The demand for justice

Justice is the matter on which Muslims are, or should be, most sensitive. In a way, drawing the dividing line between being and not being a Muslim between being just and not being just amounts to the same thing. Let us say this much: "tawhid" and "shirk," which are the essence of Islam, are also a matter of justice, and sins are likewise a matter of justice. Those who make others worship them have overstepped their bounds, that is, the line of justice. And the one who serves a servant does not simply waive his own right of servitude to the whim of his soul; in doing so he too wrongs both his own self and others, and thus violates justice.

Justice is putting everything in its place, giving everyone what he deserves, whether it is punishment or reward, whatever it is. That is why justice is not only a matter concerning the judicial institution; it is a philosophy of existence, a way of life. Justice has a dimension concerning the judiciary, as well as a dimension concerning modes of behavior, and a dimension concerning income distribution. In fact there is no subject that justice does not touch.

These days the point reached in both the Hrant Dink case and the Madımak case makes one acutely feel that justice is faltering, and the more it is felt, the more it hurts.

The statute of limitations running out in the Madımak case injures the sense of justice. But some point to only five persons, who could not be caught and brought before the judiciary, as the target of the statute of limitations. Yesterday, with Özlem Albayrak's very apt question, is not "the presentation of those five persons as the sole target and sole responsible parties of the whole Madımak" one of the things that obstruct the real process of justice in the case? A savage crime against humanity was committed in Madımak, that is true, but where are the real perpetrators of this crime? Are they those five persons?

At the point reached, do those five persons have any role other than giving the real perpetrators of the incident an opportunity to hide, moreover by lining up among those who shout?

Leave aside the incredibly synchronized, harmonious negligence or faults of the governor, the gendarmerie or the special operations units after the crowd gathered. Shouldn't the investigation of that massacre begin again from here?: Have those who in those days insisted on holding the Pir Sultan Abdal festivities in the center of Sivas despite all the insistence of other Alevi opinion leaders, and who insisted on bringing to Sivas Aziz Nesin, who tried to defiantly translate into Turkish the book of Salman Rushdie, who had earned the hatred of the Muslim world for slandering the honor of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt, ever been invited to make any statement to this day? In those days, Aziz Nesin would not have been the last person to be invited to Sivas to commemorate Pir Sultan Abdal.

Just think. What business did a man whose deed was translating into Turkish a book containing the gravest insults to the Ahl al-Bayt, to which Alevis too are most sensitive, and who was the target of the most intense protests even in Istanbul, have in Sivas under those conditions, and moreover at a meeting about Pir Sultan? What mind undertook this organization? The horror of the incident that followed always suppresses the asking of this question, but until when? And isn't the appearance of the now unconcealable memorandum behind the affair, which Abdülkadir Selvi laid out the other day, also part of an excessive artificiality?

Madımak must be called to account. The establishment of justice absolutely requires this. But it must be asked to the very end, in its most radical form. Together with everyone who entered the scene at the last minute and, for whatever purpose, was an accomplice in that massacre, that murder, without getting stuck on only those five persons, but definitely including them too.

As for the course of the Hrant Dink case, let me say nothing for now; I leave the word to the declaration of the initiative titled "we demand justice," of which I am also a part:

"WE ARE THE NATURAL PARTY TO THIS CASE; WE WILL WORK FOR A RETRIAL THAT IS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW, COMPREHENSIVE AND GENUINE

Five years have passed since Hrant Dink was murdered.

But throughout all these years the will necessary to illuminate this murder in all its dimensions has not formed. The deep perpetrator, whose existence everyone knows, has not been brought to light. From the first day, a collective bureaucratic resistance aimed at preventing the realization of justice has been displayed. And the political will, which this murder also targeted, has not been able to display the will needed to break this resistance and to ensure that a fair trial takes place. In short, the organization, structure and workings that carried out this murder have not been uncovered and punished; right has not found its place.

We, who await justice finding its place, are in deep disappointment in the face of this picture.

When it comes to "right," Muslims are the natural and necessary party to the matter.

Those who believe that one who kills a person unjustly is like one who has killed all of humanity, those who are obliged to put justice above all in every case and to bear witness to the truth, cannot remain silent in the face of this open injustice, and cannot remain indifferent to a case in which their faith obliges them to be involved.

Muslims' forming a weight on the side of justice and providing the support needed for this case to conclude in accordance with the law is of vital importance for the realization of justice.

We invite all persons and institutions with Islamic sensitivity to take ownership of their own cause, to fulfill the requirements of their responsibility, and, after five wasted years, to work more actively, together with people of conscience from every segment, for a comprehensive and genuine trial to take place."

The address for signing is: http://www.adalettalebimizvar.com