June 29, 2014

Festival atmospahere in Kimse Yok Mu town

Aid efforts to heal the wounds after the flood leaving million Pakistanis homeless in 2010 have been continuing ever since the disaster. In the Ikbaliye town established in Muzaffargarh by Kimse Yok Mu for 296 homeless flood victims, everyone of all ages are happy today. Students are receiving education at no charge while their families are doing their own business provided for them. Additionally, the foundation gave away school uniforms and stationery to 300 students that it’s has offered full scholarship to. Fully equipped with facilities such as schools and mosques, the town is now filled with the students’ joy.

Expansion of Gülen Movement Organizations Westwards

Jonathan Lacey

Fethullah Gülen’s promotion of interfaith dialogue pre-dates 9/11. However, the expansion of Gulen Movement (GM) dialogue organizations promoting “Turkish Islam” certainly expanded greatly after 9/11, and those in existence before 2001 gained much greater recognition and attention following this new opportunity for moderate Islamic organizations. The most high-profile GM organizations promoting dialogue in the USA include the Niagara Foundation (which now has eight chapters), Rumi Forum (which now has nine chapters), Raindrop Turkish House (which now has 17 chapters) The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (which now has 16 chapters), Pacifica Institute (which now has 11 chapters) and Gülen Institute. The GM’s expansion to the West did not, however, end in the USA but rather GM dialogue organizations sprung up throughout Europe as well, with prominent ones situated in Belgium (Intercultural Dialogue Platform), Holland (Dialoog Academie), Germany (Forum Für Interkulturellen Dialog e. V.) and England (DS), with smaller ones based in Ireland (NI-TECA and TIECS). Through these dialogue organizations Gülen began to use his transnational network to expand his movement in the West utilizing the movement’s human resources already present there, as well as encouraging others with movement experience to expand their mission westwards.