ADNAN OKTAR’S INTERVIEW FOR THE AZERBAIJAN STATE NEWS AGENCY (August 2008)

ADNAN OKTAR:Islam is best implemented under laicism. It is experienced in the most perfect form under laicism. Hypocrisy emerges once laicism goes. People start to say they are Muslims although they are not. Compulsion enters the equation, a conception of the religion based on compulsion. There is compulsion on the streets. Something like that breaks out. That is what happens when laicism goes. But what happens under laicism? Armenians openly say they are Armenians, live by their faith and go and worship in their churches.  The Jew goes and worships in his synagogue. The Christian goes and worships in church. And the Muslim goes and prays in the mosque. Nobody interferes with anyone else. Everyone is respectful of and pleasant to everyone else. Irreligious people can say they are irreligious. May Allah forbid. Although there is nothing acceptable about it to us, the atheist can also say that. A communist can say he is a communist. That is what laicism brings about. But what happens when laicism disappears? What happens when you ask the communist what he is? Alhamdulillah, I am a Muslim, he will say.  Is that real religion? It is hypocrisy. You compel people to adopt dishonesty and falsity. People must be free to honestly and genuinely say they are communists. Let someone say he is an atheist, and let the state treat him with affection and protect and watch out for him and treat him as a first-class citizen. In other words, there is no question of belittling anyone because of their beliefs. Nobody can be deprived of the right to life. Democratic rights cannot be taken away. They are whatever Allah has created them to be.  In the Qur’an, Allah says that there will be pagans and people who do not believe in Him. And who creates them? Allah. I could have made them all religious had I wished, says Allah. I could have made them all Muslims. But there is wisdom behind Allah creating them as they are. The advantage with laicism is that it bestows freedom on all. Religion and secularism are in complete harmony. That is how it was in Ottoman times, and how it will be in the future, insha’Allah.

ADNAN OKTAR'S ECH CHOROUK EL YOUMI (ALGERIA) INTERVIEW (17 November 2008)

ADNAN OKTAR: The Islam brought by our Prophet (saas) also enshrines laicism. Laicism also respects the irreligious, Christians and Jews. Everyone can live as they wish, and there is no duress. Nobody interferes with anyone else because of their religion, and there are therefore no hypocrites in such a system. Indeed, laicism is a system of thought taken from the revealed religions. Islam was not drawn from laicism, but laicism is drawn from the Islamic faiths.

ADNAN OKTAR:Under the alternative system people are forced to become Muslims. Hypocrisy thrives in such a system. People pretend to be Muslims although they are not. If you use force to compel someone to pray and fast, hypocrisy thrives in that system. But in the absence of duress, and Allah says there is no compulsion in the religion, then it is a question of “your religion for you,” as Allah puts it in the Qur’an, “and our religion for us.” These verses clearly show the existence of laicism.