January 1, 2015

Dumanlı explains his detention in video, says journalism not a crime

Zaman editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı, who was detained last month, is explaining in a new video clip his detention and the dreadful situation of the freedom of press in Turkey.

Pro-gov’t media knows no limits in ’parallel’ claims

Ever since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan launched a battle against the faith-based Hizmet movement after a corruption probe went public on Dec. 17, 2013, almost no day has passed without pro-government media outlets' bringing forward allegations about the “parallel structure or state” and associating any negative development in the country with this so-called structure.

Forms of Islam: Popular Islam – Hizmet-Gülen Movement and Fethullah Gülen

Graham E. Fuller

Hizmet-Gülen Movement

Traditional Islamic values of piety, social commitment, tolerance, social justice and moderation in Islam find themselves overwhelmed in the current fray of international violence, war, injustice, fanaticism, and daily hardship in the Middle East—a key source of anxiety to most Muslims today. This kind of toxic environment contributes to increased insecurity, desperation, intolerance and radicalism. It is precisely these dangerous trends that the Turkey-based faith movement of Fethullah Gülen today seeks to combat. Gülen’s movement represents the largest, most powerful and influential Islamic movement in the world today that prioritizes the quest for moderation, dialog and modernity in Islam.