Our press release titled " Islam in the grip of manipulations” was presented to the public by Veysel Başar, UHİM Secretary General, a press conference held at Haveran Restaurant.

The world which we live in and has been shaped by West since the last few centuries, has not succeeded in bringing humanity to a better point than it was in the past. On the contrary, when we look at the recent developments, it would not be wrong to say that the current global system under the control of Western states and structures has brought disaster to the world. Thusly, pieces of information below confirm this bitter truth:

• While the number of countries defined as “Least Developed” was 25, today it was being increased to 49 by the BM’s regulation in 1971.
• According to the Global Wealth Report 2015, 50% of $250 trillion global wealth is in the hands of the top 1%.
• The size of the total assets of the world's 50 largest banks corresponds to the gross domestic product of 187 countries in a year.
• While the actual trade in the world is $50 billion per day, this figure reaches $5 trillion with artificial transactions. In other words, 99% of commercial transactions on a global scale are virtual.
• According to data provided by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, the need for humanitarian assistance in the world has increased 12 times more in the last 15 years to $245 billion per year.
• The annual cost of ciwil wars, occupations and military operations, which are launched every year, is $15 trillion per year.
• Approximately 50 million animals are slaughtered annually by the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, leisure and clothing industries.
• According to UN data, there are 250 million drug addicts in the world and 6 million people lose their lives due to tobacco as for that 2.5 million people lose their lives due to alcohol use.
• According to the OECD report, an average of 50% of children born in Europe are born out of wedlock. This ratio is over 60% in some countries.
• About 1 billion people in the world are starving and every year 2.3 million children die from malnutrition.

The sole responsible of this situation is the current system and the institutions and persons that is the representative of this system. All elements of Islamic civilization which have the potential to produce solutions to these problems are exposed to various manipulations due to this potential.

The geography that we can define as the Islamic world in the most general terms, has been faced with many aspects of manipulation in political, social and cultural fields in the process of Westernization, for nearly 200 years. However, it is seen that Islam was systematically, especially in the post-Cold War period, put on the target in many areas such as politics, art, academia, media, civil-society. In this manipulative process, it is seen that Islam's sacred values, concepts, symbols, assumptions and practices, briefly stated all material-spiritual things that shapes the life of a Muslim, are trying to weared away. With these attrition processes, societies are got ready to prone to manipulation and preparing to be deceived. As we witnessed in the historical process, the perceptual operations leveled at Islam and Muslims, have continued uninterruptedly throughout the history of Islam for more than 14 centuries and have reached its most dangerous dimensions today.

Within this framework, manipulations targeting Islam are discussed in our report under the following seven headings:
Manipulation Through Association with Islam: Islam is constantly associated with negative concepts such as “terror”, “violence”, “obscurantism” and is established a correlation between Islam and these concepts as if exist in the essence of Islam. Programs that consistently link Islam with terror is broadcasted in the media, the Hollywood industry produces films that will reinforce this perception, the Oscar Awards reward the films which shot according to this understanding, non-governmental organizations claiming to be independent are preparing researches and reports which will differentiate Islam with terror in the minds, politicians often express this unrealistic claim in their statements.

Manipulation Against the Basic Concepts of Islam: Many concepts that are at the basis of the Islamic faith such as “jihad”, “sharia”, “caliphate” is assigned a negative meaning. The manipulations carried out in this direction have been so successful that even today Muslims are beginning to adopt a negative approach to these concepts. For example, jihad, means to put up a fight in accordance with the orders of Allah, has become almost equivalent to carrying out a terrorist act with the perception that is created.

Manipulation Against the Sacred Values of Islam: The holy values of Islam are targeted and belief in Allah, Quran and the Prophet Muhammadis tried to be discredited by various ways and methods. The Quran is clearly insulted at US and European parliaments, is claimed that the Quran is the source of violence and Quran pages are burned by those who claim to be civil activists. Cartoons aimed to insult Prophet Muhammad are served to the world via media, religious symbols such as “kelime-i tevhid”, which is considered sacred to Muslims, are also being puttied in subcontracted terrorist organizations’s hands. These manipulations are tried to be legitimized with covers like “freedom of thought” and “freedom of expression”.

Manipulation Against Religious Duties: Religious obligations are tried to be insignificant through campaigns organized by media, popular culture and non-governmental organizations. While millions of animals are slaughtered annually in the cosmetic, clothing and medicine sectors, the practice of sacrifice which limited ethically and humanly is shown as brutal. Religious holidays are converted into a holiday organization; feast days celebrated by Muslims in unity is introduced as an opportunity to escape from the city.

Manipulation Through the Creation of Different Islamic Perceptions: With the manipulations that aim to weaken the influence of Islamic world, Muslims are fragmented intellectual and political. Through “sectarianism” virus, Muslims are wanted to be divided into Shiite and Sunni and in this way is paved the way for religious sect war. The chaos and civil war environment experienced in Iraq and Syria reveals the dangerous dimension of this virus in Islamic geography. On the other hand, definitions such as “Moderate Islam” or “Radical Islam” is created a perceptionas if there are more than one Islam.

Manipulation Through the Discourse of Freedom: Life styles that are prohibited according to Islamic beliefs are spreading through discourses such as “freedom” or “sexual preference” in the Muslim countries. As we witnessed in our country, abortion is tried to be legitimized as a woman’s right, homosexuality is popularized with march and similar activities, concubinage is normalized with popular culture. All these activities are trying to undermine the family institution which forms the basis of Islamic society.

Manipulation Through Discrediting: Some individuals and institutions are tried to be discredited via assassinations and smear campaigns. However, in these processes, rather than the individuals and institutions, the values that they are trying to represent are weared away. As seen in the campaigns run against the “Ensar Vakfı” and “Deniz Feneri Derneği”, campaigns are usually organized that target the whole religious population on the basis of an individual incident.

The tools used to be implemented these manipulations are examinedunder the following five headings:
The Tools of Legalization/Political-Legal Institutions: Political and legal authorities are the main pillar for the implementation of manipulations. Legalization of manipulations is ensured with particularly parliaments of the US and European states and through international structures. Every year, tens of anti-Islamic laws are passed in the parliaments of Europe and the United States, a double standard attitude is adopted toward lawsuits that involving Turkey and Muslims in Europe, International Criminal Court is ignoring Western states that commit crimes war and humanity.

The Tools of Massification/Print, Visual, Social Media: Manipulations are serviced and publicized to world public opinion via US and European-based international media. The format of events, the language used, the preferences of the photographs, the articles and the interpretations play a role at this point. Researches based on millions of news shows that in the Western media, it is almost impossible to find a positive Muslim depiction. On the other hand, Western media has acted with a manipulative approach during the military coup in Egypt, Gezi Park and Turkey's failed coup attempt.

The Tools of Legitimization/Culture-Art Organizations: International culture-art organizations serve to legitimize the manipulative discourse and practices targeting Islam in the world. Islamophobia is pumped by organizations such as Hollywood, Oscar and Nobel, the perceptions that identify Islam with terrorism are processed to subconscious of societies, thus, is paved the way for the occupation activities in Islamic geography.

The Tools of Inquiry Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and Academia: CSOs and academic communities funded by the state, companies and structures representing the global system are significantly served in which areas of manipulations will be sustained and which intellectual foundations will be built on. The works produced by universities, think-tank organizations and human rights organizations apparent independent and civilian, forms a basis of the ideas of manipulations. Research shows that there are hundreds of organizations only in the US which operated for this purpose and millions of dollars funds is transferred to these institutions.

The Tools of Verification/Subcontractor Terrorist Organizations: In recent years, especially ISIS, Boko-Haram, al-Shabab etc. terrorist organizations’s acts veifies that organizations have actived with the aim of negative perception on Islam. These organizations harm the values of Islam as well as assume a subcontractor role in the wars of global system. US supports Al-Qaeda during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (but after September 11, declared it a terrorist organization); in recent years in our geography, Western global system’s relations with the terrorist organizations especially ISIS, PKK, PYD and FETO reveals the this truth.

We hope that our study titled “Islam in the grip of manipulations”, a holistic approach to manipulations which targeting Islam and Muslims and becoming more systematic in the last quarter of century, will contribute to the destruction of the artificial perceptions created in the world public.

PRESS RELEASE / January 3, 2017 (Tuesday)
INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR WATCHING VIOLATIONS OF RIGHTS