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.
All of Erdoğan’s recent acts reflect a serious deficit of democracy in the ruling government. These acts include making bogus claims of a parallel structure; targeting institutions linked to Fethullah Gülen’s Hizmet movement; embark on a massive reshuffle of thousands of officials without any reasonable grounds; changing the structure of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) to subjugate the judiciary; openly interfering in the media; strengthening the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and bringing it under the direct control of the prime minister; banning Twitter and YouTube; and speaking with a threatening, bullying and polarizing tone.
Deputy slams AK Party with creating crisis as he resigns from party
Announcing his resignation at a press conference in Parliament, İşbilen slammed AK Party leader and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his “dregatory and remarks” against Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and criticized Erdoğan’s government over the corruption scandal.
Clash of two Islams in Turkey
Mr. Gulen and the movement which takes his name are rooted in the mystical tradition of Islam and focus on education and social and cultural projects while Mr. Erdogan is an advocate for political Islam and its desire for political power.
Fethullah Gülen: “Disbelief may prevail, but tyranny will not” (Interview in Asharq Al-Awsat-II)
As [Sunni scholar] Bediüzzaman Said Nursi aptly noted, we should combat the arch-enemies of the Umma (the Islamic community)—namely ignorance, poverty and disunity—with reasonable middle- and long-term projects for promoting education, science, art, trade, democracy, human rights, women’s empowerment, tolerance and dialogue. Any quest for democracy may fail if it does not stand on a firm foundation. The Hizmet Movement has long been trying to do this. with schools, universities, business associations, charitable foundations, dialogue institutions and media outlets.
Political predictions for 2014
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is getting lonelier and this makes him more ill-tempered. There are two big risk areas for Erdoğan. One of them is the total war he declared against the Gülen movement for no apparent reason.
Government [in Turkey] replaces military in defamation tactics
LALE KEMAL A Turkish daily’s publication last week of a secret document dated to August, 2004 has sent shock waves through Turkish politics, which is becoming increasingly polarized ahead of the three elections Turkey will undergo before 2015. The secret document in question, published by the liberal Taraf daily, was about the once-infamous National Security […]
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