Making a Revolution, 1908 from these sources, Jews are represented as physically and biologically dif-
ferent, with unique psychopathologies and abnormal sexual desires, lead-
ing to higher rates of sexually transmitted disease and insanity.^117
Muslims such as the contributors to Volkan reflected such sentiment
and engaged in vicious, polemical writings against the Dönme, whom they
regarded as Jews. One was Fazlı Necip, who vociferously supported the
CUP in the newspapers Asır (Century/Age) and Zaman (Time/Epoch).
Others mentioned the supposedly arrogant speeches Şemsi Efendi had
delivered in front of the government building (konak) during the 1909
campaign for the parliamentary election, which did not take the conserva-
tive Muslim point of view into consideration. Views of Dönme insincer-
ity fueled the battles of the pen between religious Muslims and Dönme
concerning the governing of the empire and society.
Another of the main magnets of anti-Dönme rhetoric was the most vis-
ible Dönme politician, Mehmet Cavid. Between 1909 and 1911 , Mehmet
Cavid’s Muslim opponents in parliament called him a Salonikan Dönme
in league with Jewish banks.^118 Articles published in 1908 and 1909 ex-
press disdain for the values that the Dönme allegedly supported and the
institutions through which they apparently spread these values in soci-
ety.^119 The values included Europeanization (adopting western European
values, desiring western European goods), atheism, and the emancipation
of women. The institutions through which these values were disseminated
included Masonic lodges, which caused Muslims who joined to lose their
religion, and the CUP. Contra these values and institutions, Vahdetî and
his writers defended what they saw as true religion (Islam), Islamic law,
Muslim unity, and the fatherland.
To understand the context of the attacks on the Dönme, it is important
to analyze the criticism of Muslims in the pages of Volkan. Writers de-
fined the limits to being a Muslim. To them, a nonbelieving Muslim was
a threat to society. Volkan’s greatest concern lay with irreligious or atheist
Muslims. Vahdetî and other writers assumed that irreligion went hand in
hand with corrupted morals, including the liberation of women, which
harmed society. A. Şehabeddin wrote: “You can’t expect the irreligious or
atheists to have high morals like pious Muslims. The religious work for
this world and the hereafter; atheists only care about this world.” As a
result, “in Europe many proudly declare their atheism. This goes together
with many of their women practically going around naked in public. Men
spend their time gambling, drinking, coveting each other’s [wives]... it