PRESENTER: You said that the Islamic Union will include Israel as well as the countries of the European Union?
ADNAN OKTAR: Yes.
PRESENTER: How will that happen?
ADNAN OKTAR: Israel also represents the People of the Book. They lived in great ease during the time of our Prophet (saas), and will do so again. It will be a union that also includes them. In the same way that Christians and Jews lived literally heavenly lives in the time of the Messenger (saas), that they enjoyed justice, plenty and peace, so they will do so again in the time of Hazrat Mahdi (as).
PRESENTER: What attitude should Muslims adopt to Israel? Should it be a normal policy, since they will also join the Islamic Union and despite all they have done to Palestine, or what?
ADNAN OKTAR: They (Muslims) must treat the devout people of Israel with love and affection, but oppose the atheist Zionists in Israel. The latter are working hand in hand with the masons, and it is they who are doing the oppressing. The devout people of Israel must be shown a deep love and affection. They are innocent and living under very difficult conditions. The people we are concerned with are the atheist Zionists and masons. We will strive against them, but our struggle must be an intellectual one, a struggle of ideas rather than a physical and destructive one.
PRESENTER: An intellectual struggle alone?
ADNAN OKTAR: Yes, ideas, culture and knowledge are the strongest weapons against Darwinism, materialism, communism, fascism, savage capitalism and imperialism. It is wrong to use violence and weapons against people who are capable of listening to and hearing the truth and being convinced by it. That is a violation of the moral values of the Qur’an. People capable of listening, being convinced and speaking should be treated with love. But if they are oppressive, shed blood and commit murders, then Muslims will defend themselves. Islam enshrines defense, not aggression. But if a person is savage, if he behaves savagely, if he kills and represses others, then the other side will defend itself, and that self-defense is lawful, in other words, something commanded by the Qur’an. But in the absence of such a situation, in the absence of violence, people must be treated with love, preaching them the word and winning them over with love and affection and telling them of the moral values of the Qur’an.
PRESENTER: In other words, people must abandon their weapons?
ADNAN OKTAR: Our weapons are the Qur’an and the hadith, love and affection and compassion. All Muslims have a religious obligation to assist Hazrat Mahdi (as). Muslims have a duty to spread the religion of Allah and the Qur’an and to teach people the excellent moral virtues of our Prophet (saas). Helping Hazrat Mahdi (as) means in that sense, and killing and bombing innocent people is a sin. No such thing is permissible in Islam. Everyone is in any case already a follower of Hazrat Mahdi (as), willingly or otherwise. All the Muslims in the world are the troops of Hazrat Mahdi (as) and already serve him. The coming of Hazrat Mahdi (as) is an article of faith in the Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliqi and Sha’afi schools. And in Shiism, Jafarism and Alawism. In other words, 95% of the Muslim world knows that the coming of the Prophet Jesus (as) and Hazrat Mahdi (as) is a certain fact. There is no aggressive war in Islam. Defensive wars took place in the time of the Messenger (saas). If the unbelievers wage an intensive war and uses weapons, then it will protect itself and the people around, of course, but apart from that, Islam must be communicated with love and affection.
IDEAS, CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE ARE THE STRONGEST WEAPONS, ISLAM MUST BE COMMUNICATED WITH LOVE AND AFFECTION (From live interview on Radio Al Ansar, Durban-South Africa, September 14th, 2009)
