Friday, Jan 27th
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Yavuz Aydin the head of the Turkish Schools established around South Africa observed that one of their schools had made history at the recently concluded matriculation exams as it produced the only student in South Africa to ever get 13 distinctions.
More than a decade after Fethullah Gulen moved to the US, three articles appeared in the western media in 2010 providing a closer look to the life of Gulen, and the movement he inspired. One was written by Suzy Hensen and published in The New Republic on November 10, 2010. The other appeared in Th...
For the last 40 plus years Fethullah Gulen and those who are inspired by him sang the same song of love, peace and dialogue. They were called many names, and blamed many fames (!). It did not matter to them, whether they were booed or applauded, they were always well aware that they were on a roug...
The concept of benevolence is very important part of Gulen Movement. Turkish speaking community calls Gulen Movement as Hizmet Movement. The word hizmet, which translates as service from Turkish, refers to public activities conducted by the followers of movement for the wellbeing of other people. ...
Ignorance has been the root cause of many wrong practices throughout the history. In the past it was much easier to be troubled based on ignorance since the world was not as flat as it is today. However, in today’s world where the knowledge is only a click away, getting into trouble bas...
I am a Christian clergyman in the Lutheran tradition who has come to appreciate the efforts of the Rumi Forum to promote understanding between the religions of the world. My wife and I traveled to Turkey in 2007 under Rumi auspices and were impressed to see their significant contributions to Turkish soc...
My experience with the life and teachings of Fethullah Gulen has come through my connections with the Interfaith Dialogue Organization (IDO) at the University of Kentucky and the Rumi Forum in Washington.
In the summer of 2009 I visited Turkey as a guest of Rumi Forum . That trip cemented for me some concl...
By the mid 1990s, Hodja Effendi’s reached a large enough number to be labeled a social movement, often referred to as “The Gulen Movement” or “The Fethullah Gulen Community” in the media. The movement funds all of its activities by donations from members of the community from the general public and does not accept any help support from governments in any form. This approach has helped the Movement stay away from corruption and politics.
Muhammed Çetin's thoroughly referenced study provides an excellent introduction to the movement by someone who knows it inside and out. The Introduction presents an overview of developments in social movements theory, which helps to locate this study precisely in its disciplinary context. The second chapter provides a valuable overview of key figures and events in recent Turkish socio-political history and explains the rise of the Gulen movement against that background. In chapters 3 and 4, Çetin applies the various theoretical paradigms he discussed in the first chapter to the Gulen movement, situating it in the necessary social, political, cultural, and theoretical context. He also analyzes and explains the motives, methods and rationale of the opposition to the movement. This approach will be helpful for Western readers who may be coming from a tradition of activist, or "protest" movements, from which Gulen's spiritual movement is quite different. Çetin subtly and persuasively draws out the important comparisons and contrasts, without which we cannot understand the extraordinary success of the Gulen movement. The fifth chapter presents the results of questionnaires and interviews with members of the movement.
Professor Akbar S. Ahmed
Democracy has developed over time. Just as it has gone through many different stages in the past, it will continue to evolve and improve in the future. Along the way, it will be shaped into a more humane and just system, one based on righteousness and reality. If human beings are considered as a whole, without disregarding the spiritual dimension of their existence and their spiritual needs, and without forgetting that human life is not limited to this mortal life and that all people have a great craving for eternity, democracy could reach the peak of perfection and bring even more happiness to humanity. Islamic principles of equality, tolerance, and justice can help it do just this.
