The aim of the Islamic Union is to ensure that all Muslims in the world act in unity and solidarity in political, economic, military, educational, scientific, technological, cultural and social fields within the provisions of an 'Islamic Union Charter' to be signed by preserving their state or provincial borders and independence, and thus to ensure peace and tranquility, stability, material and spiritual development both in the Islamic world and in the world.

According to this aim, the Islamic Union aims not only the peace, tranquillity and development of Muslims but also the peace, tranquillity and prosperity of all humanity. Nevertheless, the Western world has always thought otherwise and acted accordingly with its prejudices.

Whether Islam poses a threat to the West or not is one of the debates that have been constantly held in the 20th and 21st centuries. When we look at the researches conducted to find answers to these debates, it is seen that the focus is on the 'political nature of the Islamic religion' . In the 19th century, the fear of the Western states was the mass revolts in their colonies and the resistance that forced the colonial administration. The connection between the political nature of Islam and the background of revolts and resistance in this period was easily established by scholars. European colonisers had never encountered the resistance of Muslims in their non-Muslim colonies. As such, research centred around concepts and institutions such as 'jihad, caliphate, Islamic solidarity', which were very important for Muslims.[1]

Today, we are not far away from these and similar discussions. Muslims and the Islamic world are among the main issues discussed and debated in the world. The Greater Middle East Project (BOP), the issue of moderate Islam, the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Iraqi oil, the Kashmir problem, the Afghanistan-Pakistan front, North African countries, Iranian nuclear energy issues are all Islam-centred. Again, the Caucasus and Balkan problems in the regional sense and the country-centred discussions on Sudan and Iran are not discussions far from Islam. Likewise, the fact that the world's energy resources are located in the Muslim geography and the corridors to be used for transfer to the West are linked to the Islamic geography has brought Islam and Muslims to the world's discussion agenda. Therefore, the West, which considers itself the master of the world and its civilisation the unchanging truth of the world, has had to give up seeing Islam and Muslims as objects doomed to disappear among the desert sands and to discuss them with objective criteria.

When the religion of Islam and related issues are discussed, it is not possible to keep the issue of Ittihad al-Islam (Islamic Unity) out of the discussion. These discussions also bring along a great deficiency. This is the danger that the discussions on Ittihad al-Islam and political analyses are ideological and that the religion of Islam is confronted with a limited perception.

For example, it would be insufficient to perceive the Islamic Union only as a political project and neglect its foundations. In fact, Islamic Unity should be understood in a 'deep' sense, based on the prophetic method and including the 'caliphate' together with its theological dimensions. As a matter of fact, Bediuzzaman suggests keeping the principles of faith alive based on the Qur'an, which he sees as an unbreakable rope (Urvetü'l-Vüska). Then, a broad perspective method should be followed, taking into account social and cultural differences. In this way, it will be possible for the policies to be formulated to be more robust and sustainable.

The committees of the zındıka, who want to break the unity and solidarity among Muslims, are plotting in Islamic countries, especially in Turkey, for the destruction of Islam, they are implementing nefarious plans and spreading the seeds of separation. These seeds are causing deep wounds in the body of Islam. The only remedy against these movements of irreligion and debauchery spreading all over the world is to embrace the truths of the Qur'an and the Islamic Union.

The sectarian differences that arise due to language, history, culture and geographical differences are used by the disintegration committees against the Unity of Islam. Against these committees, Ahl al-Sunnah, Alevis and other different groups should preserve their unity.

Bediuzzaman addresses against this danger as follows: 'O Ahl al-Sunnah wa Jama'at, who are Ahl al-Haq! And O Alevis, who have adopted the love of Âl-i Beyt as their profession! Quickly remove this meaningless, untrue, unjust and harmful dispute from among you.'

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi has evaluated the concept of 'Union of Islam' within the basic systematics of Islam and used 'Union of Islam' as a key word in his Risale-i Nur corpus. He has put forward this concept as a result of analyses regarding the future of the Islamic World. According to him, this concept will be realised after the completion of two basic tasks. Just as the miles that show the minutes of a clock complete their revolution, days come into existence as days complete their revolution, months come into existence as days complete their revolution, and seasons come into existence as they complete their revolution. Similarly, as the faith in the heart becomes perfected and solidified, the honour of Islam is restored in the life of the community. This, in turn, presents humanity with a civilisation that ensures peace and tranquility. Following this period, a tremendous power provided by Ittihad-e-Islam will establish the truths of Islam in world politics.

This result will bring peace and tranquility to the whole world and humanity. While the present Western civilisation has brought a prosperity based on blood and cruelty to only 10 per cent of humanity and thrown the majority into pain and disaster, Islamic civilisation is based on the happiness of all humanity. In achieving this result, Christians who are not materialists and atheists and who are devoted to the spirituality of Jesus Christ will also support it.

According to Bediüzzaman, Islamic civilisation will 'develop out of the interruption of Western civilisation' and will replace its negative principles with positive principles in line with human nature. Bediuzzaman mentions three phases for the Unity of Islam. The first stage concerns all Muslims individually, and it is that the majority of the people have a faith that is based on knowledge, evidence and research. This stage must be continuous.

The second stage will be possible with the shaping of economic and social life and community life according to Islam's understanding of civilisation on the basis of sociological reality.

The third stage is the stage in which Islam's understanding of administration and politics becomes decisive in world politics. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi finds Islam's administrative system comprehensible with the understanding of republic and democracy and shows the period of four caliphs after the Prophet (s.a.w.) as an example.

The following fact should not go unmentioned. It is necessary to fight against those who try to confuse Islam and Islamic Sharia with primitivism and backwardness, Muslims with terrorism and terrorism, the caliphate with dictatorship or tyranny, the concept of the ummah with tribalism and unorganised ignorant crowds against the realisation of the reality of the Islamic Union, and who try to use advertising, information and communication technologies and those with weak scientific ethics or ideological obsessions from the academic community for this purpose, seriously and using the same ways and channels.

In answer to the question, where is Turkey in the Islamic Union, again according to Bediuzzaman, Turkey is the first addressee of this responsibility and has the most rights in the fulfilment of this duty. He argued many years ago that the assembly of the Islamic Union, which would assume the caliphate, should be formed in Turkey. Therefore, Bediuzzaman's 'Project of Union of Islam' is not only a local idea formed under the influence of the political factors of his time. But at the same time, it is not a subjective fantasy that fails to recognise the differences between Muslims around the world.

There are very important lessons we can learn from Bediüzzaman's ideas, especially for today. For example; the values defended by Bediuzzaman can reconcile all social groups belonging to ethnic and cultural differences that make up the Republic of Turkey on the truths of the Islamic religion of uhuvvet (brotherhood), justice (equality in law) and meşveret (a parliament with the voice of the people).

In the global dimension, the ideas defended by him can reconcile all the people/societies of the world from different religions and cultures around the principles of mercy, compassion and affection, which are the pillars of the religion of Islam. As a matter of fact, the Prophet of Islam "He was sent as mercy to all mankind." According to Bediuzzaman, Islam is mercy not only for Muslims but for the whole world. In fact, according to him, there is a deeper ontological connection between "Islam" and "humanity-humanity".

The only truth that will clean all the dirty traces that Western civilisation has left as a legacy to the world and bring peace and tranquility to humanity is Islam, which Bediuzzaman expresses as "humanity-i kübra" , and the "Ittihad-i Islam" project, which can be seen as its application area. This project offers a perspective worth considering as a solution to the global terrorism, poverty and diseases that threaten humanity today.[2]

THE WORLD IS IN NEED OF ISLAMIC UNITY

Undoubtedly, our wish is for the Middle East to be a region where peace and friendship, not conflict, prevail. The war, conflict and enmity, which both victimise tens of millions of Muslims and drag Jews living in Israel into a life of tension, should end and the Middle East should attain peace and tranquility as it was in the past, i.e. during the Ottoman Empire.

When we try to look for a long-term solution to this issue, we are confronted with the fact that the issue is not only about the Iraq-US-Israel triangle, but that we are actually facing a very large-scale issue that concerns the entire Islamic world. Especially in the post 9/11 world, 'civilisations' have become decisive and the conflicts in the Middle East tend to acquire an 'intercivilisational' identity.

But should the relationship between civilisations be based on 'confrontation', as some have predicted?

No... What should happen and what we wish for is that peace and friendship, not conflict, should prevail between beliefs and civilisations. As a Muslim, the source that guides us in this regard is the Qur'an. Allah (swt) has stated in the Qur'an that the differences between people should be a means of 'acquaintance':

"O mankind, verily, We have created you from a male and a female, and We have made you into peoples and tribes that you may be acquainted with one another. Verily, the most superior of you in the sight of Allah is the one who is most advanced in taqwa (not in race or lineage). Verily, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Knowing."[3]

In another verse, Allah commands Muslims to treat the People of the Book, i.e. Jews and Christians, with kindness:

Do not treat the People of the Book except in the best way, except those among them who do wrong. And say: "We have believed in what has been sent down to us and to you; our God and your God are one, and to Him we are submitted." (Surat al-Ankabut, 46)

Therefore, Muslims should approach the different groups of people on earth with tolerance and endeavour to establish a world order in which there is peace and mutual tolerance among all these different groups. Inviting all people to Islam is, of course, one of the primary duties of a Muslim. But it is essential to treat all people with justice and kindness, whether they respond to this invitation or not. Muslims should aim for the good of all people, as Allah says in the verse: "You are a good ummah for mankind..." (Surah Al-i Imran, 110) Muslims should aim for the good of all people.

However, there is an important problem revealed by 11 September and its aftermath: Some people who appear in the name of Islam, but who are far from grasping the essence of Islam, do not endeavour for the "good of the people", but to torment them. Through their attacks on innocent people, they commit one of the greatest sins forbidden by Islam, i.e. they create "sedition on the earth". With the brutal methods they use, their angry and aggressive rhetoric, they show a moral structure completely contrary to Islamic morality in the name of Islam. Therefore, they put more than 1 billion Muslims in the world under unnecessary and unjustified suspicion. The current crisis in Iraq has escalated as a result of the tensions created by such radicals.

The Qur'an also draws attention to the existence of such people who misinterpret religion and terrorise in the name of religion. (Surah Al-i Imran, 7; Surah Neml, 48-49) Allah has also pointed out the existence of those who are unable to comprehend the beautiful morals at the core of religion due to their ignorance, and who are severe in terms of "disbelief and discord" due to their harsh nature, and warned Muslims about this. (Surat al-Tawbah, 47; Surat al-Hujurat, 14) Indeed, in the history of Islam, there are examples of such ignorant and bigoted people (e.g. the Hashshashis and Kharijites) creating discord in the world by resorting to terrorism in the name of religion.

Therefore, this is a really important issue and it must be solved. In order to solve this problem, the Islamic world needs to be liberated from such distorted movements, re-educated with an understanding of Islam based on the Qur'an, purified from superstitions and excesses, and, in the words of the great scholar Imam Ghazali, "revived".

[1] Union of Islam is not only an Islamic but also a Humanitarian Project, Bridge Magazine, Osman ÖZTÜRK - İbrahim KAYGUSUZ

[2] Union of Islam is not only an Islamic but also a Humanitarian Project, Bridge Magazine, Osman ÖZTÜRK - İbrahim KAYGUSUZ

[3] Surat al-Hujurat, 13)