SİTE İÇERİĞİ

Psychological Warfare Technique 1:
The Claim That “He Is Solely out for His Own Interests.”

One of the press-publishing bodies said the following about Bediüzzaman Said Nursi’s activities thanks to the psychological warfare campaign directed by certain circles made uneasy by him:

“Said the Kurd has embarked on fanatical religious propaganda by using religion as a political tool, and has deceived a number of people, causing them to deviate from the true path…A figure of 30 years standing, he looks for naïve citizens to mislead… It has been realised that the sheik’s (Bediüzzaman Said Nursi’s) role in this is to attract money to himself by deceiving the naïve…” (Daily Cumhuriyet, 10 May, 1935)

On a different date the same newspaper wrote: “An investigation has begun into Said Nursi, who takes false advantage of religion.” “Said-I Nursi is not someone to attach any importance to. He is someone concerned with material and psychological gains.”

The only reason why groundless, illogical and empty allegations such as extracting money from his students and trying to satisfy his thirst for power were made against Bediüzzaman, who expected nothing from this world, who had no money or property, who in his own words “took humbleness as a profession” and who lived an exceedingly modest life, was the attempt to neutralize him and silence his message.

Psychological Warfare Technique 2:
The Allegation of “Insanity”

In 1908, Bediüzzaman Said Nursi appeared before the court, again for artificial reasons, and the medical committee appointed by that court issued a report saying the “state of his mind was impaired.” The doctor in the mental hospital to which he was later transferred said, after meeting him, ““If this man is mad, then there can be nobody sane in the world,” thus emphasizing the invalidity of that report. Under the direction of the psychological warfare campaign, press bodies carried misleading reports such as “Said Nursi has entered and left a mental home” in an effort to make this great Islamic seem different in the eyes of the public.

Psychological Warfare Technique 3:
The Claim He “Led Astray Those around Him.”

One of the psychological techniques employed against Bediüzzaman Said Nursi and his students was the series of articles entitled “The Exploiters of Faith” that appeared in one newspaper of the time. This series repeated the propaganda issued by the deniers in the Qur’an, of “casting a spell over others,” with regard to him. It said; “They are bound to him solely out of religious mysticism, and they can see and hear nothing else.” The fact is, however, that Bediüzzaman Said Nursi and the believers around him were individuals of great purity, possessed of great reason and good conscience, and who acted under the guidance of the Qur’an. Those involved in making those false accusations were perfectly well aware of this. Through this psychological warfare technique they attempted to give the impression that Bediüzzaman Said had brainwashed young people, and that these young people were so devoid of reason and logic as to permit themselves to be brainwashed in the first place.

Psychological Warfare Technique 4:
The Allegation of “Religious Deviation”

Another of the psychological warfare techniques applied against Bediüzzaman Said Nursi was the allegation that he established his own religious conception by perverting the stipulations of the Qur’an, and then sought to indoctrinate others with it. The aim behind this was to give a false impression of Bediüzzaman by inciting the public and those religious circles that did not know him very well against him.