An Example of Noble Character

secularism. Even traditional Turkish dress was forcibly replaced with European attire. Every form of opposition was suppressed with force. After Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s death in 1938, his associate Mustafa Ismet Inonu (d. 1973) was appointed President of Turkey. He continued Atatürk’s aggressive secular policies with full commitment. Yet, despite nearly fifty years of an anti-Islam government campaign, Islam survived in Turkey. Atatürk’s policy to eliminate Islam completely failed. Even İsmet İnönü had to admit this near the end of his life. While suffering from his final illness, he reportedly expressed the following impression (as cited in Al-Waʿy Al-Islāmi, Dhū alQaʿdah 1408 AH): “It is hard for me to believe what I am seeing. We tried everything we could to uproot Islam from the hearts of the Turks and to implant the principles of Western civilization in its place. But to our amazement, the result turned out to be completely the opposite of what we expected. We sowed the seed of secularism, but the fruit that emerged was Islam.” Another failed example in this regard is the Soviet Union. There, an effort was made first intellectually and then, from 1917 onward, through a powerful government, to eliminate Islam. This campaign continued for nearly a hundred years. But in 1991, the Communist Empire itself collapsed—and astonishingly, from its ruins, Islam reemerged in a living form.