Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement

 My name is Emran Qureshi. I am a Wertheim Fellow at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. This was a roughly targeted trip for me. I knew very little about Turkey’s modern history. I have always wanted to come to Istanbul. The trip through geography through history through culture through languages was amazing. Being in the Blue Mosque, being in Izmir, being in all these places that are right about but never had the opportunity to visit was amazing. I sent an email from Grand Bazaar to my friend saying that you have to come to Turkey, you have to come to Istanbul, and you have to see the great strides that Turkish people have made.

Parts of the great strides are the Gulen Movement, the very very moral ethical entrepreneurs who have developed social capital to push forward social and economic progress within this country and grow parts of the globe. I was most impressed. I would, like Profesor Sonbol, go back and study this and learn more about it. Why is it such a great secret? It is a great lesson for the Muslim world in particular. There have many social movements existed in the Muslim World most of them today are not so good movements. This is one that we can learn from. Ali was a most incredible host. He fed us, made sure that we arrived at hotels on time, and when I get back to Cambridge, Massachusetts, I am gonna have to  go on the treadmill for forty five minutes a day for the next month…Thank you!