Fethullah Gulen Tolerance, Dialogue and Peace
It has been only a year or two that Dr. James Harrington, a professor of law, published his book titled “Wrestling with Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Democracy in Turkey: The Political Trials and Times of Fethullah Gulen”. In about two hundred pages Dr. Harrington summarizes the details of the eight year trial and then acquittal of Fethullah Gulen, and how the entire process helped expanding civil liberties and strengthening democracy in Turkey. It is a great read if you are interested in Gulen and the Hizmet movement and their fight for democracy, individual rights and freedom of religion and speech in Turkey.
After the recent ruckus in the social media and news, the readers will definitely demand a sequel from Dr. Harrington, as the trial of Mr. Gulen and the Hizmet movement seems to be never ended. To clarify, the legal trial has officially ended with the acquittal of Gulen in 2008, but according to the recent news, the profiling of citizens that are affiliated with Hizmet or Gulen movement has never ended. The official records leaked to the press within last couple of weeks show that current administration not only signed natural security board minutes identifying Hizmet movement as a threat but also took action by profiling people in civil service or private businesses that are remotely affiliated with Hizmet movement. This all became public when Hizmet movement and the current administration led by Prime Minister Erdogan clashed over a policy trying to shut down private prep schools and tutoring centers, one fourth of which are affiliated with Hizmet movement. Naturally the owners of these prep schools or parents students who are getting service from these tutoring centers crying out that this policy is against universal human rights and hammering not only college and career opportunities for the low income but also blocking private entrepreneurship in the general sense. Seeing the strong opposition the administration stepped back a little and extended the so called transformation or shut down process for another year or two.
Whether it is the educational institutions like prep schools or tutoring centers or applying for government jobs and taking positions in the civil service, Hizmet movement’s position is pretty clear, that all these opportunities should be equally available to all citizens regardless of their ethnic or religious background. A citizen of a country cannot be accused of infiltrating its government because he or she qualifies for a position in the civil service or demands promotion because of their credentials. Labeling or profiling that person in anyway due their religious background would be discrimination, which seems to be the common practice in Turkish government for so many years now. A decade ago it was the ultra-secularists; now it is the Islamist party and its cabinet. No matter who does this or in what way they implement such nonsense it is abuse of governmental power, and should be considered a crime.
Moreover an investigative journalist who brought some of these profiling records to light is now sued by several branches of the government and accused of treason. Like the religious freedom, the Hizmet movement again supports the freedom of speech and press. The people affiliated with the movement has written millions of tweets with hashtags for participatory democracy, right for free speech and free press, right for proper education, etc. The columnists and opinion editorials all promoted freedom of press. But the current administration seems to be poisoned with power as they have not changed their position yet on any of the aforementioned issues. The worst part of the story is that some provocateurs have been fueling this discord and have been using this opportunity to run their smear campaign against the Hizmet movement. They are using the same old arguments that the movement affiliated people are trying to infiltrate the government or to run a parallel government.
In the last couple of weeks, Mr. Fethullah Gulen has made several conciliatory remarks and explained that the movement has been supporting the peace process with the minorities, and has always promoted universal human rights, and the citizens’ calls should be considered as part of a participatory democracy. As you can see after so many years, Mr Gulen and has been struggling for the same universal values, and his trials and tribulations do not seem to be ending soon. Indeed, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. May God help him and the Hizmet movement in this honorable cause.
