İSTANBUL - Stating that capitalism is maintained by disguising it in a religious guise by the AKP, İhsan Eliacik said: "Government is sanctifying capitalism by legitimizing it."

 

Steps have been taken to institutionalize political Islam in Turkey with the AKP government. The government, which is based on an authoritarian administration with a "monist" understanding in which religion is abused, created both political and social tools to institutionalize its ideology. One of these tools was sects. Sects, which have recently come to the fore with suspicious child deaths, child sexual abuse and rape, became even more controversial during the AKP period. The Islamic sects, which have a history of nearly a thousand years, have become the focus of discussions that they are a tool that exploits religion, exploits society, and ensures the institutionalization of the current regime through "monist", "sexist" and "religious" pillars.

 

The AKP-MHP's expansion of its alliance with the Free Cause Party and the Again Welfare Party, which is on the agenda with its anti-women rhetoric, showed clues about the ideological codes of Turkey of the new era with the 2023 elections. The relationship of the government with the sects, right-conservative politics and abuse of religion, and the politics of the new period, the theologian writer İhsan Eliacik evaluated.

 

RELIGIOUS LEGITIMACY TO CAPITALISM

 

Stating that Turkey is a capitalist country, Eliaçık said: "The capitalist system is maintained by gaining religious legitimacy through the AKP. They love property, saving money, being rich and they have no objections to them."

 

PARTICULAR THOUGHTS

 

Stating that with the addition of the Free Cause Party and the Welfare Party to the AKP-MHP alliance, women will be "targets" in the new period, Eliaçık said: "The fact that parties that describe themselves as right-wing conservatives sometimes refer to Islam and target women.  They have such a patriarchal understanding of religion by misinterpreting certain verses that are hostile to LGBT, excluding women and seeing them as second-class, 'woman's place is at home, men are unique in Islam, and men are superior to women'. They clothe their patriarchal ideas with a religious cover, and they do so because they cannot transcend their own culture of masculinity.”

 

RELIGION ABUSE AND AKP

 

Stating that the abuse of religion is always done in Turkey, Eliaçık said: "There is a segment in Turkey that votes with religious arguments or sees religious arguments as determinant in voting behavior. In other words, there is a section that says, 'The person I vote for must be a Muslim', but I think this segment is not much. The results show that it doesn't work. The AKP is a 'person' party. AKP means Erdogan; Without Erdogan, the AKP will disintegrate. If Erdogan doesn't turn into someone like the Motherland Party. Erdogan does not have an ideology. His ideology is his seat, it is to protect his seat. He does what the current conditions require. He does not follow any ideology. Protecting his seat is his religion, faith and ideology.”

 

PARTNERS OF EVIL

 

Drawing attention that one of the "crime" partners of this evil is the sects, which are at the center of discussions, especially with child abuse, rape and suspicious child deaths, Eliaçık said: "Such incidents occur in sects, but they are trying to cover up. They are trying to hide the truth, whereas they have to reveal it with their own hands or clean up such incidents within their own body. The ideas of many sects and congregations about children, as well as about women, are wrong. They also think that they are on the right track. They look so awful, but they have no news."

 

'ERDOĞAN DIDN'T WIN THE ELECTION'

 

Stating that he did not think that Erdoğan won the election since the June 7 elections, Eliaçık said: “It has been declared that Erdogan won for 3 elections in Turkey, I am not saying he has won, I am saying it has been announced because the power of this country does not win the election, it is declared to have won the election. There are 15 million aid addicts. Widow's pension, child pension, disability pension from foundations and ministries, these are not needy, they are dependent on aid. As long as Erdogan is there, a mass has formed that will not leave him and say, "I am giving you this money", "Erdogan is giving it out of his own pocket". The state does not give it, Erdogan does, the government makes them believe it."

 

TRUE RELIGION INTERPRETATION

 

Against all these problems, Eliaçık offered solutions. Emphasizing that the society should be confronted with the right interpretation of religion on this issue, Eliaçık said: "The political opposition also had a duty to do so. The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) should continue its 'Turkishization' and CHP's ' Forgiveness' policies. In other words, the policies that will ensure contact between the segments of society, the HDP should explain itself to the large Turkish masses. The CHP needs to explain itself to large religious masses. Blackouts are applied by the government, you are drowned in darkness on the other side, you cannot reach them and they cause prejudices about you. It is necessary to confront them with the correct interpretation of religion, I think these are the antidotes.”