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| Fethullah Gulen |
He now is in the center of a civic movement like no other in the world. Those who do not know him and his personality wonder if he does all this by himself. They, then, knowingly or unknowingly mythicize him.
Looking at what the Gulen movement has accomplished, they say to themselves “no, it is impossible to do all this without the support of a strong government.”
They question the Gulen movement’s financial resources.
They wonder what the “proportions” of the Gulen movement’s “relationships” are.
They talk and talk…
Some really try to understand Fethullah Gulen. Those who try, get what they want.
Some people do nothing but slander him.
They put forward allegations that are inconsistent, unfounded, meaningless, absurd and shameless.
Yet, Fethullah Gulen is nothing like what he is being portrayed as.
He is one of us, one who is from among us.
He lives amongst us.
He preaches, shows the way and signals.
Some people who love him, who value his opinion try to do what he suggests.
What he proposes might come as imaginary at first; even most of his friends “don’t think his ideas can be realized” most of the time.
But, over time things align and projects are carried out.
Everything starts very humbly with a lot of shortcomings.
Things continue with many deficiencies, but at the end, they reach to a satisfactory level.
Now that Taraf daily started publishing WikiLeaks documents it became obvious that Fethullah Gulen is not any government’s man, like some of his adversaries shamelessly allege.
Akşam columnist Nagehan Alci’s comment on the subject is noteworthy: “Taraf’s publishing WikiLeaks documents pertaining to Turkey collapsed a myth that was created with diligent care and effort. The documents revealed that Fethullah Gulen is not “a man of America.” On the contrary, he is a regular person about whom the US officials gathered information from their sources in Turkey and who waited in line to obtain permanent residency in the US like every ordinary immigrant. These documents summarize how everything is demonized by fear-mongers and how easily an atmosphere of conspiracy captures the public opinion. Let’s see what other bogyman sagas we will dismiss…”
No need to alienate and “otherize...”
He is from among us.
He lives amongst us.
He is local and one of us.
Everything he has done or encouraged others to do is local.
People look for certain attributes in a person by whose advice they dedicate their wealth, time and lives. These are characteristics on which a broad consensus can be reached.
We are talking about a movement that achieves totally global results with totally local capital and human resources.
Perhaps the movement owes its success to never making a concession to localness.
The idea is local…
The capital is local…
The entrepreneurs are local…
But work is done with an amateur spirit.
I think the real motive behind the meaningless and useless attacks against the Gulen Movement is “professionals’ jealousy” towards the global success of these amateurs.
WikiLeaks documents showed that he is a regular and local person who is one of us. That “he is not an open and near threat to the Turkish state…”
Published (in Turkish) on Bugun, 24 March 2011, Thursday
(translated version retrieved from fethullah-gulen.org on April 1, 2011)
