Fethullah Gulen promotes democracy (CBS News)


Date posted: April 23, 2014

Fethullah Gulen promotes tolerance, interfaith dialog, and above-all: he promotes education. And yet he’s a mystery man — he’s never seen or heard in public — and the more power he gains, the more questions are raised about his motives and the schools.

Fethullah Gulen’s embrace of Western values has helped to modernize Turkey.

Abdulhamit Bilici, general manager of the Cihan News Agency in Istanbul said: Until early 90’s Islamic movement had the problem with the concept of secularism, democracy and other universal concepts.

So Fethullah Gulen was the one of the pioneers in the sense he said in the early 9o’s: “Turkey will not turn from democracy”
Democracy and Islam of course are compatible.


Related News

Turkish PM tightens grip on judiciary in parliament vote

CHP had said on Thursday it would appeal the bill in the Constitutional Court if it was approved in parliament. “If you accept this law, soon you will be repealing the constitution,” CHP MP Akif Hamzacebi said during the debate. “This cover-up of the allegations of corruption and bribery today has dealt a big blow to democracy and freedom.”

Overshadowing the graft probe

Erdoğan’s government has removed around 113 police chiefs from their posts in a major overhaul and issued a decree that dealt a serious blow to judicial independence since the operation, which targeted some members of his inner circle, was initiated on Dec. 17. All these draconian measures taken by the government are intended to prevent the police and judiciary from carrying out criminal investigations without the government’s — i.e., the executive’s — knowledge.

A warning from and for a troubled land – how easily a democracy can be dismantled

Recently a messenger came to Colorado with dark warnings from a troubled land: Abdulhamit Bilici, the former editor-in-chief of Zaman, Turkey’s go-to newspaper before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s brutal crackdown. You don’t often meet people like Abdulhamit Bilici in the United States. You almost can’t believe that someone with his backstory sits before you.

Turkish PM Erdoğan launches another war [in Turkey]

Turkey’s Islamic camp is more diverse than one would think. In fact, the traditions that Erdoğan and Gülen come from have almost always been distinct and different from each. The former has been more explicitly Islamist, at times anti-Western and anti-Semitic. The latter, the line of Gülen, which goes back to scholar Said Nursi (1878-1960), has rather stayed closer to center-right parties and have been more friendly to the West and also other “Abrahamic” faiths.

‘Hizmet Movement and Fethullah Gulen inspire uniting people around spiritual ideals’

“The Hizmet Movement and what Mr. Gulen is inspiring is uniting people around spiritual ideals. And I like the idea in your schools that you don’t really teach religion directly; you teach ethics. I think that’s another hopeful sign that out of this spiritual movement you’re bringing people together of different religious-cultural backgrounds, but they’re uniting around a certain ethical principle of love and care for humanity and service of humanity.

A rising profile for Turkish Cultural Center Vermont

The Turkish Cultural Center Vermont, a nonprofit organization, offers Turkish language classes and serves as a platform for promoting both Turkish culture and cross-cultural understanding. As a focal point for one of the many ethnic and linguistic groups that have found their way to Vermont, it has achieved noteworthy visibility.

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

Gov’t ban on charity Kimse Yok Mu hits orphans

Erdogan and Gulen: Inevitable Clash?

Turkey asks imams abroad to profile Gülen-linked expatriates

Turkey’s Erdogan and onslaughts against opposition

GYV President meets Minister of Gender Equality and Family of the Republic of Korea

Man abducted by Turkish intel exposes torture during 9-month enforced disappearance

What Bishop Welby’s appointment reminds: Are we responding to God’s calling?

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News