AMED / MERSIN - Responding to the attacks carried out by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) against Kurds in Aleppo, Mele Abdullah Arkan stated, "So-called Muslims are massacring Kurds in Rojava," while Democratic Islamic Congress (DİK) Delegate Yunus Kaya noted that what is happening is contrary to humanity. 

 

Reactions continue to HTS's attacks on the Şêxmeqsûd (Sheikh Maqsoud) and Eşrefiye (Ashrafieh)  neighbourhoods of Aleppo. Mele Abdullah Arkan, member of the Mesopotamia Islamic Research Federation, and Yunus Kaya, delegate of the Democratic Islamic Congress (DİK), commented on HTŞ's attacks. 

 

Mele Abdullah Arkan described the attacks on funerals as "savagery." Recalling that tens of thousands were forced to flee their homes in the Turkish-led attack on Efrîn (Afrin), Arkan said that Kurds who settled in the neighbourhoods were again being targeted by groups supported by Turkey. Arkan stated that HTS attacked with a policy of denial and destruction, noting that the people of Efrîn were subjected to death and exile despite harming no one. 

 

THEY MURDERED THE BABY 

 

Arkan said: "There was a massacre targeting women, from an 11-year-old child to a baby in a cradle. We all saw those images. We saw how the child was beaten to death. They threw a woman fighter from a building, shouting 'Allah u ekber'. What they are doing is hypocrisy. They are enemies of humanity. Only Allah can take the life that Allah has given. But these people are committing massacres in the name of Allah." 

 

Arkan stated that jihadist groups are enemies of all religions, especially Islam, and pointed out that the Turkish media portrays those who carry out these massacres as heroes, while labelling the people defending their land as "terrorists". 

 

Saying that thousands of Jews and Muslim Kurds took to the streets to protest Israel's attacks on Gaza, Arkan criticized now they are doing nothing about the current attacks in Aleppo. 

 

'RESPECT FOR THE DEAD IN ISLAM'

 

Yunus Kaya stated that even war has rules, noting that respect for hostages and the dead is a fundamental principle in the Islamic faith. Recalling that the Prophet Muhammad stood up when a Jewish funeral passed by. "According to Islam, there is respect for the dead and prisoners. You cannot treat a funeral with savagery. You cannot insult them," he said.

 

Kaya stated that the understanding of religion shaped by those in power today is incompatible with Islam, saying, "Those who shoot at the people or throw funerals from buildings while shouting 'Allah û Ekber' are insulting Allah. You cannot kill people in the name of Allah or disrespect funerals." 

 

Kaya concluded: "Nowadays, when it comes to the Kurds, Arabs, Turks and Persians seem to forget the ummah, Islam, Allah and the Prophet in the face of the oppression against the Kurds. This means that they are not Muslims. It means that they are not from the Prophet's ummah. If they were part of the Prophet's ummah, they would not grab a woman by her hair and treat her disrespectfully. They would not throw a coffin out of a building. The silence of religious scholars today is not for Allah, but for their own interests and benefits. The acts of worship are symbolic. If they were not symbolic, they would have stood up against this oppression.”

 

MA / Mehmet Gules - Fethi Balaman