June 19, 2016

Two teachers of the Turkish School killed in Somalia school bus attack

Ali Bulac

In Somalia where hunger, poverty, fanaticism, civil war and terror prevails, two volunteers of education were killedon the last day of March 2016. One of the people who lost her life in that heineous attack was an Azeri lady Kemale İsmailova, and the other was my fellow townsman Hıdır Çalka. Çalka had been working as a math teacher for the last 10 years. He had volunteered going to Somalia from Kenya. Like the other volunteers of education, he and his wife had only several suitcases with them when they left for Somalia. Kemale Ismailova was similarly a volunteer working as a teacher of Turkish. Her two kids were also injured in the very attack she lost her life. The funerals of these martyrs were carried on the shoulders of their friends, without turning it into a demonstration. May God have mercy on them, and place them in Paradise.

This heinous incident has unfortunately not been covered in the Turkish media. If I'm not mistaken, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a message of condemnation, and Bülent Arınç, the ex-speaker of the Parliament, issued a condolence message. However, it hasn’t been found out who realized this heinous attack and why. There is little doubt that one of the local religious groups was used as a cat’s pawfor the murders. Everybody in Somalia knows who the potential groups are. With great probability, the murderers thought they were serving religion. However, they cannot explain us if there is ever a religious ruling justifying the murder of civilians who never took a weapon in their hands, and voluntarily migrated to educate poor and helpless African children, to let them meet love of God and faith. There is no such a religious ruling!

Islam prohibits killing innocent civilians, women, children, non-Muslim people of God, and men who do not actively fight against them. This ban will continue until the end of time and whoever is breaking this ban—no matter which Islamic group, organization, sect, or denomination they follow—in any case, they will have committed a grave sin. Those who commit this crime at the same time knowingly or not serve some others’ evil purposes. It is so apparent how the so called “jihadists” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and other places paved the way for imperialist invaders. Muslims killing each other is not jihad, but simply murder. These murders are committed not as local incidents, but in relation to global scale plans. In this regard, the recent Somalia attack does not seem spontaneous at all; there are ugly objectives underlying it.

Islamic world is busy at loggerheads with one another. The greatest misfortune is their having lost the ability of sound thinking, understanding what is going on, and analyzing it. We are now running totally amok. We are getting away from sanity every passing day.

The Turkish schools opened in some 150 countries and are like little oasesof peace in the midst of a sea of insanity. Thousands of young men and women from Turkeyare dispersed to all the corners of the world to teach knowledge, patience, and peace. Most of the students in Turkish schools are the children of the high-class families in those countries. The teachers are working in humble standards of life, without any complaint orasking for more. It is so strange that highest officials from Turkey complain about the Turkish schools to the statesmen of the countries they go. They do this as if there is no intelligence in those countries, and they do not know about the subjects taught and who work in these schools.

The campaign against the Turkish schools cannot solely be explained with the developments in a certain country; this has a global dimension. Namely, we are talking about a world of terrorists, cannibals who eat their enemies, head cutters, murderers of hundreds by blowing up subways, of lavish monarchs, and dictators who severely oppress societies... all of which are somehow associated with “the religion.” Do you think they will allow a peaceful representation of Islam by those volunteers devoted to teaching, knowledge, dialogue, undertaking shared responsibility, and peace?

Even though they do not want to allow, it is necessary to continue striving and endeavoring with patience and moderation.

Published on in Turkish on Yarina Bakis,
English version appeared on fgulen.com, 14 April 2016, Thursday

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