Letters' were officially adopted in accordance with a law passed on 3 November, 1928, and the Arabic alphabet, the script of the Qur'an and mark of Islam, was declared banned after the end of that year. A more effective way of cutting off an entire nation from its religion, its roots, and its past could not have been devised. The Risale-i Nur was to play an important role in keeping the Qur'anic script alive in 'Turkey.
Having `Turkified' the alphabet the next logical step was to `Turkify' Islam itself. The Arabic letters had been done away with, now the language itself had to be substituted by Turkish. To retain the Arabic language was considered incompatible with the principle of nationalism, one of the six basic principles of `Kemalism', and the decision was taken to substitute it by Turkish. Thus from the end of January, l932, the glorious Arabic words of the call to prayer, the great mark and symbol of Islam, were banned and a Turkish version was provided to take its place. This, which according to one historian "caused more widespread popular resentment than any of the other secularist measures", remained in use till the Democrat Government repealed the law in June, 1950, as one of its first pieces of legislation.
All these `revolutions' were carried out in the cause of Secularism, one of the most important of the Kemalist principles. The meaning of this concept, laiklik, taken from the French, laicism, was and continues to be a subject of most fierce debate. Suffice it to say here that during the twenty-five years of Republican People's Party (RPP) rule, its implementation was seen as the means of destroying most of the outward signs of the religion of Islam in Turkish life. It shall be discussed in greater detail in a subsequent chapter. Indeed, it was the alleged infringement of this principle that was used as the pretext for Bediuzzaman's arrest and imprisonment on a number of occasions.
In the early 1930's the RPP, the party Mustafa Kemal had founded, merged with the state, thereby gaining absolute control over it and its resources. Its six principles were written into the 'Turkish Constitution in 1937. Having obtained an absolute