At a time when the faith-based Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmetmovement, is under heavy government pressure in Turkey, Lord Maclennan of Rogart, academics and scholars have praised the movement at a panel at the House of Lords for its efforts against the spread of radical Islamism and violence across the world.
Mr. Gulen reminds me of other important figures in the 20th and now early 21st century thinkers like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. who also translate their religious traditions into an idiom that made sense to people who wanted to live peacefully and in harmony with their neighbors and their wider community.
A French editor-in-chief has praised the anti-terrorism messages in an article written by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and published by a prestigious French daily last month, describing them as revolutionary and one of the “signs of hope” in 2015, which he said was marked by terror and fear.
Rumi Forum is inviting eligible individuals on a study fellowship that incorporates trips to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand and Cambodia with the mission of exploring social, economic, cultural, security and political issues in these countries and their wider regions in 2016.
The Turkish-initiated Elite International Schools in Mongolia provided a state pediatric hospital at the capital city Ulaanbaatar with new reading halls for its young residents. At the ribbon cutting ceremony were the schools’ officials, students and hospital authorities along with the local press.
A total of 1,396 wells have been drilled in 13 African countries since Nov. 1, 2014, as part of a project called “Selsebil Water Wells,” which was launched by Turkish charitable organization Kimse Yok Mu in 2011, in cooperation with Fatih University students and Genç-İz Academy Association members.
Gülen placed notices in leading US and European newspapers, including in France, to condemn the atrocities of IS against the background of the murders of Alan Henning, James Foley among others by the militants. Gülen had said IS’s actions are a “disgrace to the faith they proclaim and crimes against humanity”.
The Turkish Cultural Center of Westchester is making an effort to collect blankets and coats for refugees who have fled Syria for Turkey due to the violence in Syria. The effort is to help Syrian refugee families in need during the harsh winter weather that will soon be upon them.