Police raid building Fethullah Gülen resided in 55 years ago
Date posted: December 13, 2016
Edirne police, joined by a group of gendarmes, stormed a building in the city where US-based Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen resided in 55 years ago when he worked as an imam at the famous Üç Şerefeli Mosque.
The government accuses Gülen of orchestrating a coup attempt on July 15, while he denies any involvement.
The building where Gülen stayed from 1959 to 1961 served as the headquarters of the Trakya Şükrüpaşa Education and Culture Foundation until the institution was completely shut down under the post-coup emergency rule declared after July 15.
The police and gendarmes left the building after a search during which they broke some cabinets and walls to find allegedly hidden compartments.
40,000 people reported to authorities for being Gülen followers since July 15
As many as 40,000 people have been reported to the Ankara Police Department for being followers of the Gülen movement since a failed coup attempt on July 15. Although the movement strongly denies having any role in the corruption probe and the coup attempt, the government accuses it of having masterminded both despite the lack of any tangible evidence.
Gülen movement’s silent majority
After all, it is not difficult to understand that the reasons pushing so many people so far from home have been a love of service and a love of their own country. During the course of my travels, I also had the chance to meet a few of the teachers dedicated to their service and to teaching in these schools. Most of them had sacrificed some of their own opportunities so that they could simply contribute to the schools at which they are working.
India must understand Erdogan’s ideological motives for seeking extradition of Gülenists
Since its inception in India, Hizmet is known for its peace activism, interfaith dialogue and counter-extremism. Operating in the country through interfaith dialogue centres, educational institutions and cultural associations, it is articulating an evolving narrative of peace, pluralism and non-violence based on the spiritual ideas and principles of Gülen’s progressive and dialogic narrative of Sufism, as this research paper also elaborates.
Islam’s internal enemies
Caliph Omar, who is renowned for his attention to justice, paid a visit to sacred sites after taking over control of Jerusalem from Governor Sophronius. He visited Masjid al Aqsa and later also wanted to see the Church of Resurrection where, according to Christian belief, Jesus was crucified and prepared for burial. Sophronius, who was walking with Omar, recalled that he performed prayers everywhere he visited and asked him to do the same at the church. Omar rejected the request saying, “If I perform prayer here, Muslims will build a mosque on this very spot.” Instead he found an empty area to the south of the church for prayer, upon which Muslims thereafter erected a mosque named after Omar.
In Conversation with Fethullah Gülen (Interview in Asharq Al-Awsat-I)
While it is a movement inspired by faith, this [Hizmet movement] community of volunteers develops and delivers reasonable and universally acceptable projects which are in full compliance with humanitarian values and which aim to promote individual freedoms, human rights and peaceful coexistence for all people regardless of their faith.
Erdogan’s Faux Coup may have been Turkey’s Reichstag Fire
Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute just gave us a pat on the back confirming our original assessment of July 2016 that Erdogan had staged the July 2016 coup. Several career Turkish military officers make a persuasive case that Erdogan’s narrative is false and that the coup was essentially Turkey’s equivalent of the Reichstag fire.
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