In the death of Necmettin Erbakan the Muslim world has lost a great leader, a true Islamist and an intrepid fighter for Islamic values and Muslim causes. Throughout his career he fought oppression, military intervention and western domination and died as a martyr for his cause at the age of 84 after an ideal and admirable life. He had to wage a tireless struggle against an out and out anti-Islamic dispensation and face frequent military interventions which had covert and overt backing of the western counties especially the USA.
When he started his political struggle, the atmosphere in Turkey was heavily loaded against anything distantly Islamic. The type of secularism being pursued in 99 per cent Muslim Turkish republic was extremely undemocratic and aggressively anti-Islamic. Mere mention of word Islam was enough for immediate disqualification from politics. The one after another bans against Erbakan-led National Order Party, National Salvation Party, Refah Party and Virtue Party tell a sad story on the state of affairs in Turkey.
Erbakan served thrice as Deputy Prime Minister and finally became Prime Minister in 1996 but was thrown out within one year through the military intervention. Within one year of his tenure as Prime Minister he successfully launched D-8 for economic development and political cooperation among eight major Muslim countries namely Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria and Turkey. D-8 movement has done great service to the eight largest Muslim countries, whose total population is around one hundred crore which accounts for about 60 per cent Muslims of the world.
The present Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also trained by Erbakan. He broke away from Erbakan but has been broadly following his mentor’s policies.
Islam has been the basis and bedrock of Erbakan’s vision and mainspring of his inspiration. He lived, fought and died for nothing other than Islam and a dignified life for the Muslim Ummah. He would be always remembered for the sacrifices he made for making Islam the basis of a modern state and successfully taking Turkey on the path of making it a state which is built on the universal Islamic values of submission to God, following His law and promoting independence and real democracy.
May Allah shower his mercy on this sincere servant of Islam and grant him His abiding grace in the everlasting life. May He grant his followers wisdom and strength to fulfil his unfinished work and realise his dream of making a strong and united Muslim world which can stand firm on its ethical and moral foundations and become a beacon of strength and inspiration for deprived sections of humanity and weaker nations of the world.