Fascism on the minaret

You must have read in Today's Zaman's headline story yesterday about this. Although the perpetrators were still to be identified, the political messages shown in the mahyas stretched between minarets of several historic mosques are actually proof of what means these proactive, pro-status quo groups may consider justified for their purposes. Due to negligence by the Department of Religious Affairs, which is in charge of mosques, heedlessness by the İstanbul Mufti's Office, indifference by the İstanbul Governor's Office and the fastidious of the General Directorate of Foundations, our historic mosques, whose doors are wide open to all Muslims, regardless of ethnicity, were subjected to such a fascist scandal. The messages, "How happy is he who calls himself a Turk," "We owe our gratitude to the army" and "The country comes first," shown between the minarets of the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Sultanahmet Mosque (Blue Mosque) and the Eyüp Mosque, respectively, have drawn heightened reactions, as expected, from devout Muslims and democrats who are more sensitive and more determined with respect to ethnic fascism.

We cannot help but agree with Diyanet-Sen President Ahmet Yıldız, who told the Cihan news agency that Islam is not a religion that belongs exclusively to a certain nation, ethnic group or state, saying: "Islam is a universal religion. Its message is addressed to all of humankind. And places of worship that are symbols of Islam belong to all Muslims. Therefore, a Muslim place of worship should not be decorated with things that praise any specific nation or ethnic group or an institution. Instead, universal messages that are addressed to the entire humanity should be used. Messages relating to institutions may be hung on the relevant institutions. There are many other places to hang these messages, but mosques are not one of them. We regard the hanging of such placards on mosques as a disgrace and improper conduct."

As is known, the tradition of decorating mosques with lights during the sacred days and nights of Islam goes back to the early years of Islam. The Ottoman Empire improved this fine and aesthetic tradition particularly starting from the 16th century. Historic mosques in İstanbul, Bursa and Edirne in particular were considered suitable to carry mahyas. These mahyas were created by writing phrases or sentences with light bulbs hung on wires stretched between minarets. These messages included the first verse of Surah al-Fath, "Maşallah" (May God protect you from the evil eye), "Bismillah" (In the name of God), "Leyle-i Kadir” (Night of Power), "Hoşgeldin ya şehri Ramazan" (Welcome, o month of Ramadan) and "On bir ayın sultanı” (King of eleven months) at the beginning of Ramadan and "El-Firak" (Separation) and "Elveda" (Farewell) toward the end of Ramadan. The most grandiose mahyas were affixed to the Süleymaniye Mosque, which now bears the message, "How happy is he who calls himself a Turk."

However, later, the Ottomans tended to use social messages as well, including “Hilali Ahmer'i unutma” (Do not forget the Red Crescent) or "Muhacirlere yardım" (Help the immigrants," and during the early years of the republic, the mahyas were increasingly used by the single-party government to disseminate ideological messages. Although it fought against everything connected with religion with its distorted mentality of secularism, the despotic single-party government did not refrain from putting unusual messages in mahyas strung between the minarets of mosques. While excluding religion from social life under the pretext of secularism, it shamelessly transformed religious elements into ideological carriers. During this dark period between 1930 and 1950, mahyas, which are intrinsically religious, were used to convey very many unbelievable messages. The slogans and political messages intended to create a cult of personality, such as "Long Live İnönü," "Atatürk" and "Muslims are Republicans" as well as economic ones, including "Use Domestic Products" and "Save Money."

However, mosques are religious places, which makes them universal. Therefore, their doors are open to everyone and they cannot exclude anyone based on ethnicity. They can never be used to disseminate discriminatory messages. Even if all these points are ignored, we still cannot turn a blind eye to this fascist oddness because of the bad memories of Turkey's recent past. The perpetrators should not go unpunished.

In the end, all these tragic memories are still alive in the collective memory of this society. Moreover, we still clearly remember that some raving commanders who were ignorant about democracy and pluralism and who felt nostalgic about the despotism of the 1930s had gone too far to order the writing of the message, "Loyalty to the army is our honor," on the façades of many barracks visible to the public during the Feb. 28, 1997, postmodern military coup.

 Everyone should seriously think about how those who were so ruthless in writing the most militarist slogans on the barracks in the past have the courage to taint minarets with this fascism at a time of successive democratic initiatives.