
Gülen’s core message was the primacy of service, that is, the “most meaningful way to express one’s faith is through positive action,” Yorulmaz says, such as building schools, delivering relief, partnering across differences.

All these aspects rose up in my mind just over three months after the death of pro-education, interfaith dialogue, and non-violence champion, Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, at 83 years in U.S. self-exile, when a report on the Gulen Movement (branded Hizmet—Service) landed on my desk in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The Alliance for Shared Values (AfSV), a U.S.-based non-profit representing regional Hizmet organizations, together with many other Hizmet-affiliated nonprofits around the world, published a landmark document that helps define and guide the civil society movement’s activities for years to come.

“CRC envisions a society in which everybody is respected for who they are, people live in peace, everybody is included, the poor and needy are taken care of, and people of different background(s) can have friendly conversations in peace,” Ak said. “CRC believes in the importance of celebrating the commonalities and respecting differences.

South Africa is a good example of a country that has not been pressured into adopting the narrative touted by the Turkish government. Local politicians, students and academics regularly acknowledge the Hizmet Movement’s altruistic activities in the country.

M Behzad Fatmi, a Turkish political expert and commentator, has said that Ankara’s crackdown on Gullen followers amounts to “social and economic genocide” and asserted that the self-exiled scholar had no connection in the coup d’etat aimed at overthrowing the Erdogan regime.

Gülen comes off in the book as a charismatic figure, who is defined by humility. You can understand why some might find him troubling. He has inspired great loyalty. Yet, like the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis, he has used this charisma and loyalty for the good. A biography like this is important because it brings to life both the person, whose vision led to the creation of the movement and the nature of the movement itself.

No individual’s pain is to be underestimated. Thousands of families are being forced to leave their homeland by violence, terror, or fear of political prosecution. I would like to particularly talk about people of Turkey, who has been forced to leave their country since the Turkish Government ordered a massive witch hunt on members of the Hizmet (Gulen) movement after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.

What caused Erdogan’s to turn against me? Two factors stand out. …. Secondly, there is the issue of Hizmet schools. We operate hundreds of them in Turkey and in some 170 countries around the world, more than 1.400 schools. Erdogan wanted to control our network as a tool to further his aim of dominating the entire Islamic world, as caliph.