Campaign against him in Turkey .. What is the story of "Arbash" and why did Erdogan side him?

Zaher Albik-Ankara

A few days ago, the Bar Associations of Izmir and the Turkish capital, Ankara, launched a campaign against the head of religious affairs, Ali Arbash, asking him to resign from his post and offer an apology to the Turkish people, against the background of a recent speech in which he touched on the prohibition of "fornication and homosexuality", citing Quranic verses about that.

In response to this campaign, it publishes the #AliErbasYalnizDegildir tag, which means in Arabic (Ali Arbash is not alone), social media in Turkey.

This matter received the responses of large sectors in Turkey, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan entered the line by saying that "the attack on the head of religious affairs is an attack on our state."

The head of religious affairs, Arbash, in the first Friday sermon of the month of Ramadan, reminded people of the orders that God imposed on his Muslim worshipers, and the taboos he ordered them to avoid.

Arbash said, "Adultery is a major sin, and homosexuality is forbidden. The wisdom of this is that these things bring diseases, and cut the bonds of society, which are one of the biggest causes of calamity and viruses ... Come fight together to protect people from this evil."

This sermon disturbed the Bar Association, which considered Arbash's speech as a reactionary and old from past times and violates the Turkish constitution, and robbing gay people of their rights!

The Republican People's Party - the largest opposition party in Turkey - lined up with the bar association, and the party's spokesperson, Fayek Oztrak, confirmed his party's absolute support for the union, considering that Arbash's speech contained the language of hatred and enmity.

The attack on the head of religious affairs coincided with criticism of the mayor of Greater Istanbul, Akram Imamoglu, because he distributed to young children a magazine containing a picture showing four people sitting each representing a religion, in reference to coexistence, except that the showing of Alevi as a religion Referenced in the picture, along with Islam, Christianity and Judaism, caused a sensation in the country.

Earlier, the same group attacked the Presidency of Religious Affairs due to a sermon warning against lottery contests.

Last September, Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu said that Washington had sent 22 million dollars to active associations in the Turkish capital to defend homosexuality and homosexuals under the pretext of supporting freedoms.

Wide anger The
attack on Arbash has angered a wide segment of the Turkish people, as Twitter campaigners launched a popular campaign supporting the head of Turkish religious affairs, in which thousands of tweeters, including senior officials, took part.

One of the tweeters said, "Ali Arbash's statement is not a self-rule, it is the duty of Islam and it is a very necessary thing," pointing out that "what Arbash says is not the opinion of the head of religious affairs but rather the rule of the Qur’an."

Another added that "homosexuality is a horrifying and disgusting imagination, which is also forbidden in all divine books." He added, "No one believes in the Holy Qur’an and God and says he is Muslim, he can accept adultery and homosexuality."

On the other hand, another said that "citizens are free in their sexual relations, especially since international laws guarantee them that freedom, and our government is required to be more civilized in its dealings with its citizens!"

For his part, the spokesperson for the Turkish presidency, Ibrahim said in a tweet, that he "lost the world and the hereafter to those who violate the rulings of God Almighty in his land and his time that created them."

The head of the communication department in the Turkish presidency, Fakhruddin Alton, published a tweet, in which he said, "It is our true religion that has given all creatures their value and lit us the way in the past and the present, and its rules are not those that they adapt and interpret on their whims those who attack Professor Ali Arbash."

The Minister of the Interior, Suleiman Soilo, announced his support for Arbash and stood by his side against any abuse.

Ancient and modern Turkey
In this regard, the famous Turkish journalist and blogger Ismail Yacha stated that "most of the bar associations and non-governmental human rights associations are among the tools of ancient Turkey and are controlled by extremist secular forces who dream of returning to the days when they imposed their guardianship on the will of the Turkish people." ".

"Those, although they have lost their influence to a great extent in the new Turkey, they are still behaving from time to time as if they were living in their previous days, and what attack they launched against the head of religious affairs is only the fruit of the arrogant mentality that they grew up with and they could not To get rid of it. "

He pointed out that "extremists in Turkey have for years abused Islam and Muslims in the blessed month of Ramadan to spoil the atmosphere of the holy month, and they used to publish in their media false reports about citizens being beaten because of their breakfast during the day in Ramadan, in order to incite against religious fasting and encourage breakfast In the streets in front of everyone. "

"Today, Turkey is not the country that the extremist secular forces controlled all its joints and imposed its guardianship on the will of the Turkish people with its various tools. Therefore, the Public Prosecution opened an investigation against the Bar Association in Ankara on charges of insulting religious values, and the head of religious affairs filed a suit." Court against the union. "