New Book – No Return from Democracy: A Survey of Interviews with Fethullah Gulen
Date posted: August 8, 2017
It was rare, if not impossible, to find in ’80s and ’90s a Muslim cleric who spoke in favor of democracy, integration with the Western world, and universal human values. Fethullah Gülen was one of those. Many of his avant-garde ideas did not only earn him one of the largest and most influential faith-inspired social movements of recent history, but also many foes, especially from the Turkish ruling elite, placing him in the center of many social and political developments in Turkey. Despite the enormous defamation from some political groups in Turkey, Gülen is recognized in the world as a devout Muslim cleric, whose thoughts and life style are deeply rooted in the Islamic faith, but who also believes Islam is not in conflict with the progressive values of the modern world. This book collates Gülen’s ahead-of-his-time comments on some of the debated issues as he phrased in interviews in the past few decades.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu stated he had ordered the closure of Turkish schools in 160 countries, arguing that the officials of those schools had sent letters to the leaders of foreign countries in which they complained about the Turkish government. The closure of these schools is a serious step, but the reason for the closure is not based on real evidence.
The Pigeon, The Finger, and Hizmet’s ‘Inevitable Ambiguity’
Hizmet combines characteristics that we are not used to seeing combined in such a way: faith-inspired (in motivation) yet faith-neutral (in so many activities), informed by Qur’anic principles yet inclusive and non-missionary, predominantly Muslim but proactively engaging with wider society and responding constructively to modern and post-modern ideas and lifestyles.
Why Fethullah Gulen will never support a coup?
I consider that it is very illogical and unsubstantiated to blame a personality and implicitly the followers of his teachings for an action that is a potential source of a lot of human deaths, destruction and chaos. A similar philosophy of respect and love for everything due to their real Source, the Creator, could be one of our vital prescriptions that is essential against all types and sources of ferocity which we unfortunately witness in the world today.
US calls decision by Turkey to seize Zaman newspaper ’troubling’
“We see this as the latest in a series of troubling judicial and law enforcement actions taken by the Turkish government targeting media outlets and others critical of it,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing.
Erdoğan escalates elimination of Gülenists from state [ with no proof of accusations]
Since the Dec. 17 graft probe, hundreds of prosecutors and judges and around 2,500 police officers who the government believes to be close to Gülen have been removed from their posts, and it seems that it is not going to stop there.
Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World
The Hizmet Movement is Turkey’s most influential Islamic identity community. Widely praised throughout the early 2000s as a mild and moderate variation on Islamic political identity, the Gülen Movement has long been a topic of both adulation and conspiracy in Turkey, and has become more controversial as it spreads across the world. In Gülen, Joshua D. Hendrick suggests that when analyzed in accordance with its political and economic impact, the Gülen Movement, despite both praise and criticism, should be given credit for playing a significant role in Turkey’s rise to global prominence.
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Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney
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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
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