Jihad Turk on Fethullah Gulen and Hizmet Movement


Date posted: September 22, 2014

Jihad Turk, a founding Board Member of Claremont Lincoln University, has been instrumental in the establishment of Bayan Claremont, a graduate school designed to train Muslim scholars and religious leaders. He previously served as the Director of Religious Affairs at the Islamic Center of Southern California. His current interests include Islamic Law, interfaith relations, Islamic reform movements, and community leadership and development with a focus on youth.

In his speech, Turk focuses primarily on the ways he feels that the Hizmet Movement is contributing to today’s Muslim world and culture. He says, “As we are a minority that is misunderstood here, the efforts of the Hizmet Movement and Fethullah Gulen to help Muslims here and around the world to speak in our own voice, as opposed to being represented or misrepresented in the media, is something that we benefit from tremendously.”

Commenting on the state of Muslims today, he notes, “[as Muslims] we feel like we’re victims because of the oppression here … we have a victim mentality, that we have nothing to offer and we just kind of sit and pour and really have no hope. But, in [Hizmet Movement] there’s a focus, instead of on what’s going wrong with the Muslim world, what’s going wrong with humanity, the position and the posture is one of, “what can we do as Muslims to help make the world a better place.”


*Produced by Spectra Media exclusively for Irmak TV, Atlas of Thoughts (Fikir Atlasi) connects the scholars, politicians, jurists, religious figures, journalists, and academics reflecting on Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet Movement with the audience. Each episode features a person from a different segment of the society with diverse experiences regarding the Hizmet activities and its volunteers. If you are interested to hear about the Hizmet and Mr. Gulen from these people’s perspectives, do not miss this show!

Source: Spectra Media


Related News

Practicing Muslims and social (in)justice

Ihsan Yilmaz Ten years ago, it was maybe futile to talk about the lack of sensitivity of practicing Muslims on social justice issues. But now, with increasing democratization, windows of opportunity and economic growth, it is high time that practicing Muslims devote most of not only their wealth but also their mental energies and time […]

Fethullah Gülen’s brother laid to rest amid grief

Hundreds bid farewell to Hasbi Nidai Gülen, the brother to one of Turkey’s leading Islamic scholars Fethullah Gülen, at a funeral ceremony in his hometown of Erzurum on Sunday. Gülen died Friday morning in a hospital in Ankara, where he was receiving treatment for lung cancer. He was 66. Following a funeral prayer at the […]

Turkey Coup Attempt Explained

The most detailed explanation of the coup attempt in Turkey on July 15. Who is behind the coup attempt and how the government started a crackdown on critics? Turkey’s coup attempt explained.

Sacred, Secular, Twin Tolerations and the Hizmet Movement

Dr. Ihsan Yilmaz For me, the month of November is a month of conferences that I have to both endure but also enjoy. From New Orleans, I flew to Lahore to present a paper at another international conference titled “Ideal Human and Ideal Society in the Thoughts of M. Fethullah Gülen.” Scholars from many parts […]

US State Department ‘Can’t Imagine’ Accepting Erdogan Offer to Trade Hostage Pastor for Gulen

“President Erdogan’s suggestion that the U.S. should make a hostage-style prisoner swap for an innocent American imprisoned in Turkey is appalling and will not be taken seriously,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said. Brunson’s is not the first case that has resulted in a Western country accusing Erdogan of hostage diplomacy.

Peacebuilders Conference – Call for Papers:

The Atlantic Institute, GA, is organizing a conference in partnership with the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. The conference’s main focus is non-violent peacebuilding, it is titled “Fostering Dialogues in Education, Ethics, and Non Violent Peacebuilding: Global Social and Religious Movements Today.”

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

A Turkish coup, a family torn apart, a dramatic escape on foot: ‘Can you believe the things we went through?’

Scandalous return of Feb. 28

Gülen-linked gold firm’s operations halted for second time in two months

Turkey’s Post-Coup Purge and Erdogan’s Private Army

A Rare Interview: Jamie Tarabay Meets Turkish Scholar Fethullah Gulen

Erdoğan rewards the killers of Gülenists

Opposition expresses concern for security of free and fair elections

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News