Infiltrating or contributing?

Muhammed Çetin
Muhammed Çetin


Date posted: November 2, 2010

MUHAMMED ÇETİN

Over the past few days Muslim scholar and social activist Fethullah Gülen has given a measured and straightforward response to accusations that the Gülen movement, or as it is often called, the “volunteers’ service” or hizmet, is engaged in a conspiracy to infiltrate state institutions. Gülen replied that all citizens have a right — in accordance with the law — to be employed in their own country within the ranks of state institutions, including the police and military.

Indeed, it seems to me that since the participants and supporters of the movement number in the millions within Turkey, their presence within such institutions is a statistical certainty given that the movement is not a clandestine organization or cult.

This latest public discussion first started to develop around Police Chief Hanefi Avcı’s accusations against the movement. Apart from accusing the supporters of the Gülen movement of having infiltrated top state posts, Avcı, who is currently in custody, claimed that ongoing criminal investigations of illegal activities within the state — such as the clandestine criminal network Ergenekon that plotted to overthrow the government — lack evidence and are based on illegal wiretapping. However, recent legal probes show Avcı himself not only wiretapped illegally but also tortured dozens of individuals. Avcı was arrested last month on charges of aiding and abetting a terrorist organization.

However, as these events were progressing, researchers taking part in the Mapping the Gülen Movement Conference in Amsterdam, were presenting their research findings to the academic world.

A number of Turkish and non-Turkish academics inside and outside the movement contributed. Most of the speakers were completely independent of the movement. Yet not one of them produced a shred of evidence that could be used in support of Avcı’s accusations.

Thomas Michel, an academic who has years of experience observing the movement, spoke of the centrality to Fethullah Gülen’s thought and teachings on ikhlas (purity of intention). He pointed out this concept includes honesty or freedom from dissimulation and that Gülen stresses “pursuing nothing worldly.”

Ihsan Yilmaz and Sammas Salur presented a joint paper on the compatibility of Islam, democracy and secularism in Gülen’s thought. Today’s Zaman’s own Dogu Ergil, in his capacity as an academic at Ankara University, pointed out that while participants in the movement may have their own political views and even party political affiliations, these are not allowed to affect the activities of the movement.

Pim Valkenberg of Loyola University Maryland made a study of Gülen’s publications over the years and concluded that there has been no change in Gülen’s message. From the beginning of his career as a preacher he has expressed concern for humanity as a whole, not just selected parts of it such as a community or a nation. Only Gülen’s sensitivity to the widening of his audience has developed, as the movement has grown and become transnational, so that later works can be understood by a wider range of people with different educational and cultural backgrounds.

Helen Rose Ebaugh of the University of Houston reported her research on the finances and fundraising of the movement. She investigated 11 major institutions and found the accounting practices were straightforward and transparent and that institutions were very willing to let her inspect their accounts.

My own paper about the structural dimension of the movement described how the movement functions without centralized control. Papers by Johan Leman, on the efforts for social integration by Gülen movement volunteers in Belgium, and by Maria Curtis, who wrote about women’s goals in the movement and how they strive to contribute to society in the United States, also confirmed the characteristics of service to others and decentralization.

None of the academics in attendance reported finding any sign of attempts by movement members to overthrow democracy or even to “grab a bigger share of the pie” for a new elite, shady or otherwise.

Turkish people nowadays are almost used to wild and inaccurate conspiracy theories and weary of the existence of the very real plots of the deep state that have marred the life of the nation for years. We can now spot the use of smoke and mirrors on the stage, while the villain attempts to exit unseen stage left.

The fact-based, peer-reviewed world of academia, though dry to some people’s tastes, has a contribution to make to Turkey’s future. In contrast to the drama and fiction of politics, the requirement for balance and credibility in academic work contributes facts and reveals ulterior motives in the public arena. These can be cooling antidotes to the poison of delusion administered to the public by the politically ambitious.

Source: This article was published on 14 October 2010, Thursday on Today’s Zaman
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/columnists-224345-infiltrating-or-contributing.html


Related News

Former intel chief calls for use of ASALA, MOSSAD tactics to kill Gülen followers

İsmail Hakkı Pekin, a former intelligence chief of the Turkish General Staff, has suggested that Turkey make use of tactics it used against Armenian militant group, the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), and those employed by Israeli intelligence agency MOSSAD against Nazis in order to assassinate followers of the Gülen movement abroad.

Turkey will conduct ‘operations’ against Erdogan’s enemies in U.S.

“This is a blatant and alarming admission by Turkey’s presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin of actions by the Erdogan regime in clear violation of international law and agreements to which Turkey is a party.”

Turkey’s New Maps Are Reclaiming the Ottoman Empire

Erdogan, by contrast, has given voice to an alternative narrative in which Ataturk’s willingness in the Treaty of Lausanne to abandon territories such as Mosul and the now-Greek islands in the Aegean was not an act of eminent pragmatism but rather a betrayal. The suggestion, against all evidence, is that better statesmen, or perhaps a more patriotic one, could have gotten more.

Is it struggle between AK Party and Hizmet?

A prosecutor, Mr. Sadrettin Sarikaya, recently invited head of Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) for testimony that caused political controversy. Many journalists and politicians claimed that behind this was Fethullah Gulen. Mr Sarikaya’s accusation was that some intelligence agents that infiltrated the Kurdish terrorist group to provide intelligence were actually not performing their job, and moreover […]

Canberra followers of Fethullah Gulen afraid to return to Turkey

Despite having recently become an Australian citizen, Mr Erdogan fears if he returned to Turkey at the moment he would be arrested as soon as he stepped off the plane. He has friends in Turkey who have been stripped of their livelihoods and forced to go into hiding as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cracks down on “enemies of the state”.

Gülen’s letter to Gül

Koru told Gülen to express his feelings in a letter. The scholar wrote this letter on Dec. 22. Koru took the letter to its addressee, the president. He met with the prime minister the same day in Ankara and told him about his impressions from his contact with Gülen. I mean to say, there is not “bargaining” or “mediation.” There is only a “goodwill initiative” here.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

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

In Case You Missed It

Criminal complaint filed against media organizations publishing Gülen’s speeches

Totalitarian interference in individual sphere

Students from 135 countries to join Turkish Olympiads this year

Turkish police to plant Gülen’s books in ISIL cells, journalist claims

Fethullah Gülen urges Muslims to exercise restraint over anti-Muslim movie

Turkey’s Erdogan vows to cut off revenues of Gulen-linked businesses

Turkish daily Taraf accused of ‘spying’ and ‘terror acts’ for publishing state document

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News