Religion, sensitivities, and mentality

Once religion is put on paper, it leaves itself to the reader; the reader's expectations, weaknesses, moral and ethical value judgments, and the impact of the environmental conditions they are in have reproduced religion. The issue we call sensitivity is no different or exempt from this. The image reflected back to us from that mirror reflects the entirety of the masses and the reality of the political and psychological reflexes they are in. Given this, the place we should focus on is the truth that the masses tell about today and tomorrow.

This is also the reality crystallized by the lynching and destruction policy disguised as a reaction shown to the caricature drawn in Leman magazine. Because in the incident we are talking about, rather than a sensible reaction, there is an aggressive mentality, a socially prone-to-violence mass, and unfortunately, political cadres that implicitly protect that mass.

Some of those who came in front of Leman were, first and foremost, people familiar to the history of Turkey. The tradition maintained by these individuals (IBDA-C) had hailed the Madımak massacre, where dozens of people were burned alive, as the “Glorious Sivas Uprising,” and Murat Doğu, who wrote articles in the magazines of this line, such as Taraf Magazine, deemed the massacre insufficient, including expressions like “it could have been hit better” and signing off on the words, “When we say target, it includes everyone, both as individuals and as institutions.”

Again, in Baran Magazine, which publishes on the IBDA-C axis, Kazım Albay said, “The Sivas defendants are victims and were punished solely for the hatred of Alevis,” and in 2012, he used the following expressions regarding the mentioned faith group:

“The Alevis, who are the only segment that gave mass support to the Muslim blood shed by the Republican regime, never refrained from uniting with the Kemalists, even if they were subjected to massacres like Dersim by the Kemalists, whom they always side with when it comes to godlessness. Their going to Sivas with Aziz Nesin should also be seen in this sense. It is painful but true, they reaped what they sowed.”

It was with those who signed these and similar words, and those within this circle of mentality, that the Leman lynching demonstration was carried out. There, too, the burning of the building was demanded, secularism was targeted, and “Kemalists” were placed in the crosshairs. At such a point, the situation that needs to be treated with sensitivity is precisely the place of this picture in the country's future. Indeed, if those who wanted to burn people alive in Sivas yesterday are entering into a similar uprising in Turkey's largest city 32 years later, then in the words of Nuri Bilge Ceylan, this should be the greatest sensitivity that our “lonely and beautiful country” will experience.

On the other hand, as we stated in the previous lines, the political power in this lynching demonstration showed its side in a way that complements the protesters with the discourse of “sensitivity,” and this reality has been openly declared with the reverse handcuffs applied, the statements made, and the arrests. It is clear that the point reached here is not law and justice. So much so that, as if the arrest of Leman magazine employees were not enough, the imprisonment of Professor Aslı Aydemir, who argued with the aggressive group in front of the magazine, points us to the place where words are exhausted and lose their meaning. If this is justice, what will people take refuge in, where and how will a solution be sought; this question is now strongly before us.

As we have expressed, the subject here is not the sensitivity of religious values and the ground to be built against it. If attack and violence are threatening society under the guise of sensitivity, the subject is not sensitivity, but those who use these tools of threat with terrorizing methods. Otherwise, the legitimacy ground for existing armed organizations like ISIS, Al-Nusra, etc., which use discourses such as sensitivity, religion, sacred, and “sharia,” would be formed. If this is not what is desired, everyone must face the reality they have created and kept alive.

On the other hand, after the Leman caricature, many Muslims, from Anti-Capitalist Muslims to İhsan Eliaçık, from Edip Yüksel to Berrin Sönmez, openly exposed this lynching and displayed an attitude against the attack without any ifs or buts. As we said at the beginning of our article, once religion is put on paper, it leaves itself to the human, to the reader. At the stage reached, I think it is clear who is intertwined with justice, compassion, and humanity while claiming to protect religion, and how they have inherited it as a set of values that can be lived for today and the future.

As I finish my article, I would like to share one last note from history: Ammar b. Yasir, who participated in the Battle of Siffin on the side of Ali while over ninety years old, turned to Muawiya's soldiers and said in essence: “Until today, we were fighting you for the revelation of this religion; today, we are fighting for its interpretation.”

What I mean is, if there is a sensitivity, there are many topics we will discuss from history to the present. Let that be the subject of another article.