Erbakan, Fethullah Gulen and Erdogan

Yasin Doğan

Years ago I wrote an article that discussed the differences in style and method between Necmettin Erbakan and Fethullah Gülen. The difference that became salient particularly during the Refahyol era, when the Welfare Party (RP) and the True Path Party (DYP) formed a coalition government, and during the Feb. 28 process was that Erbakan tended to give inward-oriented messages while Gülen would give outward-oriented ones.

The former would take into consideration the sensitivities of his own supporters while the latter would attach more importance to the sensitivities of other people and the people outside. Thus, Erbakan would have a difficult time embracing different groups and as a result his movement was perceived as an isolated and self-contained one. On the other hand, Gülen was seen as more open to the outside world and readier to embrace diversity.

Of Fundamentalisms, Secular and Otherwise

Scott Appleby

The Task Force Report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy called for greater "religious literacy" across the "whole of government" and greater levels of interaction between nongovernmental institutions, American higher education and business, and select religious communities around the world. Not least, it urged the Obama administration to bolster U.S. advocacy and enforcement of religious freedom around the world.

The question is: With what kind of religious communities, specifically, should the United States engage? To what ends?

Many Americans and Europeans are taken aback, to say the least, by our suggestion that collaborating with religious groups on matters of shared concern is a necessary element of advancing democratisation and prosperity in many parts of the world.

Hanefi Avcı wrote book to create shield for himself, says Tayyar

Emrullah Bayrak

Şamil Tayyar, the author of “Operation Ergenekon,” “Shadow Government,” “Ambush” and other books that investigate unscrupulous groups inside the Turkish state bureaucracy, in his most recent book, “The Steel Core” released by Timaş Publications, says that Police Chief Hanefi Avcı wrote his recent book that attempts to undermine the Ergenekon investigation in order to create a protective shield for himself.

In his book, Tayyar offers evidence that a document drafted by Col. Dursun Çiçek as an army plot to discredit the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government and the faith-based Fethullah Gülen movement was being implemented in Erzincan and Erzurum. He said that if that plot, known as the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism, had succeeded, a large number of AK Party members would today be in jail. He said illegitimate groups inside the military and the allies of these groups started a large-scale operation to eliminate the AK Party.