‘I like the vitality of the participation and the vitality of hospitality within the Hizmet Movement’


Date posted: March 21, 2015

Dr. Alan Jones is the Senior Pastor at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Sacramento since 2011. Dr. Jones has Master’s in Religious Studies at University of Cambridge. He completed Doctorate of Ministry at the Claremont School of Theology. He has also attained training in psychotherapy, marriage and family therapy.

“My views about Mr. Gulen are …. that he has been an extraordinary inspiration and a source of a lot of wisdom that is grounded in the Movement. I very much appreciate his insistence that at least in this branch of Islam it’s very important to see sisters and brothers in other religious traditions.”

“I believe, certainly in the United States as I’m experiencing the Hizmet Movement, I’m experiencing extraordinary hospitality, a great warmth of people, a genuine spirit, an openness, a compassionate style.”

“I believe that what Hizmet is doing and what those of us in the Christian world and in other religious traditions are doing in building connections and relationships is vitally important, not only for us and for our interaction with each other but for the wider world community.

I really believe that we can teach the world a different way of operating so that we don’t operate simply out of fear and violence and suspicion but rather out of mutual affirmation and sharing and love and compassion and working together to build a different kind of world, whether we’re talking about our local neighborhood or our schools or our community institutions but around the world we can stop 13 thousand children dying every day in the world, if we work together on this task.”


*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 , May 2, 2014


Related News

‘Gülen movement challenges culture of competition’

The Gülen movement, a religious-based social movement with millions of followers in Turkey, is challenging the increasingly competitive philosophy based on marginalizing and outdoing others and offering new ways of looking at cooperation and working together, says Michael Samuel, dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Durban and life-time educator with good knowledge of schools founded by the Gülen movement.

Is Hizmet making a feint at Turkish Government?

Akif Beki Journalists and Writers Foundation gave a bulk response to the rumors regarding Hizmet-Government dispute. I did not sense an attempt of making a feint at the government in the text, if we don’t count a few unnecessary sentences. Thinking that folks may want to hear my comments on the topic, I was unable […]

Turkey investigating 4,167 Gülen followers in 110 countries

At least 4,167 people in 110 countries are being investigated in Turkey over their links to the Gülen movement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday.

Fethullah Gulen’s Message of Condolences for Victims of Terrorist Attack at Istanbul Ataturk International Airport

Turkish Islamic scholar and peace advocate Fethullah Gulen, who has been residing in Saylorsburg, PA since 1999, condemned the horrific terrorist attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport.

Turkish American ‘balance alignment’

Ali H. Aslan, Washington D.C. If, when I began working in Washington 16 years ago, someone had come up to me and said, “The day will come when nearly 50 senators and representatives from the US Congress will participate in a Turkish gathering,” I would have said he was dreaming. And if someone had also […]

FM Davutoğlu says Turkish schools abroad play important representative role

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said Turkish schools abroad are playing an important representative role and that Turkish government officials will do everything to support them. Davutoğlu’s remarks came after a series of statements by ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials supporting Turkish schools abroad.

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

Malaysia deports 3 Turks despite warnings of torture risk

Wealthy businessmen spent time with Kurdish poor and Syrian refugees during Eid al-Adha

Arab Students in Turkey Facing Arbitrary Arrest

Tables Have Turned for Some Media in Turkish Crackdown

Does Erdogan really want Gulen in Turkey?

“ISIS — A terrorist group making false representation of Islam,” says Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen

Caretaker AK Party gov’t criticized for police operation against youth association

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News