Page 88 - The School of Yusuf (as)

THE SCHOOL OF YUSUF

ments, in control of some media and other means of access to
power, accused Said Nursi and his students of forming secret reli-
gious organizations, of fighting against the regime, and of trying to
destroy the republic’s core values. Consequently, Said Nursi and
120 of his followers were apprehended and, according to some

journalists of the era, “bundled handcuffed into trucks as if they
had started a revolution,” taken to the Eskishehir High Criminal
Court.
It must be stated at this point that throughout these proceed-
ings, the Turkish police and the army acted sympathetically to-
wards Bediuzzaman and his Nur students. Through the
provocation by some irreligious groups, however, they were forced

to do their duty, but without failing to state that they are on the side
of truth. For instance, the commander of the military unit that was
ordered to transport Bediuzzaman and 120 of his followers to
Eskishehir, on the way allowed them to do their daily prayers, re-
moving their handcuffs for this purpose.
Another Islamic thinker, Necip Fazil Kisakurek wrote the fol-
lowing about the apprehension of Bediuzzaman and the Nur stu-
dents:

Despite that in the raid everything of relevance belonging to
Bediuzzaman and his followers was secured, there is nothing
that would indict them. Even so, they did not free them but sent
him with 15 of his followers to prison as if a consolation to a
charge that warranted the death penalty… 105 students are
found not guilty. 28

The Eskishehir court convicted Bediuzzaman and sentenced
him to 11 months in prison. During his term in the Eskishehir
prison, Bediuzzaman endured a very difficult time. He was pun-

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