‘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

I Weep For Turkey

It has been the same topic of discourse everywhere. And it won’t stop anytime soon because of the atrocities that have followed, all in the name of sanitising the country and arresting masterminds of the phantom coup. The news coming out of Turkey has been really disturbing to many, and equally baffling to the world.

Erdogan Delivers Ultimatum: Washington Has to Choose Between Gulen and Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the United States must make a choice between Ankara and a movement led by US-based dissident Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Ankara has accused Gulen and his followers of playing a key role in the July 15 attempted coup, which claimed lives of over 240 people.

Fethullah Gulen’s Message for International Day of Peace

Fethullah Gulen: On the International Day of Peace, September 21, I join people from different countries, different cultures, and different religions to reaffirm and celebrate our commitment to peace across the world. May this special occasion be a reminder to us that we should be resilient in our work together, despite our differences, to achieve a global culture of peace and mutual respect for one another.

The view from Brussels

The idea in Brussels, like among all sound-minded people here in Turkey, rather, is that the Erdoğan government is using the “parallel state” conspiracy theory as a pretext to suppress the investigation into the gravest bribery and corruption charges in the history of the country and destroy the achievements of the last 10 years in terms of democracy and the rule of law.

Turkey crackdown: deep unease in Fethullah Gulen’s home village

“They were a family of thinkers,” said a dairy farmer in the village who asked not to be named as he feared repercussions from the authorities. “They were good people. They came from nowhere, they had no water, nothing,” he says, pointing out the Gulen family’s former home, made from clay and rocks.

Erdogan at UN urges global action against preacher

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday demanded at UN speech international action against the US-exiled preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom he accuses of orchestrating an aborted coup d’etat against him. Gulen, who fled Turkey for Pennsylvania and has been active in religious dialogue and charity, strongly denies Erdogan’s charges that he organized the July military coup attempt, which quickly collapsed.

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

Please do not insult the intelligence of the people

Turkic American Alliance hosts iftar for members of US Congress

Tevere Institute organized an Iftar Dinner for Diplomats in Vatican

The dangers of demonization [of Hizmet movement]

International Conference on Hizmet Movement in Taiwan

State government in Baden Wurttemberg in constructive dialogue with Hizmet volunteers

Turkey’s development agency spying on Gülen followers in Latin America

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News