An inside look at the 'glorious defeat' of Turkey's Islamists

Turkish writer Levent Gültekin embraced Islam at the age of 13 and put his heart and soul into ?the cause? for 30 years. After serving as an executive at pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) media outlets Yeni ?afak, Star and Cine 5, Gültekin is now deeply disillusioned with political Islam. ?Under the dominion of Islamists, people?s lives have turned into hell,? he says. 

Hürriyet spoke to Gültekin about his new book, ??atafatl? Ma?lubiyet? (The Glorious Defeat) and how he ?reformatted? his life at the age of 43.

What did you have in mind when you sat down to write this book?

To pay my debt to this country, however small it may be. Turkey is being governed by a movement that I gave 30 years of my life to. But under the dominion of Islamists, people?s lives have turned into hell. So I would like to tell youngsters as much as my breath will allow: ?Do not do what we did.?

What were you expecting when you got involved in the Islamic movement?

We assumed that when we came to power, everything would come up as a bed of roses. We thought that with our ?Muslimism? we would bring peace and freedom. There would be no poverty because, according to Muslims, ?one who sleeps on a full stomach when their neighbour is hungry is not one of us.? We thought nobody would die, because [the second Caliph] Omar had said he would ?bring it to account by divine justice if even one sheep was killed by a wolf on the banks of the Tigris.? 

But now, not only are deaths not prevented, we have arrived in a point where children are sacrificed. It is as if they have traded their humanity for power. They rob and steal the exam questions to get into heaven.

Could one of the reasons for your profound disappointment be because your...