How to make religion a political tool

In the past, if a politician who was already regularly performing his daily prayers was seen going to the mosque with the slightest hint of public visibility, he would be scolded immediately: “Hey, do not make religion a political tool.”

In the past, even if you were a person who would live your religion in your daily life, you had to hide your piousness as if you were making a huge mistake when you entered politics.

This is because there was a rude and inconsiderate chorus waiting for you over there to open their mouths and say, “Hey, do not make religion a political tool.”  

Thank God, these have all been overcome.  

Well, these have been overcome, but this time the real one of the exploitation of religion, in its roughest, most dangerous, most obvious and most daring form has taken the stage. 

There are efforts by one political party to monopolize the symbolic first phrase of Islam, “Bismillah.” There is the nerve to say “Look, there is an enemy of religion” to whoever opposes it in saying, “It is against the law for you to make Bismillah campaign material.”

There is the incident when a desk was set up at a mosque and a political television program was shot. Asking for votes in a mosque… Efforts to use mosques as if they were the center of one political party… Eradicating religion from its unifying goal and making it a tool to consolidate voters… Efforts to base political discourse as if they were Muslims on one side and infidels on the other…  

We have seen all of this, and we are continuing to see them. Here are two sentences that sum up the situation: 

One: Politicians do not make religion a tool for politics when they make their prayers five times a day, go to the mosque, perform ablutions, live their religion and talk about religion.

Two: Politicians make religion a tool for politics when they make mosques their party centers, create polarization over religion just to receive a single extra vote, campaign in the mosque and make the “Bismillah” campaign material.

Ungrateful king 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took all the risks and said, “I don’t believe there was any neglect at the hajj.” 

And, what did the ungrateful Saudi king do, after this? You know what he did? As if to disclaim President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the king removed the hajj minister, the Mecca mayor and the Mecca police chief because of their neglect during the stoning of the devil disaster.  

I call the entire Justice and Development Party (AK Party) administration to engage in a democratic protest against the ungrateful Saudi king who did not draw a lesson when not a single official was removed after the Soma mine disaster and for being so ungrateful to Erdoğan who offered him his limitless support. But make this protest a democratic one, please, do not break glass or frames, et cetera. 

The backbone of terror 

In my 20 years of active journalism, I have heard exactly 45 times the sentence “It’s not bearable anymore;” I have heard “The terrorists have suffered heavy losses” 38 times. I have heard the sentence, “This time the back of terror has been broken” exactly 39 times. 

It has been 51 times that I have heard, “The terror organization has suffered a very heavy blow this time.” Also the phrase, “Until the last terrorist has been killed,” exactly 61 times…

I have heard also, the sentence, “Their caves were bombed into their heads” 18 times and I have heard exactly 159 times, “They have been seized dead.” 

This is the one and only reason why my expression did not change a bit when Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said, “The back of terror has been broken.”