Keyword: Hizmet (Gulen) movement
Al-Zuhayli says Gülen’s ideas hope of humanity
Leading Islamic scholar Al-Zuhayli said the ideas of well-respected Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen stand as a hope for humanity. Leading Islamic scholar Wahba Mustafa al-Zuhayli from Syria, a participant of the two-day “Prophet’s Path Symposium” held over the weekend, October 9and 10, 2010, said the ideas of well-respected Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen stand as a hope for humanity. […]
Turkey-Kurdistan Regional Government ties: How and why did they improve this much?
ABDULLA HAWEZ ABDULLA I remember how relations between the Turkish government and northern Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) used to be. Both sides were ambivalent about how to deal with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and had to wrangle over the matter. But these thoughts became obsolete after 2009 and transformed into marvelous relations. […]
Gulen movement becoming victim of its own legend
I don’t know whether they are aware of it, but a danger that needs to be taken very seriously awaits the Gulen movement. In the eyes of the Turkish society, which is believing of conspiracy theories, the Gulen movement is mythicized beyond its real dimensions. The power and influence of the Gulen movement is being so exaggerated that if no precautions are taken, this imagined power will one day destroy it.
You couldn’t meet a nicer bunch of people: answer to defamation
Why do some portray Gülen and the residents of the retreat center, where he lives, as terrorists, while their neighbors describ them as “you couldn’t meet a nicer bunch of people”? Fethullah Gülen is one of the fruit-bearing trees of our time. He is as tall as the pine trees of the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where […]
Gülen movement has no political agenda
Professor Ahmed al-Tayyib, the rector of al-Azhar University in Egypt, who believes the Gülen movement and al-Azhar University are of the same mind regarding the balance between secularism and religion, said the Gülen movement is a true representative of Islam because it adopts a moderate approach. “Today, there are many movements having a religious basis; however, most of them serve the interests of a sect, a community or a political purpose,” he told.
Gulen movement shows faith can purify reason
Randy David MANILA, Philippines—It is fascinating to read Pope Benedict XVI’s speech the other day before members of the British parliament. The Pope spoke on “the proper place of religious belief within the political process.” Having just visited Ephesus and Urfa, two of the most important religious sites in Turkey, I could not have been […]
Hypocrisy in languages: criticizing Fethullah Gülen, English or Turkish?
Abdulhamid Türker* Fethullah Gülen has been the subject of several books and hundreds of articles, in many languages. Some of these books and articles are very critical of Gülen and the Gülen movement (also known as Hizmet movement). If someone wants to understand who Gülen is, the first thing this person would do is to […]
US conference discusses Gülen movement contributions to peace
Officials from the US Department of State, a retired ambassador, academics and others gathered at the University of Maryland, College Park campus, on Thursday to participate in a Rumi Forum Maryland conference on the Gülen (Hizmet) movement’s contributions to world peace.
GYV President Yeşil decodes the Gülen movement
MUSTAFA EDİB YILMAZ Mustafa Yeşil, the chairman of the Journalists and Writers Foundation’s (GYV) executive board, a Turkish NGO undertaking projects that emphasize mutual understanding and tolerance to establish global peace, described the movement named after the GYV’s honorary president, Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, as being faith based, pacifist, pluralist, colorful and pro-democratic. Gülen […]
Global Muslim networks: How far they have travelled
IT IS a long way from the Anatolian plains to a campus in the heart of London, where eminent scholars of religion deliver learned papers. And the highlands that used to form the Soviet border with China, an area where bright kids long for an education, seem far removed from a three-storey house in Pennsylvania, […]
Fethullah Gulen: A farm boy on the world stage
PIOUS people in eastern Turkey, where Fethullah Gulen was born, are eager to praise him. Before hearing the preacher’s words 12 years ago, “I led a life full of women and alcohol,” admits Unal Sahin, a jeweller in Erzurum. Under Mr. Gulen’s guidance, he became devout and generous, helping a university in Georgia, and schools […]
The Gülen Movement and human rights values in the Muslim world
ÖZCAN KELEŞ* Fethullah Gülen is many things at once and it is this combination of characteristics, abilities and qualifications, some of which have hitherto seemed mutually exclusive, that marks him out from the rest and has provided him with a transformative edge. It is the combination of three particular characteristics that have enabled Gülen to […]
Fethullah Gülen and the role of nonviolence in a time of terror
Fethullah Gülen is unusual in adding a distinctly Islamic voice to the calls for a non-violent approach to conflict resolution. But how well do Gülen’s teachings on non-violence lead to peaceful transformation on the ground? Is his a static and passive approach bounded by dogma, or are we witnessing an innovative, active and self-aware spirit of transformation which really can lead to a new way of defining Islam in action?
Fethullah Gülen’s response to the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis
RICHARD PENASKOVIC* If Mr. Huntington is a protagonist for Western civilization, then Mr. Gülen is his counterpart, serving as a spokesperson or champion for moderate Islam. The differences between them are like night and day. Mr. Gülen argues that by creating new enemy fronts, Huntington actually sows the seeds for a clash of civilizations on […]
