Westernization programme and struggle against Islam with all its resources. Governor Avni Dogan was appointed in September of the year Bediuzzaman was sent to Kastamonu. He was the epitome of the new breed of officials grown up under Republican Party rule. An avowed enemy of Islam, he did all he could to inflict torment on Bediuzzaman and his students. He remained in this post for nearly four years and was succeeded in 1940 by Mithat Altiok, whose attitude towards Bediuzzaman was somewhat more conciliatory. Bediuzzaman, however, endured all that was inflicted on him by these officials, even on one occasion preventing harm coming to Avni Dogan, and incidentally gaining for himself an important student in the process.
Briefly, in response to the destruction of the mosques and Sufi tekkes and tombs of saints which was carried out with greater ferocity and efficiency in Kastamonu after Avni Dogan was appointed as Governor, one of the town's Seyhs, Hilmi Bey, known as `the Little Seyh', in order to try and put a stop to the destruction, vowed to kill the Govemor. He obtained a rifle and laid the plans. Then when all was ready, he was walking plunged in thought before Bediuzzaman's house when there was a tap at the window, and Bediuzzaman beckoned to him. Wondering what this elderly hoca wanted, he climbed the stairs up to the house. But Bediuzzaman merely gave him a copy of a prayer called the Tahmidiye, and asked him to write out copies of it. Hilmi Bey agreed, and on returning home, sat down immediately and started to write it out. He continued far into the night. When he had finished, his mind had been changed completely, and he had given up all idea of his projected crime. And thereafter, he became a devoted student of Bediuzzaman's, dedicating himself to writing out the Risale-i Nur and serving its author.

At Avni Dogan instigation, Bediuzzaman's house was frequently searched by the police for copies of the Risale-i Nur, and they had to hide them in whatever unlikely places they could find. However some of the police officers charged with plaguing him paid for it. One called Hafiz Nuri would come every few days and go through Bediuzzaman's house with a tooth-comb; he was finally