and Iraq, and was subsequently joined by Pakistan, Iran, and Britain. In connection with this agreement Bediuzzaman wrote a letter of congratulation [^78] to Menderes and the President, Celâl Bayar, applauding the move as a necessary first step towards securing peace in the area, and as someone who had studied its problems for some fifty-five years, he pointed out the two solutions he had found.

[^78]:Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, ii, 194-7.

Bediuzzaman supported Turkey's agreement with Iraq and the other Muslim countries in the Baghdad Pact primarily because it realigned her with the Islamic world and was a step towards re-establishing close relations between Turkey and the Arab world, which had been virtually nonexistent since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. Islamic Unity of a non-political nature would be a source of strength for Turkey, particularly against communism and irreligion, and he encouraged Menderes and the Democrats to work for and benefit from in a number of letters. [^79]

[^79]:See, Nursi, Emirdağ Lahikası, ii, 24; 56.

In his letter about the Pact, Bediuzzaman explained that the greatest danger for the area lay in "negative nationalism" and racialism. Just as it had caused harm to the Muslim peoples in the past, so again at that time there were signs that it was being exploited by "covert atheists" in order to destroy Islamic brotherhood and prevent the Muslim nations uniting. Whereas the true nationality or nationhood of both Turks and Arabs was Islam; their Arabness and Arab nationality and Turkishness had fused with Islam. The new alliance would repulse the danger of racialism, and besides gaining for the Turkish nation "four hundred million brothers", it would also gain for them the "friendship of eight hundred million Christians." That is to say, Bediuzzaman saw it as an important step towards general peace and reconciliation, of which all were in such need.

The two solutions Bediuzzaman had found on learning of the explicit threats to the Qur'an, Islam, and the Islamic world some sixty years previously had been the Risale-i Nur and his Eastern University, the Medresetü'z-Zehra. Both were effective means of establishing Islamic Unity. The Risale-i Nur served to develop "the brotherhood of belief"; as it was already demonstrating throughout the Islamic world and beyond. So too it had defeated atheistic philosophy and other means of corruption. Thus, Bediuzzaman called on the President and Prime Minister to use the means at their disposal to make the Risale-i Nur, "this manifestation of the Qur'an's miraculousness", better known to the Islamic world.