Unidentified individuals have graffitied offensive remarks on a wall of the Turkish Cultural Center (TCC) in the city of West Haven, Connecticut.
The graffiti echoes Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s hate speech against the Hizmet movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, with which the cultural center is affiliated.
The TCC has been serving the Turkish-American community in Connecticut for seven years. Mehmet Elmacı, the coordinator of the organization, told Turkish media outlets that the incident was unprecedented. “We are a cultural center that does not take part in politics. Our goal has been to share Turkey’s cultural heritage with our community. We condemn those individuals who are inspired by Erdoğan’s hate speech toward the Hizmet movement to write offensive remarks on our walls,” he said.
Hate Speech and Beyond: Targeting the Gülen Movement in Turkey
If the element of hatred is detectable at first sight, the European Court of Human Rights defines such language as abuse of freedom of expression. In this regard, some of the language used by Prime Minister Erdoğan to describe the Gülen movement – i.e. “perverts”, “hashashins”, “traitors”, “spies”, “worse than Shiites”, “leeches” and “a terrorist organization” – do indeed constitute prima facie hate speech.
Pro-gov’t journalist suggests killing family members of jailed Gülen followers
Journalist Cem Küçük, a staunch supporter of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, suggested during a live TV program that Turkish intelligence should kill family members of jailed Gülen followers in order to turn the inmates into operatives for the Erdoğan regime.
Erdogan’s bid to close Gulen schools in Africa opposed
Several African states have rejected Turkey’s request to close schools run by the Hizmet movement. Turkish President Erdogan accused Fethullah Gulen, who owns Hizmet, of involvement in the failed July 15 coup. When Turkish President Erdogan visited Uganda and Kenya in May, he sought to stamp out the influence of the Islamic cleric Gulen. He accused the preacher of using his connections to try to overthrow him, allegations which Gulen denied.
Gülen’s lawyer issues written warning to pro-gov’t media outlets
Nurullah Albayrak, the lawyer representing Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, on Thursday issued a written warning to pro-government media outlets on social media for their persistent use of the expressions “parallel structure” — a term invented by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to refer to followers of the Hizmet movement — and “Fethullah Gülen terrorist organization” — referred to in the dailies as FETÖ — on the grounds that they are making baseless claims regarding the faith-based movement.
Gülen Community and Gülen’s Reminder
Hadi Uluengin, April 13, 2011 Last week in this column I wrote that large masses whose common denominator is to adopt Fethullah Gülen’s spiritual leadership cannot be referred to as a ‘cemaat’ or religious community or brotherhood. I made this claim because the Gülen Movement’s (aka Hizmet movement) pluralism in quantity and diversity in quality […]
Journalist and Writers Foundation welcomes EP’s transparency calls to Hizmet movement
Most recently, on Dec. 30, 2013, the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary president is Mr. Fethullah Gülen, issued a press release calling on those making allegations about the Hizmet movement to provide evidence to prove their claims without delay.
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