Gulen, Moderate Cleric, Vilified In Turkey

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen is seen at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, Sept. 24, 2013. (photo by REUTERS/Selahattin Sevi)
Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen is seen at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, Sept. 24, 2013. (photo by REUTERS/Selahattin Sevi)


Date posted: June 7, 2016

The Turkish government’s war on the Gulen movement has shown no signs of ebbing. Ankara is so determined to crack down on this loose network that its top security council framed it as a terrorist group last week.

This puts the Gulen movement on par with a Kurdish rebel group that has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state as well as the Islamic State. Listing the Gulen movement as a terrorist group is part of a campaign led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to go after its followers in other countries, where they found relative peace from increasingly aggressive government that has put more than 4,000 people in jail so far, all of whom are accused of being a Gulen movement sympathizer.

While delivering the news report to its subscribers last week, Reuters described Fethullah Gulen as a cleric who is “preaching Sunni Islam with a message of interfaith dialogue.”

Gulen is a scholar currently residing in a secluded and rural area of Pennsylvania, in Saylorsbourg to be exact, just two-hour drive from New York. Many Turks believe that Gulen’s compound is the headquarters of a movement that unsuccessfully engineered a coup to bring down the Erdogan’s government. Of course, with the help of the Uncle Sam and Israel.

Gulen is loved and loathed by many. But is it fair to designate a movement that vociferously renounces violence a terrorist group?

Erdogan has long had a trouble in defining terrorism. He has not refrained from calling his critics as terrorists, including anti-government Gezi protesters, let alone sympathizers of violent groups such as the PKK. The broad definition of terrorism is exactly the sticking point that put Turkey’s visa talks with the EU on a stalemate. It is not surprising that the Turkish government framed the Gulen movement as a terror group. Human Rights Watch senior Turkey researcher Emma Sinclair-Webb said on her Twitter feed before the designation that “Erdogan smears non-violent Gulen movement with a terror label.”

Gulen’s followers argue that the confrontation with the Turkish ruling party AKPdates back as far as 2010, when Gulen criticized a Gaza-bound flotilla. But the fissure between the former allies was laid bare after Erdogan publicly accused the movement for orchestrating the twin corruption investigations in December 2015that targeted Erdogan and his inner circle.

Since then anyone praising the preacher or donating to a charity group affiliated with the movement faced criminal charges for “spreading terror propaganda” or “financing a terrorist organization.” From housewives to a 91-year-old businessman, an estimated 4,100 people were jailed since summer 2014.

Last year, Erdogan ordered all Turkish ambassadors in the world to go after individuals and institutions affiliated with the Gulen movement. He hired a British law firm headed by Robert Amsterdam to pursue the Gulenists in the US and in Africa, where they established hundreds of schools, orphanages, hospitals and aid centers. Only in the US, the Turkish government hired ten lobby groups to monitor Gulen movement’s activities, and if possible, to block them. In New Zealand, for instance, the Turkish ambassador sent a bulk email to dozens of senior officials, including members of the Parliament, to ask them not to attend a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner organized by the Gulen movement, sources said.

Wherever Turkish officials go, host countries ask: Do you have a court decision that says the Gulen movement is a terror group? Every time the answer is: We’re working on it.

Ankara believes that the latest security council decision will be more convincing in blocking the Gulen movement’s activities abroad. Yet a day after the decision, theUS State Department announced that it does not view the Gulen movement as a foreign terrorist organization and that it “is up to Turkish officials” to do so. Even worse for Ankara, President Barack Obama sent a message to a culture festival organized by the Gulenists. So did UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande.

Gulen is considered to be one of the world’s leading moderate voices of Islam. His iconic “A Muslim cannot be a terrorist and a terrorist cannot be a Muslim” quote came to symbolize how he and his followers view the link between Islam and terrorism in post-9/11 world. In his opinion piece published by the NY Times last year, Gulen said the core tenets of a functioning democracy — the rule of law, respect for individual freedoms — are also the “most basic of Islamic values bestowed upon us by God.”

He then chronicled his movement’s achievements in the world: “[Movement’s sympathizers] have committed themselves to interfaith dialogue, community service, relief efforts and making life-changing education accessible. They have established more than 1,000 modern secular schools, tutoring centers, colleges, hospitals and relief organizations in over 150 countries. They are teachers, journalists, businessmen and ordinary citizens.”

In Wall Street Journal, he asked Muslims to denounce violence, demonstrate flexibility to accommodate individuals with diverse backgrounds, publicly promote human rights, provide educational opportunities to every member of their communities and said it is imperative that Muslims support equal rights for women and men.

A separate statement in which he condemned ISIS appeared in many US and European newspapers last year.

Now, what kind of a terrorist makes such statements? And what type of a terror group goes to impoverished African countries to build orphanages and hospitals?

Source: The World Post , June 6, 2016


Related News

The tragic end of the witch hunt

Several claims and accusations have been voiced, and the Hizmet movement has been described as a gang and a “parallel structure,” Are these accusations based on concrete evidence? No. Fabricated news published by pro-government media outlets, unfounded accusations and slanderous claims that are legally null and void have been refuted one by one. However, the pro-government media does not care about this, since they do not care in the least about rights or the rule of law.

Turkey’s Hizmet Purge Is Seeping into the UK Creating Fear in Some Communities

Over the weekend, we have received 5 reports from individuals who are involved in the delivery of social services here in the UK and who are of Turkish heritage. The text messages ask for individuals to inform on members of the Hizmet movement. The impact of these messages is to create fear within members of the Hizmet movement in the UK and who are active in social work within and beyond Muslim communities.

Crackdown in Turkey passes the point of no return

Turkey’s alliances with the US and EU are fraying badly. Above all, Mr Erdogan is moulding the country in his own image, with only a uniform message allowed. As one liberal intellectual puts it: “In the past you got arrested for what you said, but now you can be arrested for what you don’t say.”

Gülen Schools and Rule-of-Law in Turkey

Whatever one’s attitude toward or assessment of Fethullah Gülen might be, the case of the preparatory schools is a barometer for the state of rule-of-law in Turkey. Gülen’s ideology is irrelevant; law should treat everyone equally.

Georgian NGOs Stage Protest in Support of Arrested Turkish College Manager

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have gathered at the government administration in support of Mustafa Emre Cabuk, one of the managers of the Turkish Demirel College, who was sentenced to three-month pre-extradition detention.

The Muslim Way to React

One book, one contest, one excitement… An interesting campaign was organized in India, in order to better understand the messages from Prophet Muhammad, the messages which transcend time and space. 80 thousand Muslims in India read the book ‘The Infinite Light’, written by Fethullah Gulen, and were tested over the book. Very well, but what was […]

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

Turkish NGO in Cambodia Denies Links to Terror

Çağlayan: TUSKON Trade Bridge soon to be global brand

Turkish prosecutor demands detention of 21 women, leaving 10 infants unattended

A cami and cemevi together

Turkish Cultural Center Hosts Food Drive

Renewing Islam by Service: A Christian View of Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet Movement

Police raid successful Gülen-inspired schools, kindergarten in eastern Turkey

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News