Pinar Tremblay
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly
told the world and his people that the words “Islam” and “terrorism”
should not be used together, because Muslims cannot be terrorists. Indeed, Erdogan has insisted that students who attend Turkey's religious imam hatip high schools would never become terrorists.
Yet the man Erdogan accuses of masterminding the July 15 coup attempt
is none other than the president's former close friend and ally,
Fethullah Gulen, a Sunni imam. This has made the situation rather
uncomfortable for the president and the Justice and Development Party
(AKP) government. Acknowledging that Muslims might deliberately hurt and
even murder other Muslims is not easy in general for the majority of
Turks, so what can be done to address this uncomfortable reality?
