Page 250 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

bursts into spontaneous applause after one of his impressive soliloquies, the
sense of watching a contrived performance is transformed into a shared mo-
ment of “togetherness.”
Apart from these “electric” moments (which I discuss later), Yasar Nuri Öz-
türk’s discursive style is much closer to classroom lecturing than to sermonizing
intended to inspire emotional leaps of faith. His claim to authority and self-
framing is that of a “man of scienti¤c learning” (bilim adami) as distinct from
a “man of religion” (din adami). He continuously promotes “reason” and “logic”
(akil ve mantik) against “muddled thinking” (kafa karisikligi).
In the overall progression of the program itself, Ayse Özgün’s own “muddled
thinking” serves to highlight Yasar Nuri Öztürk’s “reasoned” explanations, giv-
ing him the opportunity to sort out the signi¤cant from the irrelevant, and to
expound the real issues (esas meseleler). To illustrate:

[following upon a series of comments-cum-questions from the audience]
Ayxe Özgün: We are doing something that Allah does not want. To bring
us together, he has sent the book, he has sent the prophet, we are sharpen-
ing the divisions and so if I say something I am afraid of reaction from
this group, if I say another from that, is this something good? We are do-
ing something Allah does not want. This is what I see. But how we get out
of this situation, that I do not know. Is it with tolerance, I mean getting
away from the mentality of imposing our own ideas that I do not know
either. But once again after our last week’s program many viewers, twelve
to thirteen viewers who did not agree with your views, telephoned us.
Would you believe it? But one viewer called in such anger, thanking Allah
for those who give us correct or wrong religious information. Now this is
where I am ®abbergasted. I mean, what does it mean to be thankful for
wrong information, this I do not understand, this kind of thinking. . . .
You say the truth but I do not want to accept it, it is true according to one
side of course and this viewer of ours was raising hell last week. So thir-
teen telephone calls came like this. Now this is my question to you: Is it
wrong or right to say thank God for wrong religious information as well
as right religious information?
Yaxar Nuri Öztürk: If someone makes a mistake out of ignorance, I would
not blame him. Even when he telephones in anger, if he is not deliberately
misleading but believes in what he says, what could we say? Wake up.
AÖ: No. Let us wake up but life is continuously changing.
YNÖ: Ayse hanim, let us not trivialize matters. There are those who delib-
erately lie and mislead the people. A person may lack knowledge, may not
have enough education, but believes in something. If he says “salt” instead
of “sugar,” this should not be exaggerated. Now this is not the issue. This
is not the problem Turkey is facing. This is never the real issue. The real
problem is that people who know the Quran do not reveal all of it. Or
people who say the Quran says this, but such and such important man

Becoming “Secular Muslims” 239