Daniel Skubik on Fethullah Gulen and Hizmet Movement
Date posted: October 28, 2014
Dr. Daniel Skubik is Professor of law, ethics & humanities at California Baptist University. He teaches public and private international law, constitutional law, and philosophy of law. He earned his master degree in political science and his doctoral degree in philosophy.
“What most strikes my wife and me—it may even sound a bit strange or even a bit silly—but what strikes us most is the holiness, the purity that we see represented in the lives of those who are associated with Hizmet.
They are not ashamed—by any means—in what they believe, to the One to whom they have committed their lives.”
“As an educator I may be a bit biased, but I think the focus on education that we see in Hizmet, that we see in Gulen and his teachings and his being, that focus on education which is critical to the work of Hizmet is itself the most critical work that can be done in this age.”
“Education is the opportunity to form young people, to form personalities, to form spirits as well as minds…”
“Forming young people in that way, providing that opportunity for them to become what God will have them be, and so, for them to be useable vessels for God as vicegerents in this age… what a wonderful task, what a difficult task, what a beautiful task..”
Turkish PM Erdoğan launches another war [in Turkey]
Turkey’s Islamic camp is more diverse than one would think. In fact, the traditions that Erdoğan and Gülen come from have almost always been distinct and different from each. The former has been more explicitly Islamist, at times anti-Western and anti-Semitic. The latter, the line of Gülen, which goes back to scholar Said Nursi (1878-1960), has rather stayed closer to center-right parties and have been more friendly to the West and also other “Abrahamic” faiths.
13 criteria Erdogan regime uses to determine Gulen supporters are terrorists
Dr. Ismail Sezgin of the Centre for Hizmet Studies in the UK highlights the 13 criteria, based on Turkish PM Binali Yildirim’s statement, to identify Gulen supporters, who the regime considers terrorists. The arrests and purge in Turkey are made according to these criteria. Dr. Sezgin explains that these are nothing to with coup-plotting or terrorism. With these criteria the government of Turkey can anyone and this is what has been happening in Turkey.
Discrimination by AKP government [against Hizmet movement]
Discrimination by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, which argues that it has addressed this issue vis-à-vis religious people, has never been analyzed. The recent row between the AKP and the Hizmet movement refers to an important and interesting fact, because it reveals this reality. In light of these discussions, bureaucrats who have been discriminated by the AKP government because of their views are now talking.
Money trail in corruption case
The fact that the government practically stalled the investigation with a major reshuffle of the judiciary, police, watchdog agencies that track money, and finance and banking activities, while pushing emergency laws through Parliament to prevent further investigations and leaks, casts a shadow on how far the Erdoğan government had gone in these dirty deals.
Consultation from Gülen’s perspective: The relationship between the ruler and the ruled
Even if the head of state or the leader is confirmed by God and nurtured by revelation and inspiration, he is obliged to conduct affairs by consultation. In fact, any society that has ignored or disregarded this practice has never prospered; rather, it has perished. So the Messenger of God saw the salvation and progress of his community in consultation: “Those who consult do not lose.”
German view of Hizmet Movement (1)
I remember the late, right-minded orientalist Annemarie Schimmel’s words saying, “The most attacked and least understood religion in the West is Islam.” Today, we come across a similar statement in a recently published scholarly report too. I’m referring to the report titled, “Überdehnt sich die Bewegung von Fethullah Gülen?” by Stiftung für Wissenschaftund Politik (SWP), which put the Hizmet Movement under a scholarly microscope.
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