Religious Affairs Directorate Seizes Copyright Of Risale-I Nur

Exclusive publishing and distribution rights to the Risale-i Nur collection, whose publication was halted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on April 10, has been given to Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate after the Cabinet approved the monopolization plan on Nov 26.

The printing of the collection has been halted for some nine months due to an alleged dispute over the work's copyright status. ISBN numbers for the collection have not been granted to the publishing houses which intended to print the Risale-i Nur -- which was written by prominent Islamic scholar Bediüzzaman Said Nursi -- claiming that they are not entitled to publish it because they are not Said Nursi's legal heirs.

The ministry took the publication crisis to another level by giving the publication rights of Risale-i Nur to the Religious Affairs Directorate. Last week, the ministry prepared an enactment for the monopolization of the collection and sent it to Cabinet for approval. Following the approval, the enactment turned into decree with the power of law issued by the Cabinet. Now, the directorate is the sole body entitled to publish the Risale-i Nur.

Former Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay, who resigned from his post last year, accused the ruling Justice and Development Party government (AK Party) of limiting freedom of expression and the right to demand information.

“Those who today ban the publication of the collection may tomorrow ban the works of Mehmet Akif Ersoy [who wrote the lyrics of the Turkish national anthem] or Nazım Hikmet [a famed Turkish poet whose communist beliefs exiled him to Moscow]. This ban is a clear indication of the government's autocratic stance. This law is the reminiscent of the single-party era. Likewise, the publication and distribution of the Risale-i Nur collection was banned by the [Republican People's Party] CHP during that era,” Günay noted.

The “Risale-i Nur” collection is a “tafsir” (exegesis) of the Quran that sets out to explain the truths of faith in accordance with modern science. The collection, which consists of 14 books, was written between the 1910s and 1950s in Turkey. It has been translated into dozens of languages.

Kazım Güleçyüz, the editor-in-chief of the Yeni Asya daily -- which represents one branch of the Nur movement founded by Nursi -- said that the collection has been published freely by many publishing houses since the death of Said Nursi.

“More that 27 million copies of the collection have been printed. The government now claims that publishing houses are not entitled to publish it because they are not Said Nursi's legal heirs. From this justification, one can see that the monopoly over the publishing rights was devised to create unearned income for the publishing houses which have close ties with the government,” Güleçyüz told Today's Zaman in a phone conversation.

The main opposition CHP applied on Nov. 12 to the Constitutional Court for the annulment of the omnibus law that prevents the publication of the Risale-i Nur as it limits freedom of expression. The court has not yet come to a conclusion.

Arslan Ayan (Cihan/Today's Zaman)