Those who worship the powerful, those who see balance sheets as holy books

When does religion come to our minds? Could it be from the political podium? It is also used to maintain the system of exploitation. Don't we bring the most unlikely religious texts to the palace just to remain at the sultan's table? Or does religion not come to our minds when we want to suppress women and define rights only through men? How could that be? For some, this is exactly what religion is. Religion is a kind of stick, a legal text used as a tool for imprisonment, a corpus exploited to grow a congregation, a ladder used as a step for ambition and career.

If someone calls upon religion not in every area of life and at all times, but only in specific matters and situations for the sake of consistency, we must know that what is being experienced there is not religion, but a commercial or political order. Unfortunately, religion is merely an apparatus of this order. I say unfortunately because the destruction caused by this experienced order is great, both for the believers and for society.

One of the places where we can see this destruction is undoubtedly the plundering of public resources, the public interests that are written off, the deteriorating income distribution, and the tender areas handed over to certain people. Why is it that at such times, neither the members of the government nor the religious structures around them remember religion? At such times, history is obscured, books are silenced, and the examples experienced are forgotten. As if that religion had never been lived, as if the sacred that is believed in had never existed. In such days, so to speak, the place is crawling with godless religious people!

In recent days, it has been reflected in the press that some leading companies in Turkey have paid almost no taxes in recent years. They had large stores and businesses, they were at the holding level, even their company advertisements were being broadcast, some had hundreds of employees, but for some reason, they had not a single penny of tax to pay to the state. It was as if these institutions were operating for charity, opening their shutters for the sake of Allah. There was something wrong somewhere, this was clear, and for some reason, the Ministry of Finance had noticed this anomaly only after it was reflected in the press. At least the statement was made as a result of such timing. This is the political/administrative side of the matter. Well, does the subject not have a religious side? Why were those who issue fatwas on all sorts of matters from their own podiums, and who try to make life a dungeon by calling things sinful or forbidden, silent about this issue? Why were they not saying anything about the inherent side of the matter regarding religion? Or was it not them who were silent, but religion itself? The answer is: religion is not silent, it is being silenced.

If we consider zakat as a kind of tax, it is narrated that the Prophet said the following on this subject: "But whoever avoids paying his zakat, we will undoubtedly take him and half of his wealth as one of the definitive commands of our Lord. There is nothing for the family of Muhammad from it." In Islamic history, some jurists, based on this hadith, have argued for the seizure of half of the property of those who do not pay taxes (zakat), while others have demanded that the tax be collected by force and that punishment be applied to the offender. Let us come to the present day: Today, some family companies, and even some companies belonging to sects or congregations, especially with their so-called "conservative" identity, have either paid no taxes or very little in recent times. Now let us ask the turbaned, bearded, and robed scholars: What do you say, should half of these companies be confiscated, should these taxes be collected by force, should their owners be fined? In terms of religious history, these pages are open; which of these should be applied? Or what do you say, what do you command regarding tax evasion? If you have a religious affiliation, I think you should speak up; otherwise, is it better to be godless in such days!

If we consider tax as a public right and therefore public property, it is also among the reported narrations that the Prophet did not perform the funeral prayer of a person who stole from the spoils of war, which is seen as public property, and that he ordered that the share of the person who stole from the spoils not be given, that this property be burned, and that a lashing punishment be applied to this person. Similarly, it is among the historical records that Caliph Umar confiscated the property of some of his governors who enriched themselves improperly. Moreover, this situation is not limited to Caliph Umar. Tradition is overflowing with examples.

They say, "Silence implies consent." If we look at it religiously, a person enters the religion of whatever sins they remain silent about. They worship their god. There is no doubt that the qibla of those who remain silent in the face of economic corruption, the plundering of public property, and the injustices of the system of exploitation is the plaza and the palace; their prayers are for the balance sheets to be announced, the powerful are their gods, and their books are hidden in their lives. We know this from history and from what we have witnessed.