Kadir Mısıroğlu

Mısıroğlu was born in Akçaabat in the Trabzon Province and studied law at Istanbul University in 1954.[1][2] He was active during his university years where he became the president of the Trabzon Highschool Graduates Association in his sophomore year, and opened seven student dormitories.[1] Mısıroğlu married Aynur Aydınaslan in 1961 and had three children: Abdullah Sünusi (1963), Fatıma Mehlika (1965), and Mehmed Selman (1973).[1]

In 1964, he founded the publishing house Sebil and then the magazine named Sebil in 1976.[3] His book The Hungarian Revolution won a Silver Medal from the Jury Special Award of the National Culture Foundation of Turkey.[4] He wrote over 50 books, including fiction and poems.[5][6]

In 1977, Mısıroğlu was a losing candidate of the National Salvation Party for the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.[7] Following the 1980 Turkish coup d'état, he was stripped of his Turkish citizenship so he applied for asylum in Germany and moved to Frankfurt.[7] He then moved to the UK for a little before returning to Germany and later returning to Turkey upon the reinstatement of his citizenship.[8] He continued his writing career and founded Osmanlılar İlim ve İrfan Vakfı (Ottomans Education and Insight Foundation) in 1994.[9] He became widely known through talks uploaded on YouTube.[10]

Following multiple stays for a year and a half at Acıbadem Altunizade Hospital for diabetes, he died on 5 May 2019 due to multiple-organ failure.[11][12][13][14][15][16] His funeral was held at Çamlıca Mosque where a huge crowd of tens of thousands was in attendance.[17][18][19] He was interred in the cemetery of the Nasuhi dergah and mosque at Üsküdar, Istanbul.[20]

He was known for his outspoken stance against Atatürk's reforms and Kemalism,[21][12] and against the self-exiled cleric Fethullah Gülen.[22][23][24][25] Mısıroğlu was identified by some of his critics as an apologist of Islamism and Pan-Islamism[21] because of two of his books İslâmcı Gençliğin El Kitabı ("The Handbook of the Islamist Youth") and İslâm Dünya Görüşü ("Islam, a Worldview").[26] He argued that the caliphate could be even restored under an U.S.-backed caliph, and said that an American delegation met with him on this topic during the presidency of Bill Clinton.[27] He was a proponent of re-opening Hagia Sophia as a mosque and claimed that Turkey would find new carbon sources of energy when accomplished.[28][29] Mısıroğlu supposed of the victory of Azerbaijan against Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war decades before it occurred.[30]

He penned over 50 books, which include historic research, nonfiction, fiction, and poems.[31][32][33]

Mısıroğlu has been described as a conspiracy theorist by his opponents.[34][35] His claims include:

• Joseph Stalin ordered his army to recite the Quran on the sands against the Nazis.[36]
• William Shakespeare was a secret Muslim whose name was Sheikh Pir.[37]
• Karl Marx's Das Kapital was dictated by demons.[38]

Mısıroğlu gained the ire of seculars in Turkey with his quote "I wish the Greeks had won",[39][40] for his resentment against the early years of the republic, and he continued, "neither the caliphate nor the sharia would be abolished by them."[39][40] His works came under criticism by historian İlber Ortaylı for allegedly lacking scientific approach, knowledge and distorting the facts.[41]