The real source of democracy and freedom of expressionis Islam

No matter from which line of thought, religion,or nation people may
come from, one of the most important requests of all people in our day
is freedom. People remain healthy as long as they feel free in the
corporal and mental sense, express themselves freely and live as they
wish. A person who is taken under pressure in any realm of his life no
sooner starts to lose his peace, joy and the capacity to produce. When
one recalls the cold, joyless expression, and the dullness in the eyes
of the majority of people in the Soviet Russia and China in recent
history, one will once again remember how, in human life, it is
important to think freelyand lead a free life.
Freedom, which is an important part of humanlife and raises the
quality of life, is a blessing granted by Allahto human beings. Some
people who do not know the morality of religion, and especially Islam
or obtain information from inaccurate sources and examples may harbor
several prejudices and erroneous convictions about this subject.
Though having no accuracy whatsoever, these people assume that Islam
will limit their living spaces and freedom, take their thoughts under
control and restrict arts and science. The fact is however that Islam
is a religion that ensures all kinds of intellectual freedom as well
as freedom of worship and expression, that takes allkinds of rights of
people under protection and, more importantly, presents real freedom
topeople.
However, the following fact should be clear: Allah wishes ease,
comfort, happiness and joy to people. Allah does not wrong people. The
religion, which is the commandment of Allah, also shows people the way
to the most peaceful, blissful, safest, highest quality, comfortable,
and delightful life. There is no compulsion where religion is
concerned. A person believes in Allah and lives by religion, by seeing
Allah's existence and oneness by using hisconscience. Religion is an
acceptance by the heart. If a person is obliged to live a religious
life by force, then this person does not become devout and he simply
becomes a hypocrite. As we are informed in the Qur'an, a hypocrite is
someone who deserves Allah's torment and whose place is at the bottom
of Hell. Furthermore hypocrites not only give harm to themselves, with
their insincere and tricky nature, but also they pose a threat for
society as a whole.
Generating such a peril with one's own hands, bringing hypocrites and
a system of hypocrisy into being is something that Muslims would by no
means wish. Every Muslim, as a requisite of the morality of the
Qur'an, is responsible forshowing people the truepath, enjoining the
good and forbidding theevil. But this never means to oblige others to
think, live, act and dress like oneself. A Muslim shows the truth and
leaves the choice to the person himself. This is the commandment Allah
informs us in the Qur'an.
Along with this, a Muslimwishes all sorts of thoughts and beliefs to
be freely expressed in the society. He respects the opinions, views
and lives of others. He wishesthe systems that are not in compliance
with the morality of religion, and even irreligious, atheist
ideologies and views to be explained, so that he can respond to them
in the scientific and ideological sense. Prohibiting views and
ideologies, taking them under pressure is not ease for a Muslim. On
thecontrary, this is a state that will make the communication of the
religion difficult, and render the scientific struggle harder. In an
environment where everyone can express their thoughts openly, religion
develops easily and becomes even stronger.
Furthermore, a Muslim knows that every man lives the destiny Allah
wills for him. He is awarethat an atheist is an atheist because Allah
created him so. Alternatively, he knows that an unbeliever does not
believe in Allah because that is what is preordained for him by Allah.
Accordingly he truly believes that a member of another religion
believes in that religion because Allah wills it so. He
approachesthese people with compassion, understanding and affection.
He wishes them to be free to express their own views,just as how he is
free to do so. He wants them to live as they wish and be at ease, just
as how he isfree himself to fulfill his acts of worship. Surely this
does not mean that he should condone immorality or cruelty and simply
disregard them. However he does not struggle against them by
oppressing the other party, putting pressure upon them, preventing
them from speaking, writing and expressing his opinion freely. On the
contrary, he carries on his struggle with patience, good words,
modesty, affection and respect. As we stated earlier, a Muslim is not
responsiblefor all the people's guidance except calling them to the
true path. It is Allah Who guides a person. A Muslim only calls to the
true path but by no means oppresses the other party.
As is seen, in the essence of Islam, there is intellectual freedom,
freedom of faith and expression. Some peopleassume that democracy
entered the history of humanity with the ancient Greeks. However, it
is Allah Who teaches democracy to people. From the time ofthe Prophet
Adam (as) allprophets have been the genuine representatives of
intellectual freedom and respect to views. The essence of all primary
concepts – freedom of justice, not putting any pressure upon anyone,
treating everyone as a first class citizens, respecting and trusting
people, not judging anyone due to his views- which are associated with
democracy and are present in the morality of religion. Throughout
history, people have learned these concepts from the righteous
religions revealed by Allah and witnessed its most beautiful examples
during the times when people lived by the righteous religions. When we
look at the times when people wereoppressed due to their opinions and
their different ideologies, members of various religions were
humiliated, while the arts, science and architecture died out. People
lost their joy of living and almost turned into robots. Book
burnings, murders, massacres, genocides became widespread, and we see
the influenceof irreligious, atheist ideologies or those who interpret
the religion with a radical mindset by distancing it from its essence.
Before explaining by evidence that once Allah's righteous religionis
lived in the form it is commanded by Allah, the real justice,
democracy, respect and love, that people have been longing for can be
experienced, we would like to remind with a beautiful good news from
our Prophet (saas):
Very soon, democracy, brotherhood, love, friendship and peace will, by
Allah's leave, dominate the world in an unprecedented way in history
and people will experience the joy, bliss and abundance of faith as
much as they can. As one can clearly see from the signs of theverses,
hadith of our Prophet (saas) and words of great Islamic scholars, the
time in which we live is the End Times. The difficult and troublesome
days of the End Times will, in this century, come to end with the
Prophet Jesus' (as) and Hazrat Mahdi's (as) being instrumental, and
the world will enter a brand new, bright era. (For further information
on this subject, please see www.awaitedmahdi.com) Communicating the
Oneness and Unity of Allah in the most beautiful and wise manner and
introducingpeople to the Islam described in the Qur'an lays a very
important ground for the bright days that we will attain in the near
future. Our wish is that Allah rendersalso this work instrumental in
attainingthe beauties in question.We wish that the days when we see
"people entering Allah's religion in droves" come at once.
DEMOCRACY IS THE UNDERSTANDING OF MORALITY COMMANDED BYALLAH; PEOPLE
WILL ACKNOWLEDGE THE GENUINE DEMOCRACY WITHTHE DOMINANCE OF THE
MORALITY OF ISLAM
ADNAN OKTAR: Now briefly, what will happen in the time of Hazrat Mahdi
(as)? Let me tell it. Full freedom, full democracy, full
enlightenment, full peace, love, compassion,brotherhood, technology,
science and arts will be at its peak point. They will exist in an
unprecedented way. Every view will be free. Every opinion will be
free. In the world [even the letter] "d" of democracy is non-existent
right now. People will know what actual democracy is. Because they
received [the concept of] democracy from the Qur'an. That is from the
Prophet Moses (as), the Prophet Abraham (as). Democracy is very
ancient; it dates back to the Prophet Adam (as), the Prophet Noah
(as). It is an understanding of morality that comes from the ancient
prophets. An understanding of morality commanded by Allah. That is,
granting freedom to all views. Forinstance what does All-Mighty Allah
say? I take refuge in Allah fromsatan. "You have your religion and I
have my religion." Allah says; "There is no compulsion where the
religion is concerned." That is, you can neither make one fulfill his
prayer or tell her to cover her hair. You cannot interfere with
anything of a person. Religion is merely an offer. You communicate it
and that is all. One lives by religion with love. Whencompulsion
enters the equation, a hypocrite comes out. They say, "Weoblige them."
You can only cause the appearance of millions of hypocrites then. You
establish a factory of hypocrites. Right? A hypocrite is the meanest
creature of this world. We will attain such a level of arts that
people will be out of breath. (In his hadith) our Prophet (saas) said
that even those in their graves willenvy them. Even those intheir
graves. Such an environment of security comes into being. For
instance, "women go to Madinah, Mecca and Damascus all alone." All
alone. In darkness, and with their hands free. "Nothing happens", says
our Prophet (saas). "Eventhe predatory animals will be compassionate."
Obedient. Such a development will happen Insha'Allah. Bigotry,
fanaticism, radicalism, fraudulence, insaneness, psychopathy, mafia,
murder, terror organizations; none of these will remain in the time of
Hazrat Mahdi (as). Absolute peace, bliss, love reigns and all weapons
are removed. Including guns and rifles. Tanks, cannons; allof them
will be melted; all of them. Washing machines, refrigerators will be
produced with them, they will be used in constructions; that is iron
will not be used in the production of weapons. It is removed. Where
can you use weapon? It may be in snow-balls war, that is all. As a
joke. Why shouldwar be, my brother? Why should people kill one
another? They are the innocent, pure slavesof Allah. You can
educatethem, tell them, and thatis it. Right? People will think more
clearly. They will construct such architectural masterpieces that
those looking at them will be out of breath. Now we look and see
square buildings like boxes of matches. Are these buildings at all? If
you do them, then make some effort and construct something beautiful.
Right? For each building constructed, you will think to yourself, "I
guess not a more beautiful one can ever be built." They will look at
another one and say, "This is the best one ever." Notice that neither
a theatrical production nor a movie, a quality film or a picture can
be produced.There is none; artistry has died in the world. There are
no longer any artists… (Gaziantep Olay TV, August 3, 2010)
ADNAN OKTAR: No one will intervene another. "Her head is covered,
open" They will be as free as they wish; there will not be something
like that. That is to say, noone will reproach another; because
religion is freedom. Religion endows us freedom,
independence.All-Mighty Allah says, "relieving them of the chains
which were around them." Our Prophet (saas) says thoseheavy chains
wrapping around one's body. All-Mighty Allah says that the Qur'an will
accomplish this. The Qur'an does not bring any chains, It rescues us
from chains; this is the attribute of religion. It brings us
democracy, freedom, independence.Pressure paralyses a person's soul;
it ruins thepower of arts, the powerof writing. For instance I was
watching TV other day; there were those ancient buildings in Europe,
the paintings in them. They cannot ever reproduce those, or produce
new ones. There are very bad imitations of movies. They can only take
photographs and displaytheir photographs. Why?Their power of artistry
has disappeared. Why? Because they do not loveAllah; Allah has taken
thepower in their hearts. When love disappears, science also
disappears, all of them disappear. The man is not strong enough, he
cannot do it,he simply cannot. He canneither paint nor construct a
building, nordo artwork for architecture; nothing of that sort. Notice
that, forinstance, even in the old Turkish movies – except those with
obscene scenes- there was some sense of nobility. Right? There was
quality. Why? Because they were the last Ottomans. They preserved
their spiritual values. Then, a corruption of a great scope occurred
and they have no power right now; they cannot do it. Neither any
artists, nor any actors, nobody appears. Arts disappeared. But I tell
this for the whole world.Not only for Turkey. Those buildings, for
instance, those ancient churches are amazing. But of course we
exemptthose parts related with disbelief. I don't adopt them, of
course. But with the part that is righteous, it is a tremendous
artistry. Why? They made them with the love of Allah. For instance the
old mosques. Can they do the Sultanahmet? The Bayazid Mosque? Right?
Can they construct Nur-i Osmania? They can only imitate them. With
concrete etc. But they are not beautiful either. It is understood when
one looks at them. Does that glory, that beautifulconstruction that
soothes the soul exist? All these and more of them will return back
with the time of Hazrat Mahdi (as). But with much greater beauty. Our
Prophet (saas) says that it will be like the Prophet Solomon (as) and
Dhu'l-Qarnayn (as); he says he will dominatethe world. An
unprecedented sovereignty.