The Reply to a Falsifying Journalist Concerning the University of the East
In reply to an article about Atatürk University which appeared in the newspaper Ulus on 1.4.1954, written by a fiercely critical member of the opposition party, we are here explaining the truth about the university. It is as follows:
Our Master, Said Nursi, spared no effort over the last fifty years to found the university which is now called Atatürk University. Although he was opposed to them, the Unionists and Sultan Reşad assigned nineteen thousand gold liras for its construction, and its foundations were laid in Van. Then, with the outbreak of the Great War, it was abandoned. At the beginning of the republican period, our Master again made attempts, presenting the matter to the deputies in the National Assembly in Ankara. There, although he was completely opposed to the leadership and had renounced politics and was in some ways opposed to them, saying that he had given up the world; and although he told Mustafa Kemal that those who fail to perform the obligatory prayers are traitors and he refused his offer of important posts such as general preacher in the eastern provinces, with its salary and perks; the decision was still taken for the founding of the university in the east and it was allotted one hundred and fifty thousand liras and the bill was signed by one hundred and sixty‑three deputies out of two hundred and ratified by Mustafa Kemal. That is to say, at that time, the university was the most pressing question concerning the east. And now the need is twenty times greater, Finally, the decision has been taken by the present Islamic government for its construction, again as a result of our Master's initiative and encouragement.
We are presenting one or two points — only a drop from the ocean — describing the universal importance of the Eastern University.
The First: The university is like a heart at the centre of Iran, Arabia, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Anatolia. It is both an al‑Azhar University and a Medresetü'z-Zehrâ.
The Second: All humanity is now seeking ways to secure universal peace, that is, to prevent the corruption of humanity. Pacts and agreements are being signed. The Islamic government here is trying to establish friendly relations with countries from Yugoslavia to Spain, for general peace and reconciliation and its own benefit.
The sole solution for this is the Risale‑i Nur, a book of instruction of the person who first proposed the projected Eastern University, which reconciles the positive sciences with the sciences of belief, and is approved and praised by the official religious scholars despite its offending them and challenging the former government, and has been acquitted by the courts. Evidence for this is the general peace and security it has ensured for this country and nation due to which the internal disturbances that have occurred in the Islamic countries, especially Morocco, Egypt, Syria, and Iran, have not happened here.
Thus, the fact that the Risale‑i Nur ensures public security despite there being more reasons for disturbances here, shows that the founding of the Eastern University will be a step towards bringing peace and reconciliation to humanity. For since at the present time the damage is moral and spiritual, a moral and spiritual atom bomb is needed to repair it.
Decisive evidence for this is the fact that the Risale‑i Nur — the source and seed of the university — has formed a barrier these last thirty years against the assaults of misguidance, scientistic philosophy, and irreligion. It has acted as a moral and spiritual atom bomb repairing the moral and spiritual destruction.
The Third: As a centre that will attract the world of Islam and all Asia, the eastern university is of paramount importance and if expenditure on its construction was sixty thousand million liras rather than sixty million, it would still be worth it.
Since the Yeni Ulus is a paper of the opposition, it wants to conceal this matter and smear with accusations of reactionism some of the leading officials of the new government who are working at it. The question, however, is one of progress, development, and general peace. Similarly to such marks of Islam as the Arabic call to prayer and religious instruction, an educational institution of that kind will strengthen this Islamic government considerably. Indeed, because of it, the government will be applauded in the future and praised in the history books.
This great service and the enlightenment that will result from the project's realization will afford an unprecedented brilliance to the Democrat government that will shine for all eternity and will gain for it international recognition.
The Nur studentswho are attending on our Master while he is ill