New testimony in a court case incriminating the faith-based Gülen movement indicates that police and prosecutors had pressured suspects to make false statements against the movement, revealing that the case was actually a plot developed by political authorities to taint the movement.
The Adana Police Department early on Thursday coordinated with inspectors from several ministries and other institutions to conduct raids on private schools, dormitories and prep schools established by volunteers inspired by the Gülen movement, despite regulations stating that only the Education Ministry may perform such inspections.
Inspectors from six different state bodies have raided several schools and educational facilities linked to the Gülen movement as part of a witch-hunt against the group that has been raging since twin corruption investigations targeting the country’s president and his inner circle.
A number of parents staged a protest on Friday against raids police carried out by the police on Thursday as part of a government-led operation against 26 private schools and educational institutions in Kahramanmaraş province that are inspired by the Gülen movement, a faith-based civil society movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Hizmet Means Service examines Hizmet, a Turkish-based but global movement dedicated to human service. Inspired by Fethullah Gülen, a Sufi Muslim mystic, scholar, and preacher, it is an international endeavor focused on education, business, interfaith dialogue, science, and efforts to promote tolerance and understanding.
Kenneth Hunter is the Principal of the Prosser Career Academy High School. He studied theology at Chicago Loyola University and taught world religions in high schools. He served as the chairperson of Illinois State Board of Education Language Arts Assessment Advisory Council (2002-2012). He is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago.
A National Police Department report accusing the Gülen movement of being a terrorist organization without any solid evidence is being treated as a document not to be questioned by the judiciary, which apparently views it as an “instruction” by higher-ups, recent investigations have indicated.
The defamation campaign against the Gülen or Hizmet movement, which the Turkish president and his political Islamist Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government accuse of illegally wiretapping government officials, collapsed after it became clear that foreign security and intelligence agencies were involved in eavesdropping on senior Turkish officials.
Turkish educator Süleyman Alptekin has said that Turkey’s ninth president, Süleyman Demirel, who died on Wednesday at the age of 90, won people’s hearts with his open support for Turkish educators and Turkish schools abroad inspired by the views of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Alptekin was flown back to the country in Demirel’s plane after being seriously injured in an accident in Bangladesh in 1997.
Online government whistleblower Fuat Avni has claimed that the government is concocting a plan to blame the clandestine assassinations of the ‘deep state’ and the violent domestic acts planned by the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) on the Hizmet movement.
…since at least 1998 Turkey has established its presence in Nigeria as one of the biggest outside forces for development in our education and health sectors. Today its 16 non-denominational Nigeria-Turkish international primary and secondary schools spread across Nigeria in Abuja, Kaduna, Lagos, Kano, Ogun and Yobe states – and with plans for more – are among the very best in the country.
I have often been suspicious of the Gülen movement, although as I reflect, I realize I may have been misread the movement. While this post will be lengthy, the topic remains relevant and intellectually interesting to those interested in Islam and reform, and so I hope to address why I was suspicious, and why I have slowly been changing my mind.
Ahmet Altan, the former editor-in-chief of the Taraf daily, has said that the Gülen movement acted “courageously” during the public revelations of the Dec. 17, 2013 corruption scandal that implicated several senior members of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.