Lies at home, lies in the world

The Zaman daily has remained dedicated to an important mission ever since it was founded: to expose the lies of the old media, which was prejudiced against the religious.

Zaman correspondents have worked hard to research allegations raised against religious groups in order to reveal the truth. In the end, those news reports were compiled in a book, “Yalan Haber Dosyası” (Dossier of False News).

Take, for example, how some papers argued that Timurtaş Uçar had harshly criticized and insulted secularism in a sermon he delivered in Yeni Camii. Brief research revealed that Uçar had never delivered a sermon at that mosque and that he had not been an active cleric for seven years. A report by three expert witnesses also confirmed that the speech was not made by Uçar.

Following this, new newspapers emerged from among the conservative circles. The religious became more active in the media; they consolidated their presence on TV, radio and the Internet. The number of conservative media outlets increased during the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) terms in office.

However, the only thing that this media, which would have made a huge contribution to the promotion of democratic and ethical values, have been doing for a while now is trying to convince the people that the Hizmet movement is a horrible terrorist organization. There might be differences and disagreements among different groups, but these must be discussed in a civilized manner. However, what is going on now is pretty different. The old media had in the past made an alliance with coup supporters and defined religious circles as a threat; but now, some of the conservative media outlets are doing the same to the Hizmet movement.

Telling the truth does not work. It is as if they are following in the footsteps of the greatest master of propaganda of this century rather than ethical principles and norms. Our religion states that telling a lie is the greatest sign of hypocrisy; but that master sees it as the most important tool in psychological warfare: Tell a lie; somebody will eventually believe. The people will be more inclined to believe big lies than they are relatively insignificant ones. Instead of defending yourself, take aggressive action so that your opponent will have to defend himself...

http://hizmetmovement.blogspot.com/2014/03/lies-at-home-lies-in-world.html#more