Demonization of the Gülen movement unfair and baseless
The Gülen movement is one of two marginalized groups in present-day Turkey along with the with Kurds. However, the situation was quite different 10 years ago. …
Defamation of Hizmet
Did the Gülen Movement Infiltrate the State?
The Gülen group did not infiltrate the bureaucracy but participated in it. If there is to be a “responsible” party, then it is the AKP government that made the political choice to hire the movement’s followers.…
Is the Gülen Movement a Cult?
When looking at the evidence, it’s clear the Gülen movement is the furthest thing from a cult. It is a mainstream Islamic movement, its practices rooted deeply in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, but also confident to engage with members of other rich religious and intellectual traditions of many other cultures. Whereas cults generally disengage from wider society, the Gülen movement has gone out of its way to engage with the world through its schools, dialogue efforts, and businesses.…
Hizmet Movement is not interested in attaining political power in Turkey or elsewhere in the world
[Erdogan] has called Hizmet a state within a state, which to me is a strange characterization. To me, that’s like saying that the Catholics are a state within a state in America, or the Jews, a state within a state in America. Those kinds of statements are derogatory, they’re pejoratives. Catholics have a right to seek influence in America; Jews have a right to seek influence in America, that’s how we operate here.…
Why Is Turkey Targeting Hizmet? Questions about Erdoğan’s Post-Coup Crackdown
But if Hizmet was not involved, then who? The Turkish press has called out all the usual suspects: the United States, Israel, the Vatican, Kurdish nationalists, ISIS. Some have argued, as was noted in articles in Politico and Independent (“in the same way Hitler used the Reichstag Fire to suppress all opposition”), that the coup was stage-managed by Erdoğan himself to create a pretext for destroying Hizmet and suppressing his secular and leftist critics. Certainly, he had the most to gain and has, in fact, gained the most.…
Gülen vs Erdoğan – two diverging interpretations and practices of Islam
The medieval-minded Islamists divided the world into two sharply distinguished parts — Islamic caliphate vs. un-Islamic countries, including the democratic states. They coined the terminologies like “Dar al-Kufr” (land of infidelity) and Dar al-Islam (land of belief) which are instrumental for the present-day jihadists. But Fethullah Gülen, as a sagacious modernist Islamic scholar, urges to replace all such obscurantist and dichotomous terms with the spiritual Islamic concepts.…
Fethullah Gulen: I consider the coup attempt as a serious “terror coup”
The events of that night [the coup attempt] could be called as a serious terror coup. I categorically reject such accusations. The claim that I convinced the 8th biggest army in the world from 6000 miles away against its own government is an incredible slander. I would like those who are responsible for this coup attempt, regardless of their identities, to receive the punishment they deserve after a fair trial.…
Persecution of the Gülen Movement in Turkey
The Gülen (a.k.a Hizmet) movement, a faith-based community, has been subject to political persecution for more than two years by the Turkish government since they stood up against corruption and injustice under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan…
Fethullah Gulen responds to allegations
A TV channel started a defamation of Fethullah Gulen in June 1999 in Turkey based on a montage videocassette. Below is an phone interview with Mr. Gulen by famous anchor Reha Muhtar of Show TV. Gulen in this interview answers all the accusations such as penetrating the state institutions, bringing Sharia to Turkiye and being against the Turkish army.…
Is the Gülen Movement a cult?
The Gülen Movement is not linked to any sectarian tradition or affiliation. Networking, participation and affiliation in the Gülen Movement are not exclusive, alienating and sectarian because the Gülen Movement is not closed to the outside world; indeed, it intends collective engagement with the wider public.…