Leave religion out of personal disputes: Top religious body head

NEVŞEHİR – Doğan News Agency

Mehmet Görmez attends opening ceremony of two mosques in the central Anatolian province of Nevşehir. AA photo

The head of Turkey’s top religious body said Feb. 21 that religion and religious symbols should be kept outside of personal disputes, during the opening ceremony of two mosques in the central Anatolian province of Nevşehir. 

“Our country is having very wrong and bad disputes lately. I only have one demand from everyone regarding these incidents. Do not involve our religion’s symbols, the values of our faith, the mosque, the call to prayer or the minaret in our personal disputes,” said Religious Affairs Directorate head Prof. Mehmet Görmez in Nevşehir on Feb. 21, where he attended the opening ceremony of the mosques.

Görmez’s remarks came as a dispute between the Turkish government and its once-ally Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s supporters is ongoing. Erdoğan accuses a graft probe of being a “coup plot” against him and blames the Gülen movement of orchestrating the probe.

Görmez also called on everyone to pray from the heart when a reporter recalled that Forestry and Waterworks Minister Veysel Eroğlu had suggested prayer as a cheap solution to the recent drought problem.