Disguised as religion, FETO seeks power: Top cleric

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's top cleric Mehmet Gormez said Thursday that the FETO terrorist organization is a movement of power and privilege and cannot be associated with lslam.

He made the remarks at a two-day extraordinary shura, or consultative council, in Ankara called by the agency he heads, the Religious Affairs Directorate, to discuss the bloody military coup bid blamed on the Fetullah Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO).

The meeting sought a religious perspective and to determine the concrete response to the attempted coup.

"FETO/PDY cannot be considered a religious body," Gormez said. "FETO's leader Fetullah Gulen cannot be considered a scholar or preacher."

Gormez, releasing a declaration at the meeting’s end, said the shura members discussed the damage FETO caused not only to Turkey and its people but also to the religion of Islam and the entire Muslim community.

"There is no 'innocent and indisputable' authority or guide in Islam other than the Prophet Mohammad," said Gormez. "Nobody or no entity can see itself as an absolute representative of Islam and call other people to total obedience. This is contrary to the book of Allah and the Sunnah [verbal record of Mohammad’s teachings and deeds]."

He said the directorate’s decisions were not reached just over the meeting’s two days.

"We took into consideration FETO/PDY's acts and behavior, looking at their 40-year existence, and to books, reports, articles, and testimony by its members," he added.

"FETO/PDY is a movement of power and privilege, under the guise of religion," Gormez said. "It is an open abuse of religion and a movement of a fake mahdi [messianic leader]."

He added that Gulen constructed an unhealthy mentality with so-called religious statements and mysterious stories and dream stories, rather than Islam's fundamental information sources.

"The organization tried to base their orders on the Prophet Mohammad by telling dreams," Gormez said. "It is impossible that this organism is authorized by religion, an organism which basically tricked its followers and built an authority among themselves."

In the coup’s continuing aftermath, he said, a Eurasia Islamic shura will be held to set the record straight.

"FETO's domination in Central Asia, the Balkans, Africa, and the Far East will be marked and their forgery and destruction under the guise of education will be exposed," Gormez said.

The top cleric also urged authorities to look at religious education at every educational level.

Turkey accuses U.S.-based preacher Gulen of being the mastermind of the failed coup and has sent the U.S. two official requests for his extradition to face trial.

Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. since 1999 and is also accused of leading the Fetullah Terrorist Organization or FETO.

The coup attempt left 238 martyrs in its wake and nearly 2,200 others injured.