President Erdoğan spoke at the 7th Religious Council
Speaking at the 7th Religious Council, President Erdoğan said: “The veiled and insidious enemy attacking Muslims and Islamic values on a global scale has caused much more impact and damage than in Gaza. This veiled and insidious enemy employs every means and method, but most of all, it wages its war via the media and lately social media. While the digital world is destroying all values on a global scale, it is directly targeting Muslims, especially the Ahl al-Sunnah creed.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the 7th Religious Council in Ankara.
“THE SPIRIT AND ESSENCE THAT BUILT OUR CIVILIZATIONS REMAINS AS FRESH AS THE FIRST DAY”
“The West's progress based on blood, tears, massacre, genocide and exploitation has – let me underline this – temporarily gained the upper hand to strangle the divine and humanitarian civilization of the East. However, the spirit and essence that built our civilizations remains as fresh as it was the first day. One day, sooner or later, the interval of the periods of progress that exclude the sacred and human beings will close, and while the Western civilization collapses with a great rumble, our divine, humanitarian and affectionate civilization and our essence and spirit will flourish and rise again, Inshallah, even stronger. Let me emphasize this point in particular; we believe that our civilization will rise again. And we believe just as strongly in the reconstruction of our civilization with our own codes,” President Erdoğan said.
Pointing out that Muslims’ connection of with their spiritual roots disturbs the civilized world and that Muslims have been attacked not only physically but also spiritually and intellectually for centuries in order to wear down and sever that spiritual root, President Erdoğan pointed out that these attacks have gained great momentum in the last century and have almost peaked in recent years.
Noting that the Mongol invasion in the 13th century ravaged the Islamic world but failed to destroy the essence and spirit of Islam, President Erdoğan said: “In the 20th century, attacks on Islamic lands, especially the Ottoman Empire, weakened, enfeebled and even tore apart Muslims but could not extinguish the light of Islam. Today, there is a very intense, very comprehensive, more planned and insidious attack against that light, that brightness, our faith, our values, that is, our codes that make us who we are, our spirit and essence.”
“WE NEED TO REALIZE THAT THE DIGITAL REALM IS NOT JUST A CAPITALIST TOOL FOR ENTERTAINMENT”
“Those, who are trying to exterminate Muslims by massacring them in Palestine, Gaza, Lebanon and other Islamic lands, are obvious. However, the veiled and insidious enemy attacking Muslims and Islamic values on a global scale has caused much more impact and damage than in Gaza. This veiled and insidious enemy employs every means and method, but most of all, it wages its war via the media and lately social media. While the digital world is destroying all values on a global scale, it is directly targeting Muslims, especially the Ahl al-Sunnah creed. Today, children are more exposed to the education and upbringing of digital media than the education and upbringing of their parents, family, teachers and neighborhood. We need to realize that the digital realm is not just a capitalist tool, aimed just at making money or entertainment. We see that those who manage and disseminate digital techno-culture make serious money on the one hand, and on the other hand, they impose their own ideas, beliefs and lifestyles on new generations,” President Erdoğan said.
“Today, I would like to say very clearly that the digital movement seeks to create a new fabricated religion by targeting and destroying all the divine religions on earth, specifically Islam. Unfortunately, the adherents of this artificial religion are rising on a global scale. What needs to be done is very clear; first of all, the main theme of the 7th Religious Council, 'religious services in a digitalizing world', should be re-evaluated. Secondly, urgent measures must be taken to protect Muslims with all their values in the face of digital belief systems,” President Erdoğan said.
President Erdoğan said that the essence, spirit and roots must be preserved with great care, both in utilizing the digital world in religious services and in defending values against digital attacks.
“The cement of every nation and every race in our geography is Islam, the spirit of brotherhood that Islam has given us. It is our common religion, our common qibla, our common beliefs and ideals that keep especially Turks, Kurds and Arabs together,” President Erdoğan said.
