Kemal Ergün, Chairman of the Islamic Community Millî Görüş (IGMG), released a statement on the occasion of the start of the holy month of Ramadan. “We welcome Ramadan again with bittersweet joy due to the pandemic as we did last year. We hope to appreciate Ramadan, the month of forgiveness, in the best way possible regardless of the circumstances and wish to welcome Eid al Fitr immaculately.” said Ergün and continued his statement as follows:

“The month of Ramadan is a unique period of time that we eagerly wait to welcome each year with various feelings. The fasting we practice during the month of Ramadan, the reward of which we hope from noone but Allah, is, as heralded by the Prophet (saws), conducive to forgiveness of our past sins. That is to say that the month of Ramadan is the month of forgiveness. We hope to appreciate this month of forgiveness the best way possible.

Last year, we experienced the month of Ramadan with a bittersweet joy under the harsh conditions of the pandemic. We found solace, however, in the social solidarity we have displayed in the face of a situation that we had never experienced before. Unfortunately, the pandemic conditions still persist. We will have to appreciate this Ramadan under the pandemic conditions as well. We hope that humanity will overcome this pandemic in the shortest time possible so that we can experience the feeling of congregation in our mosques as we used to.

I wish that the holy month of Ramadan will bring about goodness and prosperity to both our society and humanity, and congratulate the Ramadan of all Muslims.”