Aydin Inal

  One of the latest expressions we keep hearing is the notion of a “new normal”. Well, It has been some time since I and some of my friends have lost the good old normal. Hence I called it new(est) normal.  Surely this new is not necessarily a better version of the old as it is usually the case.  I have been living in South Africa since 1998. In the old normal we used to go and visit our families approximately once a year. in our new ‘not-so-normal’ we have not been able to do it for that past five years.  In the old normal, we used to be worried about falling victim to a crime in South Africa, but in our ‘not-so-normal’ we also worry about being kidnapped and taken to another country like a criminal as it happened to some of our friends in other countries.  We had to watch our moves more carefully as we could be followed and targeted by long arms of a foreign government.  We had to let people know that we are going to the embassy of the country of our birt...

Dostum nasılsın görüşmeyeli? Evet başımıza büyük isler geldi demiştim ya, demek büyük ve önemli şeyler yapılmış. Başımıza gelen sefa gelmiş. Ne gam! İşler iyiyken alkış kıyamet iken beraber olduklarımızı simdi başımıza bir şeyler geldi diye terk edecek değiliz ya? Başımıza düşen taşı yukarı atanın da pesine düşmeyelim. Senin yolunun Rehberi-i Ekmeli yerini terk eden okçuların pesine düşmüş müydü ki? Bize de onu takip etmek düşmeli.   Herkes heyecanla koştururken olan olmuş. İyi ki de olmuş diyorum bazen. Ama sonra sus diyorum kendime. “Paletler altında ezilen, hayattan bezdirilen onca masum ‘dostuna’ ayıp değil mi?” diyorum? Susuyorum. Rabbim sen görüyorsun diyorum. Yapanları sana havale ediyorum diyorum. Zira biliyorum olan senin kudret dairenin dışında değil ki? Sen olduruyorsun, bize boyun bükmek düşer.   Ama başımıza düşen taşı birisi yukarı atmıştı ki gelip başımıza düştü, öyle değil mi? O atmasaydı düşmeyecekti. Bulalım o taşı atanı ve soralım hesabını. Peki son...

Dostum diyeceğim sana. Neredesin, ne yapıyorsun bilmiyorum. Daha önce tanışmış ta olabiliriz tanışmamış ta. Ama bugünlerde biraz dertliyim de, aklıma sen geldin.   Hani derler ya boşa koyuyorum dolmuyor, doluya koyuyorum almıyor. İşte öyle bir hal var üzerimde.   Yapılması gereken işlere bakıyorum bir de kendime bakıyorum. Is çok büyük, ben çok acizim. İradem zayıf. Ortaya is koymak hiç kolay olmuyor. Ben de ürküyorum, ve üzülüyorum. Ve kalbim burkuluyor birsey yapamamaktan   Hatırlar misin eskiden talebeydik. Ah ne güzeldi. Ne kadar da rahatmışız. Elimiz dünyaya bulaşmamış, her şeyi daha bir saf görüyorduk. Ben pek bir is beceremezdim ama yanımda öyle dostlarım vardı ki, onlarla neler yapılmaz ki? Alınmıyorsun değil mi? Dost alınmaz ama. Sana onun için dostum dedim. İçimi dokuyorum sana.   Sonra islerimiz oldu. Unvanlarımız oldu. Çok ta değil canim, öğretmen olduk. Bak bu çok tatlı bir unvan iste. Öğretmen. Beklentisi, hırsı, menfaati olmayan s...

Last three years have left deep wounds in the psyche of the Turkish society  15 July 2106 was one of the most significant and traumatic days of modern Turkish history. On a summer Friday evening, when millions of Istanbul residents were out on the streets welcoming the weekend, a group of soldiers appeared near the bridge that connects two sides of Istanbul across the Bosphorus.  People fist could not comprehend what was happening. Most people though it was either some kind of a military exercise or the Army was responding to some sort of a terror threat. But later on soldiers were saying that it was actually a “coup”.  People were puzzled. Because Turkish army has done coups before to overthrow governments but they never started like a weekend party on a Friday night during peak hour in a city with over 15 million people. Nevertheless, there were the soldiers in their uniforms claiming to take over the government. Soon after fighter jets started flying low over th...

Last three years have left deep wounds in the psyche of the Turkish society  15 July 2106 was one of the most significant and traumatic days of modern Turkish history. On a summer Friday evening, when millions of Istanbul residents were out on the streets welcoming the weekend, a group of soldiers appeared near the bridge that connects two sides of Istanbul across the Bosphorus.  Most people were puzzled and thought it was either some kind of a military exercise or the Army was responding to some sort of a terror threat. But later on soldiers were saying that it was actually a “coup”.  Turkish army has done coups before to overthrow governments but they never started like a weekend party on a Friday night during peak hour in a city with over 15 million people.  If this was a military coup, which is supposed to be against elected government, why didn’t the soldiers rather go after government figures like the President, PM, ministers, members of the parliament...

This is noted I took few years ago on an article mentioned below. I found them in my email and thought will post them here for safe keeping.  The article titled “ Erdogan and Gulen: A political battle through the courts ” have landed in my inbox today and having an interest in the topic I read it immediately. To my amazement, the article looked like it was translated from Yeni Akit, a daily newspaper which made its duty to justify everything and anything government and Erdogan does and blame everything on Gülen and his movement. I have decided that I should jot down some notes on the problematic aspects of the article. Her we go…  Firstly, some serious assumptions which are based on allegation by mostly AKP media in Turkey with no tangible proof have been included as if they are agreed upon claims. In addition, unfortunately, the corruption allegations have just been briefly mentioned and the scope of it is undermined. This grossly threatens the objectivity of the articl...

Sadly Hizmet Movement and Gulen has always been drawn into contemporary current and political discourses in Turkey. In the past it has been accusations of turning Turkey into an Islamic (Sharia) state and now ruling party and President are accusing them of infiltrating the state for sectarian interests.   We are yet to see whether or not the latest claims will stand the test of time and historical and logical scrutiny. But one thing is clear that such times deprive one of the most significant and unique movements in Islamic world of the attention it deserves.  Scholar of the field would agree that Hizmet bears unique characteristics compared to other modern Islamic movements. It is definitely different to contentious or advocacy movements of the West. Firstly its founder, on the one hand, engages in profound expositions of some of the deepest spiritual traits of Islamic thought and on the other hand he engages in and offers striking discourses on contemporary issues. ...