Fethullah Gülen is an opinion leader, an inspirer who encourages people to do service; he advises on plans and projects and provides guidance either through media or a press release when he deems appropriate and necessary. Since his early days, as an individual like all other fellow citizens, his involvement in the movement stems from his contribution through his wisdom, devoted worship life, his profound spirituality, humility, his purity and chastity, a man of conviction who has withstood all forms of conjecture and shown resiliency.

He is a highly intellectual man with great foresight, who is open to consultation and approachable to reach a common understanding; someone who is ultra sensitive to complying with the legalities of an institution and obeying the law and for that and more he is widely respected. He also doesn’t fit into the leadership cliché “Everything needs to be brought to his attention and nothing will be done without his leave”. The principles that have been contextualized, made their way to books and have been the topic of many conferences, and have been widely discussed by leading Turkish speaking and global academics. There are many people who work and contribute in this movement who have never met Gülen but have accepted/adopted these principles and has been the catalyst for their involvement.

Considering Gülen’s position in the movement he has inspired, the concern for the perpetuation of this movement, or question marks over its structure in the future or whether it will dissolve entirely post Fethullah Gülen is baseless as this movement is based on principles and institutions founded based on those principles.

The volunteers who are keen supporters of the movement are generally not likely to blindly follow Fethullah Gülen as a result of the respect shown towards him, notwithstanding the possibility that there might some who do so. On the contrary, individuals willingly adopt prescribed ideas or thoughts offered by Gülen or anyone else in the movement and they implement them to their own credit through tireless selfless efforts. It is from this perspective that by reviewing the circle of influence or platform, the superficial claims of the “Gülen Empire” or “Gülen Media” is never accepted by Gülen himself or the service volunteers themselves as these type of innuendos, whether stated with or without prejudice are opinionated claims. In other words, these are ill-intentioned associations or false interpretations based on lack of information.

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