made one hundred thousand people into harmless, beneficial members of this nation and country. The provinces of Isparta and Kastamonu bear witness to this. This means that knowingly or unknowingly the great majority of those who object to the Risale-i Nur are betraying the country and nation and dominance of Islam on account of anarchy. [^329]

[^329]:Ibid., 292-3 (Eng. tr.: Rays, 372).

In response to the repeated charge of forming a tarikat, Bediuzzaman said:

The basis and aim of the Risale-i Nur is certain belief and the essential reality of the Qur'an. For this reason, three courts of law have acquitted it in regard to being a tarikat. Furthermore, not one person has said during these twenty years: "Said has given me tarikat [instruction]." Also, a way to which for a thousand years most of this nation's forefathers have been bound may not made something for which [the members of the nation] are answerable. Also, those who combat successfully those secret dissemblers who attach the name of tarikat to the reality of Islam and attack this nation's religion may not themselves be accused of being a tarikat. [^330]

[^330]:Ibid., 313 (Eng. tr.: Rays, 395 fn 16).

Of all the trumped-up charges, the most obviously false was that of Kurdish nationalism. Bediuzzaman, who as the Old Said had striven to maintain and strengthen the unity of the Ottomans, and as the New Said in his years of exile had again sacrificed himself for the salvation of the Turkish nation. In spite of this, the Court found Bediuzzaman guilty on this charge — "the blood of Kurdish nationalism is still boiling in his veins", and in this clear contempt of justice in the name of the law, the court condemned itself.

Can any court in the world accuse me of such a thing? ... although Said left his native country and relations and sacrificed his spirit and life for the religious Turks and this Muslim nation... [can such a thing be said] of someone who, in the face of twenty-eight years of torment and torture has not been shaken one iota in his sincere brotherhood with the Turks ... and whom no court in the world can accuse of this ... and who, since racialism has no true reality and is harmful to Islamic brotherhood, has for fifty years said: "Islamic nationhood is equal to everything", and has supported that nationhood... and who has said: "Give up racialism and take up Islamic nationhood, which gains for you four hundred million brothers"; and who has always taught this? [^331]

[^331]:Nursi, Müdâfaalar, 464.