Announcer: The relationship between Israel and Turkey has been rough lately. Under such conditions, the efforts of the non-govermental organizations to rehabilate the dialogue between the two countries are on the agenda; such as Movement of Peace Culture. Here I have as my guest Alkas Çakmak, a representative of the Peace Culture Movement.
Alkas Cakmak: Greetings Vladimir! How are you?
Announcer: Very well, and you? Welcome to Israel.
Alkas Cakmak: Thank you very much. I am happy to be here, in such a highly religious atmosphere. I have been to the western part of the Dome of the Rock as well as Al Aqsa Mosque and listened to the words of our Prophet (saas) and leave there happy.
Announcer: What is the reason behind your visit to Israel? As I understand this is your first visit and you have some purposes.
Alkas Cakmak: I am here as the representative of Mr. Adnan Oktar, also known as Harun Yahya. He is the honorary president of our foundation. Some fellow colleagues have also been here several times, 7 times if I am not mistaken, and we get in touch with them, as well as religious communities, Rabbis and politicians. Our mission is to find a common way to bring about cooperation and co-existence between Muslims and Jews. We attended a similar meeting in Jerusalem, titled The Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism. In the meeting attended by 1700 people from various countries, we represented the Muslim world that is ready and willing to work together on this issue.
Announcer: So, what is the reason behind your activities? I mean, why are you struggling with anti-semitism?
Alkas Cakmak: Here are several books on Anti-Semitism written by our honorary president Mr. Adnan Oktar. Anyone who reads the Qur'an will see that one of its essential points is to prohibit any manner of racism in the religion of Islam. The Qur'an promotes love, not hatred. Today, however, Anti-Semitism appears as the most dangerous form of racism. And that leads to a conflict. The Holocaust disaster that took place 70 years ago gives us a clear clue about the extent of the harm racism can cause around the world if it continues to gain ground. As good Muslims, I, and of course our honorary president Adnan Oktar, wish to see the Anti-Semitic sentiment completely eliminated from the world.
Announcer: What is the situation of anti-semitism in Turkey?
Alkas Cakmak: Turkey is a modern country where Anti-Semitism is prohibited by law. Our President Mr. Tayyip Erdoğan stated in a speech he made a year ago that Anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity, law and people. It is a duty of Muslims to work towards the elimination of Anti-Semitism. We have a TV channel in our country named A9. Through this channel, we convey our views and ideas to the Muslim youth all across the world, and I can safely say that we have an active viewer base of about half a million. Our goal is to communicate to believers, by drawing examples from the Qur'an, why we should banish the Anti-Semitic sentiment from our minds. We want to raise a generation with a new mentality, a new way of thinking, who knows how to treat Jews and Christians. We can make all the political or economic decisions we want, but so long as people does not change their mentality, we will never achieve the desired result. The Qur'an alone is sufficient enough to tackle these issues. Looking at the Qur'an, we see that it preaches the message of love, which shows that hatred holds no place in a Muslim's heart. If we can succeed in showing Muslims the way to accurately interpret the message of the Qur'an, we will be able to overcome this problem.
Announcer: Can you tell us more about your other meetings in Israel?
Alkas Cakmak: The last time we were here with our colleagues from our foundation, we had the opportunity to speak with many people including politicians and journalists who have the means to change the social mindset. We sought to help them understand how we need to guide people's outlook on Muslims in the right direction. And we pointed out that this can only be achieved through the Qur'an and that any argument not originating from the Qur'an and our religion will surely fail in doing so. I have Mr. Adnan Oktar’s several books here with me that I would like to show you. This first book is titled 'Love in the Torah', and the second one is 'Wisdom and Sound Advice from the Torah'.
Announcer: Do all these books include information from Torah?
Alkas Cakmak: These are to convey the messages of the Qur'an and the Torah to the Muslim youth. I derive my considerable insight on the Qur'an from the books of Adnan Oktar. All young Muslims can interpret the same message from the two Holy Scriptures. When that is the case, there is no need for conflict. A small conflict is enough to cause a big clash.
Announcer: Yes, in this situation very positive differences could take place in the world. Alkas Çakmak, Thank you very much.
Alkas Cakmak: If you do not mind, I would like to give information about our internet page. Our page's is www.harunyahya.ru. The page is in Russian. All of these books can be found and downloaded over this website for free. About 100 million books have been downloaded from our website so far. I think our viewers are very interested in what these books have to offer. I thank you for giving us the opportunity to introduce ourselves.
