Metin Yüksel (also: Yuksel) (July 17, 1958 - February 23, 1979), was a Kurdish Islamic political and social activist from Turkey. One of the main leaders of Turkey's Islamist movement during the 1970s, he also led the Akıncılar Organization, a Islamist political organization.
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Yüksel was born on July 17, 1958 in the eastern Anatolian city of Bitlis. Little is known about his early life outside of his family's religious devotion, a characteristic which Yüksel would carry with him throughout his short life. His father, Mullah Sadreddin, was a well known and well respected Kurdish religious scholar, famous amongst Turkey's religious, and infamous amongst the ruling secular elite, for his political and social work.
Growing up during the turbulent 1960s and 70s, a period of near-anarchy and daily bloodshed amongst Turkey's political factions, Yüksel began his activism at an early age. Inspired by the ideas of his father and others, Yüksel quickly became active in the burgeoning political Islam movements which emerged in the early 1950s, following the onset of the multi-party period in the late 1940s.
Asides from his political work, Yüksel also founded and led Akıncılar, a charity and social welfare organization most prominent in the eastern Turkey, but existing throughout the country.
Though the political Muslims of the day endeavored to steer clear of the bloodletting between nationalist and Marxist factions, many of them lost their lives nonetheless.
On February 23, 1979, while leaving Friday prayers, Yüksel was shot dead outside Istanbul's Fatih Mosque by ultra-nationalist gunmen. He was 21-years-old.
Following his assassination, Yüksel became a hero and martyr to all of Turkey's Islamic factions. His assassination led Turkey's political Muslims to declare February as 'Şehit', or Martyr, month.
Every year on the anniversary of his death, devout Muslims from all over Turkey make pilgrimage to the spot where he was assassinated, in the yard of Fatih Mosque. It is common for them to hoist banners remembering him and paint red the spot where he fell.