"Whereupon Bediuzzaman mounted the platform, congratulated the veterans of the War of Independence, and offered prayers. [^369]

[^369]:TBMM Zabit Ceridesi, vol. XXIV, p. 457, as in Şahiner, Said Nursi, 241.

Despite the warm reception he was given and the rejoicing at the triumph of Islam and the Turks over their enemies, Bediuzzaman was dismayed to find a lax and indifferent attitude towards Islam and their religious duties among many of the deputies in the Assembly. His intention in coming to Ankara had been to encourage those in power to set up a form of government based on the Qur'an and the Shari'a. Through Divine assistance, the Turks had totally defeated those who had wanted to destroy Islam and themselves. It was the beginning of a new era and exactly the time to marshal their forces to make the new republic the means for bringing about a renaissance of Islam and Islamic civilization, and make it a centre and source of support for the Islamic world. [^370] But rather than this, in addition to an indifference towards religion, he found that atheistic ideas were being propagated. He described it like this:

[^370]:Tarihçe, 129.

When I went to Ankara in 1922, the morale of the people of belief was extremely high as a result of the victory of the army of Islam over the Greeks. But I saw that an abominable current of atheism was treacherously trying to subvert, poison, and destroy their minds, "Oh God!" I said, "This monster is going to harm the pillars of belief." [^371]

[^371]:Nursi, Lem'alar, 170 (Eng. tr.: Flashes, 233).

That is to say, once the victory had been won, the old differences came to the fore once again. Up to the final victory it would have been considered traitorous of any deputy in the Assembly to assume any position opposed to Islam, but once it was secured those who favoured Westernization and the abandoning of religion, began to show their true colours. Indeed, since its inception there had been various opposing groups in the National Assembly. In the summer of 1922 a group was formed which opposed the autocracy of Mustafa Kemal. [^372] But with the victory he was to increase his dictatorial powers, and aiming to gain total control of the Assembly the position of the 'religious' group was progressively weakened, until in the elections of June 1923, before which Bediuzzaman had left Ankara, he was able to have elected a docile Assembly that would present him with no serious opposition.

[^372]:B. Lewis, Emergence, 381.

In the face of the laxity and "current of atheism" which he found, Bediuzzaman wrote a work in Arabic disproving atheism called Zeylü'l-