Page 252 - Religion, Media, and the Public Sphere

“expert” knowledge and the “lay” epistemology of audiences seems to disap-
pear, and the studio participants burst into spontaneous applause (rather than
respectful clapping). But, of course, it is precisely the anticipation of such “ex-
ceptional” moments that lends interest to his television performance and con-
stitutes the highpoint (for lack of a better term) of the Ayse Özgün Show for
most viewers.
Yasar Nuri Öztürk’s statements during such moments of high drama are
framed within a master binary opposition, which he repeats almost every week,
as in the quotation above: “There are two kinds of Islam, one which has been
sent by Allah and the other invented.” And the only way of learning the Islam
sent by Allah is for everyone to read the Quran.
Thus, for instance:
YNÖ: I have been telling this millet to examine the Quran’s original for
the past twenty years. I tell them to take it out of the chests, to bring it
down from the attics, and to read it. But the man who is supposed to read
it does not know Arabic. They have told him, the perpetrators of this
racket, don’t touch it if you do not know Arabic. This racket, to protect
itself, has sancti¤ed Arabic. Now, according to these people, what is holy is
not Allah’s word. It is Arabic letters that are holy. We are saying that what
is sacred is the message Cenab-i Hak has sent us. And we can learn this
message when we read the Quran in the language we understand. The citi-
zen listens to me and telephones the müftü of¤ces. Can I read the Quran
in Turkish? No permission, no such possibility.

Yasar Nuri Öztürk’s emphasis on reading the Quran rather than memorizing
s
and reciting it in Arabic is obviously a very modernist stance. Aye Özgün in-
terprets this as follows: “Hocam, you want everyone to acquire a Kuran’i Kerim
and read it from beginning to end.” But as the paragraph above reveals, Yasar
Nuri Öztürk continues to say much more than this. Not only does he bring up
the politically charged issue of “vernacularization” and attack its opponents—as
“perpetrators of a racket”—but refers directly to the of¤ce of the müftü (which
is part of the centralized Directorate of Religious Affairs in Turkey).
When Yasar Nuri Öztürk begins to attack “those” or “they” who bene¤t from
“invented Islam,” not only do they seem to increase in numbers but we discover
that they are in “our midst.” There are, for instance, the “seytan evliyasi” (the
devil’s saints or emissaries) who are the “pro¤teers” from Islam.
YNÖ: Now they have brought this contemptible Islam into our midst.
Now a Muslim cannot be close to Allah without paying a commission,
without mortgaging his mind and belief. Now I am asking this mass,
wasn’t this mass Muslim before these pro¤teers came onto the scene?
Now no one should expect to get anywhere by bowing [secde] to the
devil’s saints [seytan evliyasi]. If the Islamic world were to get anywhere
by bowing, it would have become the leader [ efendi] of the world. Tur-
key would have become the leader of the world. A mosque is being built

Becoming “Secular Muslims” 241