From Mr. Adnan Oktar's Live Interview on A9TV dated April 20th 2013
SADUN ENGİN: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Tonight we have guests from the United States insha'Allah. Let me first start by introducing them. Omar Mohseni; he is a businessman and lives in San Francisco. David Spady; he serves as the Executive Director of a company named Salem Communications. This company owns around 100 radio stations in the US. In addition to this, it provides content for 2,400 affiliated radios stations. Salem Communications makes religious and political broadcasts. The other gentleman, Mr. Larry Greenfield is a politician; he is Jewish and lives in US, California. He is engaged in international politics and is the anchorman and program host at a Jewish TV channel that is about to start broadcasting in the US. Please you go on Master.
ADNAN OKTAR: Well, welcome, you've brought us grace. You honor us by coming. You have been our guests for some time. Are we able to host you well? How did you find Turkey? Could you inform us briefly, please?
LARRY GREENFIELD: Thank you so much for the hospitality and graciousness. We are very happy to be here. We are learning a lot and we are trying to help the cause.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. Let us learn about your views as well.
DAVID SPADY: It is a wonderful experience. This is my first time in Turkey. It has exceeded all of my expectations. The hospitality has been beyond what I could have expected. And I am very, very pleased to be here and honored to make your acquaintance and be joining you today.
ADNAN OKTAR: Thank you. First of all, your being our guests is a great honor for us, you have graced us with your presence. Insha'Allah, we will go on with this later on, we will be each other's guests mutually and visit one another. Omar is our friend, he has been our brother for a long time, so I am not asking him any questions. But our these brothers here are the real guests today.
Insha'Allah, I believe that America, Turkey and Israel will play a great role in the establishment of peace in the Middle East and throughout the world. I also believe that with the love of Allah, and the sincere feelings you possess in your hearts and with the love of humanity you have in you, you will carry out amazing services. Already you have come here and made nice statements, contacted many people and institutions. You have spoken beautifully. One can feel the zeal and enthusiasm in your heart. One can feel that you will render great services in building peace in the world and putting an end to war and terror. I want to have your opinion about this issue as well. Yes please.
LARRY GREENFIELD: Yes Sir, with your leadership and friendship, I feel inspired to learn more about the ways America can connect with the world because I come from the conservative side in United States politics. I believe I have more credibility and probably more opportunity to be a peacemaker because I understand American history and struggle and wars and conflicts and so instead of only pretend and imagination, this is after having served in US military and having read American history, that I feel confident to reach out and connect and learn and grow and then inspire others to do the same thing.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. It is obvious from your face. Your face reveals the cleanliness of your thoughts and heart. It is already obvious from your visage that your constant pursuit is love, goodness and kindness. Your courtesy and respect also confirm this. As of the issue of "leadership", of course I am your brother. We are all leaders. We all make effort in the path of Islam. We all work for goodness, kindness and faith. But surely I cannot assert a claim on leadership. I can only assert a claim on being a servant. I am a servant of good people, of beautiful honest people. That is my duty. Masha'Allah. I would also want to have your views about it. Yes please.
DAVID SPADY: There is no doubt that Turkey, the United States and Israel are key to Middle East peace. Not just in a political sense, but in a spiritual sense and with leaders from within the spiritual communities joining together to bring that peace through the idea of love. In the Christian faith, which I am part of in our Book, the Bible, in Romans it says that '..as much as you can, live at peace with all men.' It is a command that we have in the Christian faith. And so all of our faiths speak about this idea of love and of brotherhood. And We need to use what we are taught in a spiritual sense to try to bring this peace that is necessary to the Middle East.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah, this means that the followers of Prophet Jesus (pbuh), the followers of Prophet Moses (pbuh) and the followers of Prophet Mohammad (saas) have gathered all together. They have adopted a course of action for Allah, for love and brotherhood. Allah making us meet here is a manifestation, a beautiful consequence of it. By the will of Allah, we will have more fruitful, more successful initiatives. Radical, cruel, pro-violence views will be eliminated from the world. We will transform the world into a place like Heaven, insha'Allah. The world will be an abode of peace. It will be like a fairground. No one will harbor any doubts about anyone. No one will have fear of any other. There will be no conflicts, borders will be removed. Of course national states will continue to exist, but borders will be removed. I mean there will not be any need for passports and visas. We will enter everywhere freely. We will only hear children's shouts of joy. We will join people's friendly meetings and conversations. Every religion will be free within itself. Jews will worship in their synagogues, Christians in their churches and Muslims in their mosques. But as a common attribute, everyone will speak of Allah and the fervor one feels for Allah will prevail all over the world. We can see this. The reason why I love Americans very much is that they love Allah very much and they are very kind, very polite. They are respectful. That is why I love Americans very much. We have some friends who had been to America, they had told me when they were back. They say that they have never seen such kindness in any other part of the world. You see that kindness everywhere, even in traffic. They say that they are very attentive; for instance when the traffic lights turn to red, they certainly stop, even if the road is empty. When they meet someone, they say, they certainly say something kind. They say that they ask about you, they try to help out and this is the case throughout America, without any exception. This becomes possible by the blessing of Prophet Jesus (pbuh), by the blessing of Prophet Moses (pbuh), insha'Allah. Prophet Jesus' words full of love shine in the hearts of Christians with exuberance. The peaceful style of Prophet Moses shines fervently in the hearts of Jews. The model of love peculiar to the time of the Companions of our Prophet (saas), which is far removed from radicalism, which is based purely on the Qur'an and experienced by the Companions, manifests itself in our hearts. But to sustain this, those who are pro-peace, pro-love must be very resolute, very determined. They may try to dissuade us, try to push us aside from our path. We will proceed with commitment and resolution. For instance, evil forces try to hinder the love between Jews and Muslims. We have broken this. We said, "No matter what you do, we love Jews very much and vice versa." Indeed they could not hinder us. They tried to break our love for Christians. We said, "No, we love our Christian brothers very much and so do the Christians." We also stopped this. We have also put an end to this erroneous attitude. They even attempted to set Alawites against Sunnis. We said, "Alawites are very dear to us. We love Shias very dearly and we love Wahabis very dearly." We said, we will not let anyone speak against them, and we also overturned that logic. There is a new path and new progress every day with this determination. But I found it very interesting when you said you felt a metaphysical power in Istanbul. What would you say of this? When we were talking upstairs, you told that you felt that there was a milieu of contentment, comfort and security in Istanbul.
LARRY GREENFIELD: Yes, Istanbul is obviously the meeting of East and West. It's the joining together of cultures. The people here are very wise. They are very strategic, they live in a complicated neighborhood. It made them very smart and sophisticated. By the way, one more thought about the United States. I want to make sure to invite you to be our guest in the United States. And you are right, we are a loving people and respect all the different religions. My great hero is President Ronald Reagan who was a beloved American leader. And he taught us peace through strength. What I'm hearing from you, I'd like to give as a new expression that we need to be determined as we seek to be pluralistic, tolerant and loving. So we need to have love through strength.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah.. Yes, Ronald Reagan was really a very lovable person who reflected American culture very well. We loved him very much and we still love him. He was outstanding with his joyful, warm attitude then. He is a typical American with a loving, compassionate, joyful personality and handsome appearance. He was full of life, and brought colors to life. He was a beautiful face of the modern world and this is what we see throughout the United States. We want America to be strong and we would never desire it to collapse. We want America to remain upright until the Day of Judgment, for America is a country which is very determined in spreading goodness, freedom and humaneness to the world. This is very amazing. Freedom, democracy, love, sincerity without any compromise, they demand. This is a spirit derived from the Bible. A spirit they feel through the blessing of the Bible and the blessing of the Torah. These are very beautiful and American Muslims also experience this spirit. American Muslims are quite modern as well. But of course there are the radical ones; there are weird people but those siding with evil will always lose. Those who are on the path of Allah will always win. We believe that those who are on the path of Allah will win in this century. We believe that the walls surrounding Israel will be removed, and the Masjeed of Prophet Solomon (pbuh) will be reconstructed. We believe that Moshiach, that is, King Messiah, has already come. We believe that the Mahdi has come. We believe that Prophet Jesus has already come and we believe that Prophet Jesus is carrying out his activities with his followers in a concealed manner at this very moment. This abundance, this brilliance has no other explanation. In all corners of the world earthquakes occur, incidents happen and there is disorder prevalent. These are the portents of the coming of Prophet Jesus Messiah (pbuh). In the Bible, Prophet Jesus says this. It is explicitly stated that before his advent, there would be disorder and great wars in the world. Prophet Jesus also says that he will come suddenly, like a thief in the night and in our opinion, he has come all of a sudden and he is carrying out his activities. We are also the followers of Jesus Messiah, the followers of Hazrat Mahdi, followers of King Moshiach. We are the sons of Prophet Moses, the sons of Prophet Abraham and Prophet Jacob (peace be upon them all). We will surely love one another. We will transform this world into a modern, high-quality, pleasant, affectionate place like a fairground. We will put an end to conflicts and disorder insha'Allah.
May I have your thoughts on that, Mr. David?
DAVID SPADY: Well, around the world there are forces of hate that cause division amongst peoples. And the radical elements of Islam have created a lot of fear in America and in the West and even within Islamic countries. I think I am very hopeful that what I see here in Turkey, what I see with what you are attempting to do, is a movement because we have seen a movement of radicalism over the last decade. I see this is the beginning of a movement towards peace and towards a peaceful version of Islam. But a movement that is promoting that not just here in Turkey, but promoting that all around the globe in the same way that the radicals have promoted their version of Islam around the globe. It is something that is very necessary and not something that we can do in America, it is something that the people of Turkey and religious leaders within Islam must do. Christians come from a standpoint of love. Love is the most important commandment that we have. Our Bible says that '...there is no greater love than that a man lay down his life for his friend.' So we are commanded to go so far as to lay down our life for our friends. And that is the kind of love that we want to project across the world through what we do as Americans living our faith.
ADNAN OKTAR: It is not right to call people instigating violence as Muslims, because those ones who are in support of this ruthless system, this satanic system are indeed pagans. This means they are members of a pagan religion, since no Muslim would ever act like that. Muslims abide by the Qur'an, the commandments in the Qur'an are clear. Allah wants us to behave with compassion, mercy and forgiveness and have a loving kindness to all of humanity. Look, even for the idolaters, even for the pagans, in the Qur'an Allah asks us to ensure their security of life. In the verse, Allah says even for those idolaters, while you are taking them from a place they are to another place, do so in safety, even if it means to sacrifice your life and let no harm come to them. But these ones are killing Muslims, Christians and Jews; they are enemies of everyone. They are against you, me. They are enemies to everything and everyone. Allah does not approve of this and He does not consider such people as Muslims, they are idolaters. They are idolaters belonging to the pagan religion. They do not embrace the Qur'an as the basis. We tell them that this is the command of Allah.. For instance, Allah tells us that we can marry People of the Book, marry Christian and Jewish women, and what does marriage indicate; compassion, mercy, love, friendship and trust. And these ones are talking about killing them. Allah tells us that we can get married to them and they talk about murder. Allah says that we can eat their food, visit their houses and become familiar with them, which means you become friends, eat and act together, while they are talking about killing. Why is that? Because they do not abide by the Qur'an, they act based on their polytheistic religion, according to that religion of idolatry, paganism. Consequently presenting them as Muslims would not be right. We can call them idolaters or pagans. Muslims who have faith in Allah would never do such a thing. True believers in Allah would be compassionate towards Christians, Jews and, towards atheists they would feel mercy, they would approach them with compassion. This means they have no intention to destroy them or oppress them, because Allah informs us – I seek refuge in Allah from the satan – "Say; You have your religion and I have my religion." So He tells us not to intervene in any other person's religion and Allah says that there is no compulsion in religion. Allah teaches us that forcing someone in religion is unlawful. Allah has forbidden that. And these people try to convert a person into Islam by force, or if a Muslim reverts from religion they attempt to kill him. They attempt to kill anyone who does not perform prayers or who does not grow a beard. I mean, their list is rather long. The list of those things that deserve to be punished with death reaches a thousand things. They want to kill everything; they want to kill life itself. Then we ask who these people are, and they reply, "They are Muslims". They are not Muslims, they are idolaters, pagans. Therefore those who genuinely have faith in Allah have started to reveal their power within Islam at a great pace, and indeed this is the will of Allah. This reveals that Moshiach and Hazrat Mahdi (q.up) has already come. It reveals that Prophet Jesus (pbuh) has descended as well. Also, there is no other time. We are in the last times of the Day of Judgment. Jesus Messiah says, "There will be great wars and after a generation, I will be coming." WWI and WWII took place, a generation passed by, and as it is said in the Gospel after one generation the Prophet Jesus will be coming; but it is said that he would be coming in a sudden manner. Of course this is faith. According to our faith, Prophet Jesus has already come and Moshiach has appeared as well and those who love Allah will reign throughout the world. This is what I believe in and there is a rapid progress in this respect. Insha'Allah, with the contribution of you, of us, of all of us, we will attain such an end. Let me have your views for the last time and then I will end the program, insha'Allah. Yes please.
LARRY GREENFIELD: Yes thank you very much. So, after September 11, after 9/11, 2001 the American people were very concerned, upset, nervous and questioning who will step forward to be the leader of peace and understanding and tolerance from the Muslim World. By coming here and visiting with you and meeting and learning and making friends in Turkey and the Muslim World we will go back to America and we can say we found (those people); we found the truth, we found the leaders, we found the brothers in the Muslim World. The American people are going to be very happy to see peaceful and loving with Muslims who want that also. So, thank you for that gift.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. I am a servant, I am a servant of good people. I am their gate keeper, I have no other attribute. But thank you for your beautiful views. Yes please, let's also hear you.
DAVID SPADY: Thank you again for your kind invitation to join you on this program. The United States was founded on a constitution that believes that the rights we have as a country in America were given to us by God, not by men, or by government, but by God. And so our country was founded on religious principles and on a belief in God and that has been something that has helped our society be a moral, upright and a free country. And it has helped us show love toward the world through things we have done with humanitarian causes. America has attempted to be in many ways a friend to the world and a friend to the idea of liberty and allowing everybody to live in peace because of the liberties that are granted not by governments, but by God.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Alllah. Very nice. Allah is on the side of the good ones, Allah is on our side, insha'Allah. He has brought us together here and that is again a sign of this. This was destined that this gathering took place. Insha'Allah, this will go on later. May Allah give you health, goodness, beauty, joy, power, and all means. May Allah give us strength so that, insha'Allah, peace, love, modernity, democracy, liberty, and all things beautiful such as love, affection and everything that Allah is pleased of will prevail. I thank you very much. Insha'Allah, we will meet again. Insha'Allah.