Diyanet’s Terror Conference Needs Strong Western Response

In the wake of an Istanbul conference in support of “jihad” against Israel, attended by terror supporters and officials of various European and North American Islamist organizations, the German government urged the Turkish diaspora to cut ties with the Turkish government’s Diyanet organization. Given the Diyanet’s significant influence in the United States, will the U.S. federal government also take action?

For over ten years, the Diyanet (also known as the Directorate of Religious Affairs) has been Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s soft power tool of choice. Originally employed by secularist Kemal Mustafa Ataturk to manage the country’s religious affairs, the current Islamist regime now uses the institution to spread Erdoğan’s ruling AK party’s brand of Islamism and to establish spheres of influence overseas.

In 2006, Erdoğan transformed the Diyanet by sharply increasing its funding and rewriting its strategy. The Diyanet now controls educational, religious, and cultural institutions in 145 countries and boasts a mammoth $3 billion budget that dwarfs the finances of other Turkish government ministries. The Diyanet uses its large presence in the West to advance carefully coordinated pro-regime rhetoric and hardline religious teachings in line with Islamist movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-e-Islami.

In August 2025, the Diyanet in Turkey hosted an eight-day global conference in Istanbul, jointly organized with the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), a clerical body previously considered an arm of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The conference attracted over 150 religious scholars from more than 50 countries. Titled “Islamic and Humanitarian Responsibility: Gaza,” the conference focused on building support for the Palestinian “struggle” and commitments to anti-normalization. The gathering featured workshops and speeches rife with calls for “armed resistance” and “global jihad.”

Sheikh Abdul Wahab Aykinci, the president of Ummat Association delivered the opening speech on behalf of the conference’s hosts, welcoming hundreds of religious scholars, imams, and supporters of global terrorist networks. One Hamas official, Marwan Abu Ras, delivered a speech at the conference, standing behind Turkish and Palestinian flags, urging “jihad and weapons for the mujahideen.”

One featured workshop, titled “Building an Islamic Alliance,” focused on unifying international organizations and humanitarian groups in the struggle against Israel. Another workshop focused on how Muslim religious leaders can manipulate media and influence public opinion to generate backlash against the Jewish state.

Ali Erbas, a top Turkish Islamist scholar who headed the Diyanet organization until his term expired in September 2025, also affirmed this narrative. Erbas, a regular visitor to the Diyanet branch in the U.S., has led prayer processions for the victory of Hamas fighters and urged “armed resistance” against the state of Israel. He told the conference: “It is necessary to mobilize the ummah in all forms of jihad in the way of Allah.” Erbas urged attendees to “free this ancient geography from oppressors who cling to it like ticks and infect it like microbes.”

Turkish media reported that “representatives from Islamic organizations in Europe and North America” attended the conference, although no American appears explicitly named in Turkish coverage or in the organizers’ social media posts. From Europe, Abdul Vakhed Niyazov, president of the European Muslim Forum delivered a speech about the role of Muslims in Europe, commending them for protesting in public places against Israel and the West. Nyazov praised the Turkish government and condemned European governments as “accomplices of bloody crimes.”

Hafez Alkarmi, director of the Mayfair Islamic Centre in London, spoke to reporters at the conference and hailed his organization’s success in influencing public opinion. “Two weeks ago, 65% of the British people supported the Palestinian cause. In Europe, about 60 or 62% … are against Israel and support the Palestinian case. This is a change, step by step.”

Other Islamist religious scholars at the conference included Dr. Issam Bashir, a Sudanese national, who served in the Islamist Sudanese regime under Omar Al-Bashir. Issam Bashir is a former official of Islamic Relief, a radical and terror-tied nonprofit franchise established by the Muslim Brotherhood, which operates a branch in the United States.

The Istanbul conference ended with a grand procession to the Hagia Sophia mosque, and the announcement of the “Istanbul Declaration,” the establishment of a pro-Hamas, anti-Israel alliance of Islamist scholars and organizations, and a pledge to criminalize any type of coordination with Israel.

Following the gathering, the IUMS published a written statement on its official website, stating that the “only path to lifting this affliction is the comprehensive preparation of the Ummah—through knowledge, military strength, fear of God, and jihad in His path in all its forms.”

The Diyanet’s Gaza conference served as a tipping point for German authorities, who are struggling with a large Turkish diaspora under the grip of nationalist and Islamist ideological forces. Germany fears that institutions such as the Diyanet are working to exert malign foreign influence across the country.

Following the pledges of jihad made at the conference, Germany’s foreign ministry called on the German branch of Turkey’s Diyanet, DITB, to cut ties with Turkish “organizations and individuals who spread antisemitic messages or promote Islamist agendas.”

The DITB currently oversees 900 mosques in Germany and relies on the Turkish organization for funding and religious leadership. Such is the concern about the Diyanet’s influence, the German government has also begun training imams domestically to curb the spread of Ankara’s influence.

The Diyanet’s influence in the West is not limited to Europe. In the United States, it operates the Diyanet Center of America (DCA) in Maryland, which claims to be the wealthiest mosque in America, boasting over $80 million in assets. The DCA, whose opening was attended by President Erdoğan himself, is one of over 20 Diyanet-affiliated mosques operating in the United States that make up a broader Turkish influence network.

The DCA operates schools, businesses, and social and community services alongside its mosque in an effort to develop an insular, ideologically uniform Turkish diaspora. The DCA’s proximity to Washington, D.C. allows its officials to more easily mingle with government officials, think tank staff, and various political and media organizations.

In 2018, David L. Phillips, Director for the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, raised concerns that the Turkish government was using the Diyanet Center of America and its other mosques in the U.S. to spy on political foes and mobilize immigrant populations in the United States to support Erdogan’s Turkish Islamism.

Despite operating under the Turkish regime’s command, and relying on its funding, the Diyanet has not been required to register as a foreign agent in the United States. Indeed, the Turkish regime uses the Diyanet’s U.S. 501(c) status to finance American universities, circumventing foreign funding reporting laws.

Abdullah Bozkurt, director of Nordic Research & Monitoring Network, told FWI that the U.S. must take action against the Diyanet’s operations:

“For years, Diyanet’s network in the United States has acted far beyond the remit of a religious administration, drifting into overtly political messaging that mirrors Hamas-aligned narratives and traffics in thinly veiled antisemitic themes. Its imams and affiliated centers routinely echo Turkey’s Islamist president’s most hardline positions, cultivating grievance, hostility toward Israel, and sympathy for groups that Washington has formally designated as terrorist organizations.”

“The risks are not theoretical. A Diyanet-paid Turkish imam Hasan Saklanan, a Turkish government employee, attacked Israeli military police with a knife in Jerusalem last year during what was presented as a touristic visit, demonstrating how seamlessly incendiary rhetoric can spill into violent action. When an institution funded, structured, and controlled by a foreign government operates inside the United States while promoting extremist-leaning narratives, it becomes a national-security liability.”

“The U.S. government should urgently reassess Diyanet’s presence in Maryland and evaluate whether its activities are compatible with U.S. law, public safety, and the security interests of the broader Muslim community.”