Fethullah Gulen named the world’s No. 1 public intellectual

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen
Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen


Date posted: July 27, 2008

The Prospect: Over half a million people voted in our poll to find the world’s top public intellectual. Of the many voting campaigns that were mounted, only one had a decisive impact on the results.

Tom Nuttall on the campaign that delivered Gülen’s victory

Ehsan Masood on Gülen, modern face of Sufi Ottomanism

Prospect last ran its intellectuals poll in November 2005. The positions of people who appeared in the 2005 poll are given in brackets. New entries are marked with an asterisk.

1 Fethullah Gülen (*)

2 Muhammad Yunus (*)

3 Yusuf Al-Qaradawi (56)

4 Orhan Pamuk (54)

5 Aitzaz Ahsan (*)

6 Amr Khaled (*)

7 Abdolkarim Soroush (15)

8 Tariq Ramadan (58)

9 Mahmood Mamdani (*)

10 Shirin Ebadi (12)

11 Noam Chomsky (1)

12 Al Gore (*)

13 Bernard Lewis (34)

14 Umberto Eco (2)

15 Ayaan Hirsi Ali

16 Amartya Sen (8)

17 Fareed Zakaria (35)

18 Garry Kasparov (*)

19 Richard Dawkins (3)

20 Mario Vargas Llosa (29)

21 Lee Smolin (*)

22 Jürgen Habermas (7)

23 Salman Rushdie (10)

24 Sari Nusseibeh (65)

25 Slavoj Zizek (23)

26 Vaclav Havel (4)

27 Christopher Hitchens (5)

28 Samuel Huntington (28)

29 Peter Singer (33)

30 Paul Krugman (6)

31 Jared Diamond (9)

32 Pope Benedict XVI (17)

33 Fan Gang (82)

34 Michael Ignatieff (37)

35 Fernando Henrique Cardoso (43)

36 Lilia Shevtsova (*)

37 Charles Taylor (*)

38 Martin Wolf (*)

39 EO Wilson (31)

40 Thomas Friedman (16)

41 Bjørn Lomborg (14)

42 Daniel Dennett (24)

43 Francis Fukuyama (21)

44 Ramachandra Guha (*)

45 Tony Judt (*)

46 Steven Levitt (*)

47 Nouriel Roubini (*)

48 Jeffrey Sachs (27)

49 Wang Hui (*)

50 VS Ramachandran (*)

51 Drew Gilpin Faust (*)

52 Lawrence Lessig (40)

53 JM Coetzee (44)

54 Fernando Savater (*)

55 Wole Soyinka (66)

56 Yan Xuetong (*)

57 Steven Pinker (26)

58 Alma Guillermoprieto (*)

59 Sunita Narain (80)

60 Anies Baswedan (*)

61 Michael Walzer (68)

62 Niall Ferguson (45)

63 George Ayittey (*)

64 Ashis Nandy (*)

65 David Petraeus (*)

66 Olivier Roy (*)

67 Lawrence Summers (60)

68 Martha Nussbaum (53)

69 Robert Kagan (62)

70 James Lovelock (71)

71 J Craig Venter (74)

72 Amos Oz (59)

73 Samantha Power (*)

74 Lee Kuan Yew (*)

75 Hu Shuli (*)

76 Kwame Anthony Appiah (*)

77 Malcolm Gladwell (*)

78 Alexander De Waal (*)

79 Gianni Riotta (*)

80 Daniel Barenboim (*)

81 Thérèse Delpech (*)

82 William Easterly (*)

83 Minxin Pei (*)

84 Richard Posner (32)

85 Ivan Krastev (*)

86 Enrique Krauze (85)

87 Anne Applebaum (*)

88 Rem Koolhaas (51)

89 Jacques Attali (*)

90 Paul Collier (*)

91 Esther Duflo (*)

92 Michael Spence (*)

93 Robert Putnam (77)

94 Harold Varmus (94)

95 Howard Gardner (70)

96 Daniel Kahneman (64)

97 Yegor Gaidar (*)

98 Neil Gershenfeld (87)

99 Alain Finkielkraut (81)

100 Ian Buruma (*)

The only people to have the same placings in both 2005 and 2008 are Samuel Huntington (28th) and Harold Varmus (94th). Excluding new entrie, the g reatest advance between 2005 and 2008 was 53 places, by Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, from 56th to 3rd. The greatest fall was by Richard Posner, by 52 places, from 32nd to 84th. The highest-ranked intellectual from 2005 not to be included in the 2008 poll was Naomi Klein, who made 11th place in 2005.

 

Source: The Prospect , July 26, 2008


Related News

Turkish charity Kimse Yok Mu helps the homeless after floods in Zimbabwe

One of the largest charity organizations in Turkey, Kimse Yok Mu, has launched a massive aid campaign to extend help to nearly 20,000 people hit hard by floods that have devastated the border areas of Zimbabwe.

Students from 135 countries to join Turkish Olympiads this year

İBRAHİM ASALIOĞLU, ANKARA Foreign students from 135 countries will attend the 10th International Turkish Olympiads, which brings together hundreds of foreign students each year from Turkish schools established throughout the world. A total of 1,500 students will compete at this year’s Olympiads, organized by the International Turkish Education Association (TÜRKÇEDER), in singing and poetry recitation […]

Animation – Story of Turkish teacher Gokhan Acikkollu, tortured to death under police custody

Gökhan Açıkkollu, a history teacher suffering from diabetes, died of torture in police custody as part of a post-coup investigation into Turkey’s Gülen group. He was found innocent one-and-a-half years later and “reinstated” to his job a year later.

Erdoğan’s image in the West

Similar to what Erdogan did during the Gezi events, he is falsely accusing the Hizmet movement of being the puppet of these Western, Judeo-Christian enemies. His attempts to shut down YouTube and Twitter are telling enough for the democratic world.

Indian scholar: Fethullah Gülen a great blessing for Turkey, World

7 June 2012 / OSMAN ÜNALAN, NEW DELHI Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, an Islamic scholar in India, has praised the Hizmet movement (aka Gulen movement) and its activities for helping Turkey get rid of negative and biased views about Islam and transforming it into a much-admired center for more self-aware Muslims. Speaking at a symposium titled […]

Hizmet movement and perceptions

We are going through a very critical period. We need the common sense and support of all the precious members of the Hizmet movement as we have never needed them before. We must protect our democratic gains. I pen this article as a person who closely sided with the Hizmet movement during the attacks of Ergenekon — a clandestine organization nested within the state trying to overthrow or manipulate the democratically elected government — and the deep state, and who backed its justified objections to the government’s plan to shut down the prep schools.

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

Erdoğan’s accusation that Hizmet organized the coup attempt is noxious and absurd

Albania: Erdoğan given appropriate response to ‘political’ request on Turkish schools

Gülen’s brother at risk of death in prison

Ex-President Demirel known for his support of Turkish schools abroad

Report: Police chief sets up teams to torture post-coup detainees

SCF Reveals Mass Torture And Abuse In An Unofficial Detention Facility In Turkey’s Capital

Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication Crossing Culture Borders

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News