Speaking at the AK Party Istanbul Extended Provincial Advisory Council Meeting held at the Haliç Congress Center, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “There can be no Alevism without Allah, Muhammad and Ali. There is no humanity with those built on deviant instigations.” (03.09.2022 Yeni Şafak)

Comment:
Erdoğan, who has not ruled accordak party, istanbul ak parti, ing to the Qur’an and Sunnah since he came to power in 2002, has a mystical understanding of Islam and Muslimhood. Erdoğan, who rules the Turkish people according to the capitalist ideology in economy, administration, education, social and other aspects of life, limits Islam and Muslimhood to worship and morality only. In other words, according to Erdoğan, Islam and Muslimhood are a mystical religion that regulates the relations between the Creator and the servant. It has no influence on man’s relationship with other people. Although he doesn’t admit this with his tongue, his actions and deeds are proof of this.

We ask the following: “If there is no Alevism without Allah, Muhammad, and Ali”, will there be Islam without the Qur’an and the Sunnah? Is it called Islam when economy, administration, politics and foreign policy, i.e. the rules and systems, are taken from the capitalist ideology imported from the West while worship is taken from the Qur’an and Sunnah? Is it called Islam to adopt, carry and apply capitalist secular ideas while some emotions are Islamic?

Islam is not like Judaism and Christianity. These religions do not have regulations regarding every aspect of life. They are limited only to the spiritual aspect. But Islam is not like that. Islam is an ideology like capitalism and communism. It has a regulation regarding every aspect of life, from its worship to its economy, administration, education and foreign policy. In short, it is a political religion. To confine Islam to its spiritual aspect, like Christianity, and to exclude its political aspect, means serving the interests of unbelievers, being enslaved by them and remaining their slaves. Because the purely mystical understanding of Islam is not from Islam. Islam is far from this understanding. This understanding is an understanding that the colonial infidel West instilled in Muslims, and in order to maintain its hegemony, agent rulers were placed on Muslims as guards. Allah (swt) said about such people:

(اَفَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ الْكِتَابِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍۚ)

“Do you believe in some of the Scripture and reject the rest?” [Surah Al-Baqarah 85].

According to this verse, wouldn’t those who, like today’s politicians, obey the Qur’an in worship, follow the capitalist ideology rather than the Qur’an in areas such as the economy, administration and penal system, and adopt the West as the qibla, deny some of the verses of Allah (swt)? Although they do not openly deny it with their tongues because they are afraid of the public opinion of Muslims, they deny it with their actions and deeds.

In the Qur’an and Sunnah, there are ahkaam related to shopping, trade, foreign policy, punishment and social system as well as ahkaam regarding worship. Saying that there is an explicit nass (text) about usury, while not forbidding usury in all areas of life, not ruling with what Allah has revealed even though he says he believes and trusts in Allah, not closing and allowing the factories that produce alcohol even though he wants the religious youth to know that alcohol is haram is nothing but political benefit, exploitation and being the slave of the capitalist ideology and the West.

A Muslim is someone who has unity in action and discourse. His action and discourse may not differ. However, it is possible to encounter the differences in the actions and discourse of the agent rulers in our countries, which is the product and construction of the capitalist ideology in all areas of life as in the above examples of usury, alcohol and countless other examples. The Qur’an they recite and read does not go beyond their throats. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said in a hadith:

«يقرأون القرآن لا يجاوز حناجرهم»

“They read the Qur’an. But it will not go beyond their throats.” [Tirmidhi]

Ercan Tekinbaş