Adnan Oktar's views on dialogue initiative

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ADNAN OKTAR'S LIVE INTERVIEW WITH BAŞKENT TV

(February 13, 2009)

ADNAN OKTAR: As far as I understand there are two kinds of interfaith dialogue. We love the People of the Book, they are our brothers, we embrace them, protect and watch over them. But if a Jew comes up and says, “I do not believe in the Hereafter but my other features are good enough,” we would not accept that. But if he says that he loves the Prophet Abraham (pbuh), we would kiss him on the forehead. This is the same for a Christian, if he talks about the Hereafter, Heaven and Hell, then we would accept him as our brother and again kiss him on the forehead. But if he claims Allah is one of the three (Allah is surely beyond that), then we would not accept that and abide by that belief. In this respect dialogue is very good but there is another claim which I heard but did not see myself, I am not sure of its authenticity, that is: “Judaism is a divine religion, Christianity is a divine religion, Islam is a divine religion. Everyone is free to choose whichever one he likes, so these three religions should be in dialogue and unite.” There is no such thing, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam. It is very obvious they have been distorted. I read the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur’an every day. Those are distorted apparently and even a five year-old would see that. First of all, in Christianity there are four books and they say (Allah is surely beyond that) Allah is three. What does this mean? The Prophet Jesus (pbuh) prays, eats, sleeps and has natural needs. They claim he is Allah. They must not claim so, it is a great wrongdoing on their part. Such a statement would turn devout people away from religion, they should all consider devout Christians and youngsters while resorting to such lunacy. That is craziness and Allah says, I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed satan, “the heavens are all but rent apart,” (Surah Maryam, 90) because of these claims. These will be corrected and we are expecting the return of the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) Insha’Allah and with his appearance all of these will be completely solved. During the time of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh), Christians will come very close to Islam.

ADNAN OKTAR’S MAVİ KARADENİZ TV INTERVIEW (December 31, 2008)

ADNAN OKTAR: Jews are our brothers, devout Jews are very dear to us. Devout Christians are also very dear to us, they are our beloved brothers. We may marry their daughters, eat their food and trade with them. We pay visit to them and they come and visit us as well, we talk and have friendly conversations together. We make an effort to invite them to Islam but only with grace and love as stated in the Qur’an without offending them. They may also account for their own thoughts, and we explicate our thoughts and this is what I call dialogue.

ADNAN OKTAR’S KANAL 55 (SAMSUN) INTERVIEW

(August 2008)

ADNAN OKTAR: Let me explain what I understand from the term dialogue. For instance, I have a Christian neighbor and I call him to dinner. I ask him about his health and condition and inquire how I can help him. I question if he is in peace and has provisions for eating and drinking and whether he is in need of something or not. It makes no difference if he is a Christian, Armenian, Protestant, Orthodox or Jew. They are all our brothers and the People of the Book. I regard this to have conversation and talk with them, that is what I call dialogue. It was the same during the time of our Prophet (May Allah bless him and grant him peace) and you know one of the concubines of our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was Christian and he had Christian and Jewish neighbors. Our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) had meals with them, talked to them and made friends with them. This is what I call dialogue, but if there is a novel logic which I am not aware of, then I do not agree with that.

2010-01-14 04:02:25

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