Jul 24, 2019

Further shocking details have emerged about rampant sexual exploitation by certain Islamic religious cults in Turkey thanks to a respected Turkish investigative journalist. Timur Soykan has published his findings in a new book, “Badeci Seyh’in Sir odasi,” or “The secret chamber of the sheikh who engages in oral intercourse.”

The modus operandi of the randy sheikh illustrates what Soykan argues is deep rooted and systemic abuse by a multitude of cults that continue to operate unhindered in violation of a 1925 law introduced by Turkey’s secularizing founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The law banning sheikhs and dervishes and shuttering their lodges was intended to break their hold over segments of society, but it apparently failed. Soykan notes that while they have existed for centuries, the “tarikats,” as the sects are known, are currently enjoying “a golden age” under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Their influence was brazenly flaunted by the likes of Islamic preacher Adnan Oktar, among a panoply of similarly flashy other peddlers of phony faith. For decades, the cult leader lured followers from across the globe using an army of busty blonde sirens and Armani-clad male gigolos, making millions of dollars along the way. He was finally arrested last year and charged with fraud and sexual abuse.

The subject of Soykan’s book, however, is Ugur Korunmaz, who led an obscure cult in the western province of Bursa until his arrest in 2011. In an interview with Minez Bayulgen of the independent online news publication Diken, Soykan said that in all his reporting on Islamic sects, “it's the first time I’ve seen one like this.”

Korunmaz claimed his sexual organ was “a fountain of light” and persuaded male and female followers to perform oral sex on him. “He would then order them to swallow, telling them that this alone would open the gates of heaven,” explained Soykan in emailed comments to Al-Monitor. The second stage of initiation was “submission” in which Korunmaz would engage in full intercourse with his victims, all the while filling his coffers with mandatory donations. All of it unfolded in the intimacy of the sheikh’s “secret chamber.”