Mehmet Gundem: Under normal conditions, for a movement of these proportions it would be impossible to stay independent, outside the politics, or free from other influences. How do you explain the fact that this movement has not gone down this road?
We are aware of our deficiencies, weaknesses, what we lack, and even at times of our inconsistencies; we cannot associate any success with ourselves, or attribute anything to our minds; there are much more intelligent people in Turkey.
Although with every passing day new conspiracies are hatched against this movement, we observe that the enthusiasm of our society has not been shaken and that they have continued walking on this path; then we say that "this outcome cannot be attributed to our thoughts and efforts; God Almighty drives us into certain places and makes us do some good things in order to serve our nation;" this is something for which we are very grateful to Him.
I should once again say gratefully that it is very important that this movement is independent; this is something that most attracts the attention of both local and foreign researchers.
To bring this movement into a position where it must beg from others, or bringing it into involvement with, for instance, politics, would obstruct its independence, pierce its formation, and crack it; this would be very dangerous.
If this is a matter of belief, if making known Turkish culture, which is a few thousand years old—or even the thousand years where a marvelous expansion was experienced—or if making Turkish a world language are a matter of belief, then these can be realized by volunteer heroes only; to aim for government or politics, to become dependent of these sort of things would damage this movement. This is the essence of the movement; but perhaps some of our friends' actions or the arguments to which they referred may not have been understood correctly at the first encounter.
What could have been misunderstood? Can you give some examples?
For instance, some say "they go (to so many places), but they don't do anything at all, other than giving courses in English," or things along the same line. If you do not follow the curriculum of the country you have gone to, why would they allow you to operate? Would they allow you to teach Turkish as an elective course in some places, and make it compulsory in others? We say dialogue and tolerance—this is being questioned too, though—but if you do not take a step forward, if you are not respectful to others accepting them as they are, or if you do not act with due maturity in order to share certain things with them, then they will not take a step toward you.
These are activities that facilitate the representation of our own values; otherwise, if you persist on being strict in your manners, you will not be able to explain anything to anyone, even if you yourself organizing everything. It is due to these artificial gaps between people that we have not been able to explain about ourselves; we simply could not find the opportunity to do so, just as we could not come next to one another.
Some may find these activities odd, but all of them are performed just for the sake of the lofty ideal of expressing ourselves, of contributing to new formations in the world, and in the long run, of preventing the future chaos that has been outlined by people like Huntington.
Published on fgulen.com, 21 January 2005
Related Article
Fethullah Gulen: "Neither Now, Nor in the Future Should Our Friends Have Any Ambition for Government"
