Turkish religious authority urges youth to avoid ‘140-character unnecessary words’ on Twitter

KONYA – Doğan News Agency

AA photo

The head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) has warned the country’s youth regarding “short and unnecessary expressions” on social media and the internet, urging them to avoid any kind of image and text that “would take over their minds” on mobile devices.

“Abstain from 140-character unnecessary words, expressions and texts. Avoid any kind of image and unnecessary texts that would take over your minds and invade your hearts on social media or the internet, so you can turn your world into heaven,” Mehmet Görmez said at a morning prayer at the Kapı Mosque in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, in a particular reference to Twitter. 

“No one should attempt to occupy you and take over your soul with the help a mobile phone,” he said. 

Touching upon the merits of morning prayer during his speech, Görmez said: “Our highness, the Prophet, says in one of his hadiths, ‘If you knew the virtue of performing the morning prayer together with the congregation but you lacked physical power, you would crawl in and still come.’ Praise to God, we come [to pray with the congregation] standing. I always pray to God for this blessing. Dear youth, do not deprive yourselves of this felicity.”