MR. ADNAN OKTAR'S PRESS CONFERENCE WITH THE ISRAELI DELEGATION
(May 12nd, 2011 - Ortakoy, Istanbul)
MR. ADNAN OKTAR:And welcome to our friends from the press. Welcome to our Israeli guests. If Mr. Ayoob Kara wishes he can give a short address first, or I can begin if he prefers. Which does he prefer? Right, thank you.
We know that friendship between Turkey and Israel goes back a very long way. Everyone knows that Turkey's presence in the region is based on love, compassion and opposition to war. We want friendship in the region, and peace, but not war. We do not want bloodshed between Iran and Israel or between Syria and some other country. We do not want one drop of blood to be spilled. It is very easy for us to live in peace and brotherhood in the region; it most beautiful and reasonable. There is a most illogical climate of tension. You all know there is no end to the bloodshed in the Middle East. There has been much suffering. We now want that to come to an end in this century. It is the most normal thing in the world for us to be in alliance with Muslim countries. Turkish-Islamic Union is most normal. When we have Turkish-Islamic Union, Israel will be under guarantee; it will maintain its unitary structure and regime. In other words, nobody will intervene in its domestic or foreign affairs. One feature of Turkish-Islamic Union is that it will be a guarantor. Think of a system like NATO, or an economic system like the EU. Since Islamic countries share a union of faith, they must also be in brotherhood. Unification of the Turkish world is a must. We call that the Turkish-Islamic Union, but this is not a union established on the basis of any racial superiority. It is a union of service, love and brotherhood.
Almighty Allah tells us in the Qur'an, I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed satan: "Among the People of the Book there are some who have faith in Allah and in what has been sent down to you and what was sent down to them, and who are humble before Allah..." (Surah Al 'Imran, 199)
In Surat an-Nahl, verse 125 Allah states, I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed satan: "Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair admonition." Look, Allah is saying "with wisdom and fair admonition.""And only argue withthem in the kindest way. Your Lord knows best who is misguided from His way. And He knows best who are guided."Look, Allah is saying that, "Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way – except in the case of those of them who do wrong." In other words, establish bonds of ideas with them and tell them what you think with your ideas; "... saying, 'We have faith in what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to you. Our God and your God are one and we submit to Him." (Surat al-Ankabut, 46)So, we believe in the same Allah, the same religion. Allah tells us to say that. We can see this in several verses of the Qur'an.
In verse 64 of Surah Al 'Imran, Allah states:
"Say, 'People of the Book! Come to a proposition which is the same for us and you – that we should worship none but Allah and not associate any partners with Him and not take one another as lords besides Allah.' If they turn away, say, 'Bear witness that we are Muslims.'"
That is how a Muslim's language and behavior should be. Our Jewish guests came here before, you know. Mr. Ayoob Kara too. And our brother is a Catholic. There are other immaculate people on my left there, and these excellent people are Jews. We had brought these brothers of ours all the way from Spain to Istanbul before. They have always been watched over and protected in Ottoman times and in the time of our Prophet (saas).
Religious brotherhood is one thing, worldly brotherhood is another. Of course we are brothers on earth. Brothers in religion; Jews are one another's brothers, for instance. Christians are brothers in religion among themselves. Muslims are also brothers in religion among themselves, but we are brothers in this world, and we must protect, watch over and love one another.
In a treaty our Prophet Muhammad (saas) had addressed to the Christian community called Ibn Harris, "the religion, churches, lives; honor and property of all Christians living in East and West are under the protection of Allah, the Prophet (saas) and all believers." What does that mean? Muslims have a duty to protect and watch over all the People of the Book. It is a duty our Prophet (saas) assumed. "Nobody living as a Christian will be forced to convert to Islam." There is no compulsion and no violence in religion, in Islam. "If any Christian, any member of the People of the Book, is murdered or suffers an injustice, then Muslims have to help him." So it is written. Ibn Sham Abu Muhammad Abdul Malik sets this out in the 1396 Beirut edition of his Sirat al-Nabawiyya.
Yes, some people may from time to time want there to be tensions in the region. There may be a kind of language suggestive of war between Israel and Iran, or desiring that. Or the impression may be given that it is considering war with Syria. We want none of these things. We can all live together happily in the Middle East in peace and brotherhood. An incredibly powerful union can emerge. The climate is right for that, the conditions are suitable, there is no obstacle. We are thinking of holding a major meeting in Istanbul this year to that end. A very large meeting. And in 2012, insha'Allah (with the will of God), we are thinking of a large meeting in Jerusalem. We are thinking of holding a meeting in order for a large community consisting of Jews and Christians and Muslims to unite, for this disorder and strife to come to an end and to take joint decisions. I think we will be successful in that, insha'Allah.
Masha'Allah. Devout people in the region love one another. I mean Christians, Jews and Muslims, they all believe in the one Allah and love one another. They love one another as brothers in this world and, the people belonging to the same religion love each other as brothers in religion. Yes, let's take the microphones. Insha'Allah, the whole Turkish world will unite very soon. The Islamic world will unite, and we will establish a great Turkish-Islamic Union. We will place all these excellent people under protection, insha'Allah, including Armenia and Israel, insha'Allah. We will live in peace and brotherhood. We will bring down those stone walls in Israel.
Insha'Allah, the prisons will be emptied. Nobody will be left in prisons in Israel or Palestine. Our lovely sisters there will be free. We will have Gilad Shalit released, too, insha'Allah. We will start an age of great peace and brotherhood, by Allah's leave. Mutual pains and sufferings will come to an end. There will be no interference to the regimes of any state under Turkish-Islamic Union, no interference to their unitary structure. There will be no interference in their foreign affairs. The key will be to establish peace and brotherhood, and protecting people and countries from external attacks. To put an end to terrorism and anarchy. And to establish mutual economic assistance and introduce highest level of moral virtue. All faiths will be respected, insha'Allah. Christians will be free in their own faith and Jews in theirs. And Muslims in their own religious beliefs. Until the coming of 'Isa the Messiah. According to our belief, when 'Isa the Messiah (pbuh) comes, insha'Allah, we believe that the whole world will become Muslim. That is our belief. The Muslim belief. But the important thing is that there will be no interference in anyone's beliefs. A Jew's worship in the synagogue will be respected and safeguarded. His life and honor and property and those of the People of the Book will all be under Muslim protection. Muslims have a duty to protect them. It is a sin to hurt or inflict pain on anyone, no matter who they are or what their faith is. Our religion prohibits that. According to our belief, the Islamic belief, Mahdi (pbuh) has come. We believe that the person referred to as the King Messiah in the Torah and the Mahdi is actually the same person. We believe he is the person referred to as the Mashiach, Shiloh. We want Jews to be able to go beyond the borders of Israel and live safely anywhere they want. Let them live freely in Lebanon or Syria. Let them also come to Turkey. We want them to be as free as possible. Let them build factories everywhere and set up plants and be happy and worship as they wish. I mean, we don't want such things as checkpoints and security measures. We want them to live happily and in peace as much as possible. Of course, we believe that the Mahdi (pbuh) will address Muslims with the moral values of the Qur'an, and Christians with the original Gospel, and Jews with the original Torah. That is what the hadiths of our Prophet (saas) say. That is our ideal, insha'Allah. But people will see in the next 10 or 15 years that it is the truth. We are in a metaphysical age and climate. This meeting is an extraordinary thing too, a supernormal phenomenon. It is a wonderful thing. The establishment of bonds of brotherhood, our opposition to war and our desire for peace are all commandments of the Qur'an, and also commandments in the Gospel and the Torah. Insha'Allah, we will not permit war or bloodshed anywhere in the region. We will totally eliminate anarchy and terrorism and live brotherly and in a united way, insha'Allah. People will see the beauty of the Islamic moral values in the Turkish-Islamic Union. There will be an extraordinary economic development, and no money will be spent on weapons any more. We will spend no more for tanks and jet fighters. That money and those means will be used for industry, for manufacturing home appliances, the equipment used in the daily lives of people insha'Allah, all around the world. We will eliminate weapons all around the world and get rid of the nuclear weapons and cannons too, insha'Allah. Love and peace alone will conquer. Insha'Allah, you will see this. This is actually very reasonable, but it looks quite baffling to people. The truth is, war is abnormal. Bloodshed and anarchy, kidnapping and hurting people are actually abnormal. Living together brotherly is perfectly normal, a perfectly legitimate right of ours. This is what Allah wants from us. Insha'Allah, we will see it. We will take all the measures necessary to put an end to the pain and suffering, insha'Allah. We just need to be committed to reinforcing this bond of brotherhood, and carry on with our efforts.
We don't want civil wars in the region. For instance, we are uncomfortable to see fight in Syria, the people of Syria fighting each other. We are uncomfortable to see civil wars in Libya. We are uncomfortable to see it in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria. We don't want our Palestinian brothers to be hurt in Israel. We don't want Israel to live in unrest. We are uncomfortable to see wars in the region. We want all of these to be gone. This is very simple and quite easy. War and conflicts are difficult. For example the incident of Marmara flotilla is very sorrowful. May Allah grant His blessings on our martyrs. This was a undesirable situation. If Turkish-Islamic Union had been established, that incident on Marmara Flotilla wouldn't have happened. This wouldn't have happened. There wouldn't have been riots in Syria. There wouldn't have been such events in Libya. Thousands of Muslims would not be massacred, martyred in Algeria. There wouldn't be bloodshed in Egypt. None of this would have happened. The region would live peacefully and safely. We want the fight in the world to come to an end and the peace to prevail. To do that, we believe that a great Turkish-Islamic Union that will include Israel and Armenia too, is needed. We want the establishment of a great Turkish Islamic Union that will even include Russia. Israel is ready for that as far as I can see. Armenia is ready for that. It is very crucial that such a beauty comes true, and this is the biggest need of the region. We see that there is no other solution to stop the bloodshed. To sum it up, this is the solution.
We are living in the time of Mahdi system at the moment. We believe that Mahdi (pbuh) has come. We believe that Mahdi system's influence is all around the world now. Iran is aware of it, Syria is aware of it. Many countries are aware of it. The whole Islamic world is aware of it. All Islamic scholars say the same thing. All Ahl al-Sunnah scholars, all Shia scholars, all Jaffari scholars say that Mahdi (pbuh) has come. According to my own belief, I believe that 'Isa the Messiah (pbuh) has come too. And I believe that now is the time for unity and brotherhood. Now people will be able to greet each other easily, look at each other with smiling faces, people will not be afraid of each other. The time for love has started. The time for friendship has started. This is a sign of that, the unity here is about that too. No one can gain anything with hostility, fights, hatred. We don't want hatred for Christians, Jews, Shias, Alawis, Jaffaris. We don't want separation between Alawii-Sunnis. We want everyone's ideas, opinions to be respected and we want everyone to live with love altogether. Because it is the most urgent thing, and what you see here is a part of this urgent matter. This is the purpose of the meeting. And maybe part of its purpose was fulfilled. But it will continue. There will be more meetings, conferences. This will continue until the Turkish-Islamic Union is established.
Let us love each other. Let us respect everyone's faith. Let us build a beautiful world. Let us establish the Turkish-Islamic Union insa'Allah. We are making firm steps towards this goal. Insa'Allah we will see beautiful days. I am greeting all of you with love and respect. Thank you for coming.
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