Turkey's Diyanet warns against religious exploitation in Friday sermon

Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) delivered a Friday sermon across all 81 provinces on July 10, 2026, focusing on the theme of religious exploitation. The sermon specifically addressed the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, characterizing it as a day when the nation, with divine help, thwarted the plots of traitors manipulated by global powers through the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

The Diyanet's message highlighted that FETÖ's distinctiveness among treacherous networks lies in its exploitation of Islam and sacred values. The organization, it stated, presented itself as pious while using concepts like 'teacher,' 'community,' and 'service' for its base ambitions. The sermon accused FETÖ of concealing its true intentions, ruining young people's futures, and justifying lies, hypocrisy, and all forms of evil for its own benefit, even using religious obligations like zakat and charity as tools for its insidious aims.

The sermon also issued a warning that dangers similar to FETÖ persist today. It asserted that those seeking to divide Turkey and weaken its unity and brotherhood have not abandoned their objectives. Malevolent forces, it stated, will continue to exploit religion through various guises and methods, targeting faith, brotherhood, and social cohesion. These groups will attempt to sow discord and disrupt societal peace wherever they find opportunity.

Concluding with a hadith, the Diyanet's sermon underscored the severity of using religion for worldly purposes. The included saying warned: 'How bad is a person who makes religion a tool for the world! ... How bad is a person whose desires lead him astray! ...'

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FETÖ’yü diğer ihanet şebekelerinden ayıran en belirgin fark, yüce dinimiz İslam’ı ve muazzez değerlerimizi istismar etmesidir. Suret-i haktan görünerek; ‘hoca’, ‘cemaat’, ‘hizmet’ gibi medeniyetimize ait kavramları alçak ihtirasları için kullanmasıdır. Gerçek amacını gizlemesi, gençlerin geleceklerini karartması; menfaatleri uğruna yalanı, ikiyüzlülüğü ve her türlü kötülüğü meşru görmesidir. Zekât, sadaka ve kurban gibi ibadetleri sinsi emellerine ulaşmada aracı kılmasıdır