ALI SADUN ENGIN: Good afternoon, dear viewers. Today we have a guest from abroad. His name is Mael David Benoliel. He is coming from i24News TV which is broadcasting in English, Arabic and French in Israel. Welcome. MAEL DAVID BENOLIEL: Thank you. Very honored to be here. ADNAN OKTAR: And we are both honored and delighted; it is such a beauty for us to welcome you here. MAEL DAVID BENOLIEL: Thank you. Thank you very much. So my first question is like this; what is this place? I understand that we are in your studio, you are running a TV channel. Tell me about that please? ADNAN OKTAR: A humble but influential, sincere TV channel that strives for the goodness and the wellness of the people, the happiness of the world and for all the religions to be able to live together as brothers. This is a TV channel in which modern, democratic, enlightened people who advocate science and love are putting forth their efforts. MAEL DAVID BENOLIEL: Okay. What kind of programs do you have here in this TV channel? ADNAN OKTAR: We are making discussions of all sorts of subject matters; scientific, religious, moral and political. MAEL DAVID BENOLIEL: Okay. I understand also that he is like running the shows. Right? He is also directing the channel. He is hosting the channel in this proper house. How does he do it? I know that it is very difficult to run a channel. So my question is how does he do it? ADNAN OKTAR: It is really very enjoyable. It is very nice. Having guests is a blessing. The Prophet Abraham (pbuh) also had guests. He welcomed them and he enjoyed doing so greatly. He was very happy to host them, he used to treat them beautiful food. And we, as the children of the Prophet Abraham (pbuh), are on his path. We like guests, we love having guests. MAEL DAVID BENOLIEL: Okay. It wasn't my question. My question was; how does he run a channel, direct a channel, host the channel in his house and to run the shows? I mean, it is a lot of work. ADNAN OKTAR: This is like our house, everywhere we go, the whole world is our home. MAEL DAVID BENOLIEL: Nice, okay. When does it start first? Where did this idea to build a channel come from? ADNAN OKTAR: Actually, this was like a utopia for us. It did not appear to be something we could have done. We've prayed to God for this and God bestowed that blessing upon us quite easily. We were thinking about this, twenty years ago as well; we were saying "How nice it would be if we had a TV channel" but we thought it was far-fetched. And we thanked God when it finally happened. Actually it was not that difficult, it happened very easily. It actually is a humble TV channel. Because it is founded on thought, ideas, love, goodness and beauty, and because its goal remains solely in these lines, no need for such extensive expenses have occurred. MAEL DAVID BENOLIEL: Alright. But still, you guys need money to run the channel. Where does this money come from? ADNAN OKTAR: This is not something that I personally am interested in. I mean, this is not a company that I own. This is a company a few of our friends jointly founded. Consequently, because they are businessmen, they are the ones financing this effort. They are the ones organizing this company. I do not inspect these matters in such details. I do not know the details. MAEL DAVID BENOLIEL: No problem. Okay. My next question is; What is the main goal of the channel? What does he want to achieve with this channel? ADNAN OKTAR: [Our goal is] To make the whole of humanity happy and live in joy. We want beauties, happiness, abundance and goodness to spread to the whole world. We want the fights and wars to end. We want weapons to turn into beneficial tools, into refrigerators, washing machines for instance. We want no blood to be shed in the world, we want the religious people to live by their religions freely. We want people from all walks of life to be able to live freely. We want irreligious people, atheists to be able to live freely in this world as first class citizens as well. We want a democratic, enlightened, reasonable worldview based on the fear and love of God to prevail in the world. MAEL DAVID BENOLIEL: Okay. It is a really, really good and nice idea and I like it very much, but it seems to me that it is almost impossible to achieve. Is he conscious of that?

• published: 07 Mar 2014
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