A regular member of the Mevlana Rumi Mosque in the UK has told BBC London that there is a risk of the troubles in Turkey being imported into London.
Members in the Mevlana Rumi Mosque in the UK have said that they are seen as supporters of Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for Turkey’s uprising. Speaking to BBC, Ozkan Keles, a regular at the Mevlana Rumi Mosque and other members have received hate-mail via email and death-threats through telephone under the name: ‘Angel of Death MIT’s Special Forces Operations UK’. Threats increased when retributions from the Turkish government’s supporters arrived at the Mosque. Keles stated, “We had a number of people coming into the mosque. They asked for a particular individual and when they realised he wasn’t here, they started to shout obscenities. Then they returned with five/six cars, circling the mosque.”
Ozkan Keles
The mosque is linked to the cleric and business man: Fethullah Gulen who has been accused by President Erdogan of orchestrating the coup. Gulen lives in exile in the US but has supporters across Europe, who recently has also been attacked. Keles concluded by saying: “There’s an effort to import the problems in Turkey to our country. That is extremely upsetting because myself, and the people here in the mosque condemn the coup just as much as anyone does.”
Turkey currently remains in a state of emergency.