The head of the Turkish Department for Religious Affairs Mohamed Gormaz unveiled for the first time the relation between Egypt’s former mufti Ali Gomaa and FETO, the terrorist organization of Fethullah Gulen, the first defendant in plotting the failed coup attempt in Turkey last July, according to Arabi 21.
In an interview with Huffington post, Gormaz said that he called Ali Gomaa -as they had a previous friendship relation- after Rabaa sit-in dispersal on August 14 2013 to let AL-Azhar and the Egyptian clerics intervene to stop the bloodshed in the streets after the military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.
Gormaz added that Ali Gomaa asked to meet him to explain the situation. The Turkish religious official suggested to meet him in Istanbul but Gomaa refused. However they decided to meet two days later in Amman of Jordan to negotiate the role of Muslim clerics in stopping Egypt’s massacres.
The head of the Turkish Department for Religious Affairs said that 15 minutes after he finished the phone call with Egypt’s former Mufti, he received another call from Mustafa Uzgan, the second man in Fethullah Gulen’s organization, who was living at that time in Turkey, telling him all the details that happened during his previous call with Gomaa, pointing that there was a relation between Gomaa and Gulen’s man.
According to Gormaz, the second man in Gulen’s organization asked for two things: First, to sit with him before he travels to Amman to negotiate the issue; second, to accompany him in his travel to the Jordanian capital. When Gormaz asked how he knew about this appointment, he told him that Gomaa called him and informed him about Jordan’s visit and its details.
The Turkish cleric added that he met Uzgan in Istanbul and he told him that the stance of Turkey’s government and the department of religious affairs toward Egypt’s military coup is a dangerous. In addition, Uzgan praised al-Sisi, the Minister of Defense at the time, saying that he is a good believer. He also told him that Gulen’s followers and Fetuallah Gulen himself know al-Sisi very well.
Ali Gomaa’s stance toward the dispersal of the Rabaa sit-in was controversial, especially after the famous video that spread showing Ali Gomaa inciting the military to kill the Morsi supporters considering them Khawarij*.
As a result, Gormaz cancelled his meeting with Ali-Gomaa after he knew his support to the Egyptian military and Rabaa sit-in dispersal by force. Gormaz phoned Gomaa and told him that ,”Our relation is over”.
Turkey faced a failed coup attempt by a group in the military related to Fethullah Gulen’s organization. thousands of the Turkish people took to the streets in response to Erdogan’s call for defending their country.
*Khawarij or Kharejites are members of a group that appeared in the first century of Islam during the “First Fitna”, the crisis of leadership after the death of Prophet Muhammad. It broke into revolt against the authority of Caliph Ali after he agreed to arbitration with his rival, Muawiyah I, to decide the succession to the Caliphate. A person belonging to Khawarij later assassinated Ali, and for hundreds of years, the Khawarij were a source of insurrection against the Caliphate.
