Turkish main opposition party municipality hosted religious congregation event

​A district municipality in the capital of Turkey, governed by the main opposition party Republican People's Party (CHP), hosted a religious congregation event
Tuesday, 09 May 2017 18:40

The main emphasis of the event was that "religious congregations are the strongholds of the community". The speakers also stressed that "religious congregations should be understood correctly in order to understand Turkish society better."

The event was organised by the Institute of Risale-i Nur, a religious institute organised to propagate the teachings of Said Nursi by means of his collection of Qur'an interpretations entitled Risale-i Nur.

Said Nursi was a reactionary Kurdish theologian who lived between 1876-1960, witnessing historical turning points like the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the foundation of the Turkish Republic. Both Said Nursi himself and the religious Nur cult organised following Said Nursi's teachings served for the reactionary, anti-enlightenment and anti-communist initiatives of the right wing governments of Turkey. The Gülenist cult, the former ally of the AKP government before the failed coup attempt in July 2016, is also a branch of the Nur cult.

Though religious congregations and cults were banned ninety years ago, they still maintain their existence illegally under the AKP regime. Religious cults and congregations serve as functional instruments of the capitalist class to rule and oppress the society. By means of these kinds of reactionary structures, the political power obtains economic gains and lets cult members to intervene in education, health and law enforcement.