‘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

Turkish Schools and Fethullah Gulen

HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE Historian Ilber Ortayli made an excellent evaluation of Turkish schools abroad, at the First International University Education Congress, held in Fatih University last week. According to Mr. Ortayli, Turkey, a country where foreign schools rushed into a hundred years ago, has now reversed the tide. This is a historic achievement showing the greatness […]

Response to aspersion on Hizmet

HÜSEYİN GÜLERCE The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) made an important statement on Thursday. Its press release, issued in connection with the recent tension that threatens to disrupt social consensus, seeks to defuse tension with regards to the rift between the government and the Hizmet movement. “[T]he ways in which legitimate demands are voiced should […]

Fethullah Gulen among TIME’s “World’s 100 Most Influential People” for 2013

April 18, 2013 / HizmetNews, NEW YORK Mr. Fethullah Gulen has been named as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2013. TIMEr ecognized Gulen for “preaching a message of tolerance that has won him admirers around the world.” The 2013 TIME 100 includes other noted world leaders such as […]

Gülen calls for peaceful coexistence, warns about deceit and oppression

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has called for living together in peace, echoing similar remarks issued by President Abdullah Gül last week against the background of two-week-long anti-government protests in Turkey. “For the love of God, let’s live for a while in a [spirit] of brotherhood,” Gülen said, borrowing a theme from a popular song […]

Understanding of Muslims in US is limited, says scholar

“Part of what we are doing involves interfaith work,” says Turk, and he brings up the role of the Pacifica Institute in California that does similar work in accordance with the teachings of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. “The same values are taught by Gülen,” Turk says, and adds that students from the Gülen-inspired Hizmet movement attend Bayan Claremont as well. “We are educating the next generation of Islamic scholars and community leaders,” Turk says.

ABA urges Obama to protest Turkey’s suppression of free speech

On September 1, the American Booksellers Association joined American publishers, authors, and librarians in a letter urging President Obama to protest the widespread suppression of free speech in Turkey during his September 4 meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan in China.

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

Gülen’s lawyer: Systemic, illegal wiretaps taking place in Turkey over last six months

Plan to finish off the Hizmet movement

Journalist reveals MGK decision to fight against all religious groups

Don’t draw us into your family fight: Washington

Ankara forces Arbil to close Turkish schools in KRG

Turkey’s coup attempt & a more intimate view of the Hizmet Movement

Parliament Speaker Cicek visits Turkish School in Kiev

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News