October 13, 2010

The Community [Gulen Movement]

Ahmet Turan Alkan

I have known them for around 20 years. I have eaten with them and had friendly chats with them. I haven’t seen any of them have a bad attitude, instead, they show respect and love. I will write down what I feel about them from a position, as described by famed Turkish poet Ahmet Haşim as: “Away from the earth somewhat further than halfway/ Closer to the moon somewhat further than halfway.”

Turkey has seen its likes a number of times, but has never met such a successful one. The people who love and rely on Fethullah Gülen and who undertake benevolent and education-related activities with inspiration from him have become a de facto reality in Turkey. This reality does not have a specific name or address. It has a voluntary and civilian character and, therefore, the word “community” generally used to describe it is treated as a dubious concept that hides, even obscures, its profundity. Interesting, those who can safely be defined as a “community” refrain from accepting this flippant and fuzzy concept, but still they cannot come up with an alternative designation except “hizmet” – literally meaning service, and in this specific use, implying a community of people whose sole purpose is to do service to religion and humanity.

Fethullah Gülen: Citizens do not ‘infiltrate' state posts

Today's Zaman

Fethullah Gulen
Fethullah Gulen
Well-respected Turkish intellectual and scholar Fethullah Gülen has responded to claims that followers of the Gülen movement have infiltrated state posts -including those of the police force, the military and others- saying citizens of a country do not “infiltrate” the establishments that exist for the country and its citizens because it is a natural right for them to be employed in such posts.

“To urge fellow citizens to seek employment at state institutions is not called infiltration. Both the people urged and these institutions belong to the same country. … It is a right for them to be employed in state posts.