
ŞAHİN ALPAY Colleagues and friends ask me, “What is the reason for the feud between the government and the Gülen movement and between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Fethullah Gülen?” This is, briefly, my response. In Turkey the demand for education is very high. Universities are unable to meet the demand and there are […]

The Gülen Movement arose among pious men and women who wanted a modern interpretation of religion. In the dynamics of the transformation of the movement, the social milieu also played an important role. The movement became a spiritual refuge for those who searched for an interpretation where Islam was in harmony with modernity. The followers of the Gülen Movement do not describe themselves as a political movement.

Turkey’s Islamic camp is more diverse than one would think. In fact, the traditions that Erdoğan and Gülen come from have almost always been distinct and different from each. The former has been more explicitly Islamist, at times anti-Western and anti-Semitic. The latter, the line of Gülen, which goes back to scholar Said Nursi (1878-1960), has rather stayed closer to center-right parties and have been more friendly to the West and also other “Abrahamic” faiths.

That’s hizmet: freedom from fear, secure in the ultimate mercy and grace of a compassionate God, yet freedom to serve: recognizing the needs and suffering of one’s neighbors, and the strength and joy found in solidarity and community. That’s hizmet. And yet it is also the path to a meaningful, rich life — rich in the things that matter, the things that endure, the things that aren’t things.

In Sri Lanka, the Hizmet Movement started the Learnium School as well as the Intercultural Dialogue Foundation. Initially, the funding for the school came from the Movement until it managed to support itself on its own income. Kimse Yok Mu was among the first to respond to the devastating tsunami that hit Sri Lanka. Large amounts of food and other requirements that the tsunami victims needed were supplied without any fanfare.

The Rumi Forum, an international organization promoting interfaith dialogue and peace, honored its 2013 RUMI Peace and Dialogue Award recipients on Thursday evening at the National Press Club Ballroom in Washington, D.C. In attendance at the seventh of the Rumi Forum’s annual Peace and Dialogue Awards ceremonies were academics from 15 different countries and representatives of civil society organizations.

The most effective and profound actor in this acquaintance process, on the other hand, has been without a doubt the Hizmet Movement inspired by the Honorable Fethullah Gulen’s teachings. I can list the movement’s initiatives in Brazil as follows: Its affiliated school “Colegio Belo Futuro Internacional” has been offering Portuguese-English bilingual education in the country since its establishment in 2007.

Love Is A Verb is an examination of a social movement of Sufi-inspired Sunni Muslims that began in Turkey in the l960s and now spans across the globe. The group is called Hizmet, the Turkish word for “service” or The Gülen Movement after its inspiration and teacher, Fethullah Gülen, a man TIME magazine named as […]

Suveyda Karakaya of University of Tennessee presents her paper “Women in the Hizmet Movement: Traditionalists or Modernists?” which examines the women’s involvement and attitudes towards issues surrounding their position in the movement, at the international conference “The Gulen Movement: Paradigms, Projects, and Aspirations.” The international conference took place on November 11-13, 2010 at International House […]

Love Is A Verb is an examination of a social movement of Sufi-inspired Sunni Muslims that began in Turkey in the l960s and now spans across the globe. The group is called Hizmet, the Turkish word for “service” or The Gülen Movement after its inspiration and teacher, Fethullah Gülen, a man TIME magazine named as one of the most influential leaders in the world in 2013 for “…preaching a message of tolerance.”

“What I have personally observed is that Hizmet is a movement that embraces contrasts and in which everyone can find a place for themselves. It’s a globally transformational movement. It is, on the other hand, able to combine tradition and modernity and bring them around the common values. Although I might not be necessarily exercising your values, I consider myself a part of this movement. The principles that lead the movement are what lead my life as well.” Alexander remarked.

Most (university) preparatory courses (in Turkey) are run by the Hizmet movement, and it is very clear that the government’s steps to close down such courses, an action against the movement, will negatively affect a great number of people. Many analysts said it is impossible for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which does not have a good relationship with the Hizmet movement, to close down preparatory courses in the run-up to the pre-election period.

Since the start of the Ergenekon trials, some of the suspects and their supporters constantly, steadfastly and fiercely argued that the Ergenekon cases were based on fabricated evidence prepared by the Hizmet movement, claiming that the defendants were actually innocent. They now owe an apology to the Hizmet movement.

A recent report released by the International Crisis Group (ICG) on Turkey’s efforts to address the Kurdish issue has praised the positive role the faith-based Hizmet movement plays in the settlement process. The report, titled “Crying Wolf: Why Turkish Fears Need Not Block Kurdish Reform,” released on Monday.