Date posted: August 30, 2014
Fethullah Gulen is a Turkish scholar, thinker, social entrepreneur and opinion leader known as founder of Gulen Movement. He stances for democracy, interfaith dialogue, peaceful coexistence, and secular education where universal values are embodied by altruistic teachers.
Tags: Fethullah Gulen | Peacebuilding |

We also noted the Turkish people’s respect for each other. Girls in miniskirts mingled easily with those in hijab, and so did people of various faiths. We met priests who appreciated the rights they enjoyed and saw synagogues that were well preserved and attended.

President of the Journalists and Writers Foundation Mustafa Yeşil traveled to South Korea to receive the Manhae Peace Prize on behalf Mr. Fethullah Gülen. While in Seoul, Yeşil also paid an official visit to the Minister of Gender Equality and Family of the Republic of Korea Yoon-Sun Cho who offered Yeşil her congratulations and noted she was glad that a prominent figure from Turkey has been awarded this significant prize.

Gülen is a very important opinion leader in Turkey. He is not a politician but the leader of a social movement featuring religious motives. In addition to his followers, conservative people and groups also pay attention to his views and comments. Even those who are opposed to his worldview send their children to the schools set up by his followers because these schools provide very high quality education and training.

Abdul Rauf I was introduced to the personality of Fethullah Gülen in 2010 when about 300 Turkish businessmen reached Lahore just a few days before Eid-ul-Adha. They announced that they would celebrate their Eid with the flood victims of Pakistan. It was a matter of amazement for us. Turkey is considered as one of the […]

President Gül, after watching the demo of the Dünya TV, said that “this is it, Turkey should normalize”. He further said, “if only this broadcasting had started 10 years ago, we could have been much more normalized already”.

Publishing a book in 2009 about Francis of Assisi’s peaceful encounter with Egypt’s Sultan Malik al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade led me to meet a lot of people with an interest in improving interreligious relations. Among them were a number of Turkish immigrants who are followers of the Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. I observed that through a network of private schools, foundations and media organizations, they have worked very hard to improve Muslim-Christian relations.
