed fellow citizens in Konya, who had gathered in a large crowd in Government Square, has been misrepresented by certain ill-willed journalists. They wrote that some of things I said would pit brother against brother, that they challenged right-wing politicians, and had raised the ban on certain sacred matters, therefore infringing one of the main principles of the reforms.
"What struck my attention in all these articles, was that my speech in Konya had been distorted and misrepresented in line with the aims they were following and the results they wished to obtain. So that this question should be properly understood, I want to firstly to take a look at what I said in Konya, and then to repeat what the Anadolu Press Agency released that day. That day I said this:
"I now want to speak to you about my understanding of secularism. On the one hand, secularism means the separation of religion and politics, and on the other, it means freedom of conscience. We have not the slightest doubt or hesitation that religion and politics should be separate. As for the question of freedom of conscience: the Turkish nation is Muslim and will remain Muslim. It is an undeniable fact that if it is to remain Muslim in perpetuity, religion must be taught to it and to the coming generations, and the rules, injunctions, and principles of religion be taught to them. How- ever, when there is no religious instruction in schools, the citizens who want their children to be taught their religion are bereft of this opportunity. Muslim children should not be deprived of the entirely natural right of learning their religion. It cannot be said that such deprivation and lack of opportunity is congruent with freedom of conscience. To have religious instruction in our middle schools is an apt and appropriate measure.
"We do not believe that an irreligious society and nation will be stable and enduring. We know how even the most advanced nations persist in their attachment to religion after they have separated religion from the questions of politics and this world. It is not permissible that our noble nation be deemed bigoted when it has reached the level it has today. Just as
our nation is firmly attached to its religion, so generally its religious feelings are of the purest kind. Religious feeling has reached the purest level in the nation's conscience. Efforts will be made to train instructors to teach Islam and its beliefs, obligations, and rules correctly. It is will be appropriate that the Konya School for Imams and Preachers (Imam-Hatip Mektebi), which next year will produce its first graduates at high-school level, will be made into an institution for teaching religion at an advanced level and the numbers of similar institutions will be increased.
"Having repeated this part of my Konya speech for the esteemed Turkish public opinion, I want to emphasize and make clear the following: what I said was so clear as to disallow any possibility of misinterpretation. It is imperative that reports of it or comments on it remain faithful to it. Nobody has the right to distort and misrepresent what I say, nor do they have the right to impute to me intentions and aims that have never even crossed my mind."
I was going to write some congratulations in the name of all the Nur students and innocent school children on the Prime Minister's Konya speech, but then it occurred to my heart that behind our defence speeches mentioning the Risale-i Nur's freedom and the leading lawyer's reply to the experts' committee, the Prime Minister's speech was a reason for its freedom, for it made all the Anadolu Muslims and all the Nur students a moral strength for him and well-wishers. Just as the reinstatement of the Arabic call to prayer afforded the Prime Minister a moral strength, so also he won a moral strength with this speech and the Risale-i Nur's being left free. So rather than sending him congratulations, we made this a footnote to our defence lawyer's justified defence.*
The Prime Minister's speech in Konya consists of true facts rebuffing those pretexts, just as the lawyer Mihrî's defence speeches refuted the pretexts put forward for A Guide for Youth's seizure.
* The lawyer's defence speech has been included in the short biography of Said Nursi written by Eşref Edip. [Author]
In His Name, be He glorified!
Our Master Said Nursi says:
Isparta is my true home. Since this is so, I want the best for it and for its people, and an important instance of good is this:
By returning the whole Risale-i Nur Collection, Afyon performed a good act of paramount importance for the world of Islam and indeed for humanity and reduced to nothing and had forgiven its errors of the last eight years. So too, by displaying in the view of Islamic world the blessedness
of Egypt's al-Azhar University and the old Damascus, Isparta will not lag behind Afyon regarding the high honour it won by returning the Risale-i Nur to its owners. Indeed, it will surpass it twentyfold. Isparta's just judiciary, patriotic democrats, and religious people should make efforts for the return of the Risale-i Nur, which is the product of blessed Isparta, so that they may win this great instance of good for their region and gain for themselves honour a hundred times greater than that won by Afyon. Just as the Isparta deputy, Tahsin Tola, was more useful than a hundred men in securing the return of the Risale-i Nur by Ankara and Afyon, and won for the people of Isparta half of this most signficant advantage.
In order to preserve the dignity of learning, since his early youth our Master never demeaned himself even before the loftiest leaders, nor did he ever accept the people's gifts. And now, even though he is weak and powerless, he cannot accept the gifts which religious scholars may receive, for they make him ill. Without giving something in return he is able to eat nothing we give him, his assistants, even. If he does not give something in return, it makes him ill. We are of the opinion that this condition has taken the form of an illness in order to preserve the maximum sincerity of the Risale-i Nur, which can be the tool of nothing, for by it he is prevented from breaking his rule. Indeed, he felt intensely discomforted by the customary shaking of hands and meeting with scholars in connection with the splendid festival celebrating the Risale-i Nur's spreading everywhere, and even by conversing with his closest students and brothers at the religious festival, and by people looking at him, all of which betokened an illness visited on him to preserve that maximum sincerity. During the festival, we witnessed him telling his students: "My grave has to be unknown; no one must know its whereabouts except one or two of my students. This is my last will and testament. For surely a truth that prevents me from meeting with people in this world obliges me to enjoin the same after my death."
So we asked our Master: "Visitors to your grave will recite the Fatiha and gain merit. Why are you preventing them from this?"
He said in reply: "In ancient times, desiring worldly fame and renown, the pharaohs attracted the attention of the people towards themselves with statues, pictures, and mummies. So too at this dreadful time, due to the heedlessness arising from egotism and self-love, the worldly attract all the
attention towards themselves through statues, pictures, and the press. They deflect attention from the other-indicative way of looking at things towards the self-referential, and because they imagine a worldly future rather than the future of the hereafter, they accord excessive importance to the dead person's worldly fame and renown in opposition to the former practice of visiting graves solely for God's pleasure. They visit graves in that way. So I enjoin as my last will and testament that in accordance with the true meaning of sincerity, my grave should not be made known, so as not to damage the maximum sincerity of the Risale-i Nur. Whether in the east or the west, the Fatihas recited by everyone will go to the spirit intended. A truth that prevents me from conversing with people in this world will surely enjoin this, not in respect of merit, but of this world.