#### The Authorities Increase Their Pressure on Bediuzzaman

The Authorities Increase Their Pressure on Bediuzzaman

As the Risale-i Nur became more widely spread and it became clear to the authorities that they had failed to stifle Bediuzzaman's endeavours in the cause of Islam, they stepped up their pressure on him, The aim was by constantly needling him — unlawfully — to provoke a reaction that would provide them with the excuse to further curtail his freedom. With this aim, two officials were posted to Barla in 1931; one was a new Chief District Officer, while the other was the teacher. Although the pair were a constant thorn in his flesh, they failed in their attempts to provoke him. Even when they arranged for his small mosque to be raided while he and a few others were worshipping, and then closed it, Bediuzzaman contained his righteous wrath. They had anyway previously barred him from it on occasion in their efforts to make his isolation total, as well as preventing him from holding his ders or readings with one or two of his students in his own room even.

When Bediuzzaman had first come to Barla, he had repaired a small mosque which had fallen into disuse, and thereafter, on the strength of his certificate which dated from before his exile, acted as imam or prayer-leader to a small congregation of three or four people. Thus these two officials staged a raid on the mosque making the new law imposing the Turkish call to prayer the pretext.

According to Cemal Can, the District Chief, when Bediuzzaman refused to have the call to prayer and the preliminary prayer given in anything other than Arabic in his mosque, he received repeated directives from Ankara on the subject and finally arranged the raid. [^85] On 18 July 1932, then, gendarmes were concealed in various dark corners of the mosque and on the Arabic words being uttered, sprang into view with bayonets fixed surrounding Bediuzzaman and his small congregation of innocent villagers. Four of these were then arrested and marched off to Eğridir. They were however later released after questioning and being ill-treated. Bediuzzaman described the affair like this:

[^85]:Cemal Can, in Son Şahitler, i, 212.

"The aggression of the heretics behind the scenes recently has taken on a most ugly form; they have assaulted the people of belief in a most tyrannical and irreligious manner. During the private and unofficial worship of myself and one or two friends in the mosque I myself repaired for my own use, they intervened in the call to prayer and kamet. 'Why are you saying the kamet and call to prayer secretly in Arabic?' , they demanded," He then went on to make a verbal attack, not on "those lacking conscience" who planned the raid, whom he said were not worth addressing, but on "the