Gulen's book ‘Love and Tolerance' translated into Greek

The book “Love in Human Essence” by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, known as the pioneer of the Hizmet movement, has been translated into Greek with the title “Agapi ke Anektikotita,” Greek for “love and tolerance.”

Kimse Yok Mu establishes 16 water wells in Cameroon

Kimse Yok Mu Bursa Chapter’s efforts launched four months ago in order to establish water wells in African countries have started to bear fruits. With the money from fundraisings and several drives, 16 water wells have been made available to the locals in N'Gaundere region of Cameroon.

Academics praise Gülen's contribution to world peace

Speaking at a conference titled “The Hizmet Movement and Peacebuilding” in Washington, D.C., at the weekend, prominent professors praised peace initiatives inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen as a great contribution to world peace.

(Ant Nest) from Turkish fashion designers to Bangladeshi orphans

Eleven designers came together at a recent charity event coordinated by fashion designer Esra Seziş and actor Taylan Güner.

Medialog calls for law against hate speech and crime

In a two-day conference on hate speech and hate crime organized by Medialog in İstanbul, leading journalists and academics urged the government to draft a law against defamation, blasphemy and discrimination while protecting the freedom of expression.

Global Dignity Day marked in Turkey

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) organized a number of activities in Turkey to mark the Annual Global Dignity Day, which is celebrated with Global Dignity-led events around the world with the participation of 350.000 young people across 50 countries.

Romanian-Turkish Schools gear up for flood survivors

Romanian-Turkish Schools’ students donated their pocket money for the past month’s flood survivors in the eastern Romania. Moreover, the students delivered the aid in person to those living in trailer houses. The aid recipients who lamented desolation more than the sufferings the flood caused were in tears upon receiving the supplies.

Gülen gives thanks for recovery wishes

Turkish religious scholar Fethullah Gülen published two messages on Oct. 24 addressed to politicians, including the president, the prime minister, business people, journalists, academics and religious leaders, thanking for their recovery wishes due to his recent hospital treatment in the United States.

Rumi Forum bestows Peace and Dialogue awards

The Rumi Forum, an international organization promoting interfaith dialogue and peace, honored its 2013 RUMI Peace and Dialogue Award recipients on Thursday evening at the National Press Club Ballroom in Washington, D.C.

TUSKON brings together businesswomen from Turkey, Russia

The Confederation of Turkish Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) organized a meeting in Moscow on Thursday that brought together businesswomen from Russia and Turkey as part of its attempts to establish closer economic ties between the two countries.

Int'l symposium in Washington to discuss contribution of Hizmet to world peace

An international symposium under the name “The Hizmet Movement and PeaceBuilding” will be held on Oct. 25-26 in Washington, preceded by the RUMI Peace and Dialogue Awards Ceremony, taking place on Thursday.

Medialog Platform hosts digital media experts from Europe and Asia

Media representatives and academics from some 20 European and Asian countries have come to Istanbul to discuss the status of the digital media in the new era in the conference, “Understanding Communications in the New Media Era”. Participants called for cooperation and dialogue in the process.

KADIP hosts Armenian Patriarchate Archbishop Ateshian

Journalists and Writers Foundation’s Intercultural Dialogue Platform (KADIP) has established the tradition of meeting with yet another culture or faith’s members monthly by bringing together their opinion leaders and officials around “Abraham’s Table.” The platform’s latest guests in October were from Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul.

Gulen on Turkey’s accession to European Union

This is a part of an interview with Fethullah Gulen by Mehmet Gundem of Milliyet Daily in January 2005.

How do you interpret the start of a negotiation process between the EU and a Muslim country, in terms of Europe's identity and vision?

Fethullah Gulen: To date, how Turkey will benefit from this process has been discussed, generally speaking. I am not sure whether European countries are aware, but what Turkey will bring in is much more important. If they are aware of this and still resist, that means their obstinacy has dominated over sound thinking. As a matter of fact, there are many benefits out of this relationship for the reputation and future of Europe.

Turkish Schools in Niger

The positive approaches of the Ottomans and their contemporary descendants to the continent have earned Turks a high appeal among Africans. For instance, a shopkeeper just chalked it up for some time later when we didn’t have the money on us for our purchase. It was because he knew we were Turks.

A new Turkish cultural center launched in Kiev

A new Turkish cultural center has been launched under the umbrella of Ukraine’s nearly two-century-old National Pedagogical Dragomanov University.

The center has been brought to life with the cooperation of International Meridian Educational Institutions and National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, under the auspices of Turkey’s Embassy to Kiev, Consultancy to Ministry of Culture and the company, Anex Tour.

Fethullah Gülen fine after hospital stay for arrhythmia

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen is back in good health after being under medical observation for 12 hours on Sunday, herkul.org -- a website that usually publishes Gülen's speeches -- announced on its Twitter account.

Embracing the World: Rumi and Fethullah Gulen

This new book focuses on Fethullah Gülen’s understanding of Sufism in particular as found in the writings of Rumi, a Sufi thinker and poet who lived in 13th century Turkey, as well as with other earlier thinkers, from Socrates to Ibn ‘Arabi. Soltes demonstrates that, as a practitioner of Sufism, Gülen is in part inspired by legendary mystics like Rumi and Muhammad ibn Ali al-‘Arabi, but offers his own distinctive understanding of mysticism’s role in the world.

Thousands attend Turkish Festival in Johannesburg

Thousands of people have attended the fourth Turkish Culture and Food Festival at the Zoo Lake, a popular lake and public park in Johannesburg.

President Fischer receives Turkish Language Olympiads Austria team

The students and teachers, who represented Austria in 11th Turkish Language Olympiads organized by International Turkish Language Education Association (TURKCEDER) were received by the Austrian President Heinz Fischer at the presidential palace.

PM Erdoğan makes get-well-soon call to Fethullah Gülen

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen on Sunday to express his best wishes after he was hospitalized on Saturday.

Eid al-Adha in Rio

Sahin Alpay

I spent the second week of October in Brazil. What took me there was an invitation from a foundation founded by the former Brazilian President, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, for me to give a talk on Turkey’s domestic and foreign politics, in Sao Paulo.

Beginnings and Endings: Fethullah Gülen's Vision for Today's World

Wagner's book explores the way that Fethullah Gülen, in his extensive writings, lays out a vision for humanity to make the most of its time on earth as the end times near. Wagner shows how Gülen uses his deep understanding of both Islamic faith and our modern times to lay out a path for humans to co-exist and live peacefully during their brief lifetimes. In this way, not only can humanity create a better world "here and now," fulfilling their destiny as "viceregents on earth," but they can best prepare for life in the hereafter. Instead of taking an apocalyptic view of the world, where religions and ideologies clash, Gülen believes that people of faith and good intentions can work together to make a more peaceful, prosperous world.

Samples from Kimse Yok Mu Eid al-Adha Aid Efforts (2)

Malian ministers join Kimse Yok Mu’s Eid al-Adha aid event

Malian Ministers attended the Eid al-Adha aid event co-organized by Kimse Yok Mu Foundation and the local Malian-Turkish Horizon Schools. Minister of Religious Affairs, Thierno Oumar Hasse Diallo; minister of Work and Social Welfare, Hamadoun Konate; minister of Culture Bruno Maiga; Turkey’s ambassador to Bamako, Kemal Kaygisiz, along with a large number of guests and volunteers were present during the event.

Samples from Kimse Yok Mu Eid al-Adha Aid Efforts (1)

Afghan-Turk Schools and Kimse Yok Mu jointly distribute sacrifice meat to 10 thousand Afghani families

The Afghan-Turkish Schools, in cooperation with Kimse Yok Mu Foundation (KYM) distributed Eid al-Adha meat to locals in 20 different provinces across Afghanistan. President of Afghan-Turk Cag Educational Institutions, Numan Erdogan spoke to Cihan News Agency: “As of today, we’ve been slaughtering sacrifice animals to be distributed in 20 different provinces across the country. Kimse Yok Mu foundation’s contributions alongside Turkish and Afghan businessmen’s made this possible.”

Fethullah Gülen: "Democracy Should Also Have a Metaphysical Dimension"

This is a part of an interview with Fethullah Gulen by Mehmet Gundem of Milliyet Daily in January 2005.

A notable award for Mongolian-Turkish schools

The Turkish schools operating in Mongolia have been awarded “Most Effective Institution Award”, in recognition of their contributions to Mongolia in the field of education.

Dying for a Cause: Youth, Violence, and the Gulen Movement--Beyond Tolerance and Dialogue

Jon Pahl*

A Love for Jihad?

In the expanding, concentric circles of social practices through which young people might be invited to live for a cause, the broadest circle in the Gülen movement belongs to the spiritual or social practice of jihad. This Qur’anic term has been hijacked by militants and militaries (Bonner). Together, both militants and militaries have associated jihad with violence and force--with physical destruction. Yet Fethullah Gülen’s teaching about jihad makes clear a very different meaning. Jihad “means using all one’s strength, as well as moving toward an objective with all one’s power… and resisting every difficulty.”(2006d, p. 62) Far from being only a physical war, this “greater jihad” is an internal, spiritual process--striving in the path of God. Gülen defines it as “the effort to attain one’s essence.” The objective of jihad is never dominance, but peace. Jihad is about “overcoming obstacles between oneself and his or her essence, and the soul’s reaching knowledge and eventually divine knowledge, divine love, and spiritual bliss”.

Scott Alexander: Hizmet is a social movement for peace

Associate Professor of Islam and Director of Catholic-Muslim Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Scott C. Alexander recently delivered a lecture entitled “A Global Movement for Spiritual Transformation and Societal Peace”, at an event organized by Mersin’s Foundation of Intercultural Dialogue Center (MEKADIM). Referring to Hizmet as “a social movement for peace”, which means, as Alexander further underscored, a movement of those who not only fulfill their responsibilities to themselves or to those in their circle but set out to extend a hand to “others” as well so that they can benefit prosperity, spirituality and transformation.

What is the dershane issue and how can it be solved?

Ekrem Dumanlı

As our regular readers have already noticed, we have adopted a calm attitude toward the possible closure of dershanes (private institutes that offer test-prep classes). And we continue to maintain our calm position.

Countering Al Qaeda’s Message

Ed Husain*

While world leaders gathered in New York last month to talk about moderation and peace, terrorist attacks claimed innocent lives in Kenya, Pakistan, Iraq and Syria. Iran’s leader and the American president were right to underscore diplomacy to avoid further bloodshed, but many of the killers in these conflicts are non-state actors. How can we stop their inspiration and prevent their embrace of martyrdom?

Medialog debates new media challenges at İstanbul conference

The Medialog Platform, which operates under the umbrella of the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), brought together communication academics and media experts to discuss new challenges that the media is facing in the digital age, at the International Communication Faculties Conference in İstanbul on Friday.

Multilingual singer Julie Slim breathes life into songs

…there are a few exceptional people who can really make a song a living being by becoming one with it, as music is an irreplaceable part of their lives. Lebanese-American singer-songwriter Julie Slim, who visited İstanbul this week and performed Turkish songs in the city, is one of those people.

Fethullah Gülen on Turkey's Position in the World

Mehmet Gündem: How much do you think Turkey belongs to the Islamic world, to the Turkic world, and to Europe, particularly now that we find ourselves in this process (of EU membership)? Within the framework of a search for "A Nation in the World Balance," which is a title of one of your articles, where do you think Turkey belongs to?

Kutahya Physicians heal Somali sufferers

The civil war-stricken Somalia receives yet another helping hand extending from Turkey’s Kutahya province. A volunteer group of medical specialists recently went to the troubled African country to provide medical assistance particularly to pediatric patients.

Kimse Yok Mu Foundation introduced in Dayton

Turkey-based relief and aid foundation Kimse Yok Mu was publicized at a joint event held by Niagara Foundation and Turkish American Society of Ohio. Having Kimse Yok Mu Vice-President Metin Cetiner as the keynote speaker, the presentation attracted much attention of the audience.

Lawyer rejects Gülen's alleged remarks published by leftist daily

Lawyer of renowned Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has denied his client's alleged remarks against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) that were published by a leftist daily on Oct. 9.

Ethio-Turkish Schools receive “Certificate of Appreciation’ from African Union

African Union Political Affairs Department has honored Nejashi Ethio-Turkish Schools in Ethiopia with a certificate of appreciation in recognition of their contribution to mutual understanding and peace in Africa.

Istanbul Summit and Peace Projects presented in New York

A reception was held by the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) on September 30, 2013 in New York to promote its two international projects, Istanbul Summit and Peace Projects. Numerous representatives to the United Nations (UN) who came to New York to attend the 68th UN General Assembly meeting as well as journalists, academics and foreign diplomats were hosted at the GYV office on the 5th Avenue. Chief of Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO) Branch of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Adrei Abramov, Permanent Observer to the UN Narinder Kakar, Press Counselor of the Permanent Representation of Spain to the UN Florentino Sotomayor Basabe and Adviser to the Permanent Representation of Saudi Arabia to the UN Maisah Sobaihi attended the reception.

Two additional Turkish schools to open in Casablanca

Two additional Turkish schools, one of which will provide education in English in Morocco for the very first time, will be set up in Casablanca, Morocco Turkish Schools General Director İbrahim Aktaş announced on Tuesday.

A serious blow to Ergenekon's coup-lovers

İhsan Yılmaz

Since the start of the Ergenekon trials, some of the suspects and their supporters constantly, steadfastly and fiercely argued that the Ergenekon cases were based on fabricated evidence prepared by the Hizmet movement, claiming that the defendants were actually innocent.

ICG report praises reformist role Hizmet plays in settlement process

A recent report released by the International Crisis Group (ICG) on Turkey's efforts to address the Kurdish issue has praised the positive role the faith-based Hizmet movement plays in the settlement process.

Chinese delight in Turkish Culture and Food Festival

The Turquoise Turkish Culture and Food Festival kicked off in Shanghai on Sunday as part of 2013 Year of Turkish Culture activities, providing Chinese people with the opportunity to find out more about Turkey.

Fethullah Gulen Combats Islamophobia, Extremism

Nagehan Alci

…
Media and Islamophobia

Some Western media have no doubt played a significant role in spreading Islamophobia. There is a popular saying about how events attract the media’s attention and make headlines: “If it bleeds, it leads.” For many people, good news is boring. In the United States, a news story about dialogue between Christians, Muslims and Jews likely would not air in prime time, but rather at 6 a.m., if then. Television channels are expected to air such human interest stories, but no one has told the channels when to air them. Fox News' coverage of topics concerning Muslims and Islam is an example. However, this does not mean that the mainstream media are always and necessarily anti-Islam. Incidents of child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, for instance, are covered widely by the mainstream media in the United States. The essential motivation for such coverage is to boost sales and ratings.

Can the Gülen Movement be characterized as a Sufi order?

Doğu Ergil

Can the Gülen Movement be characterized as a Sufi order? Is it possible to call it a Sufi order considering the teachings regarding the spiritual realm and practices of daily life?

Will Gulen Movement schools offer Kurdish-medium education too?

Journalists and Writers Foundation Vice-President Cemal Ussak, regarding the Kurdish-medium education at the Gulen movement schools in southeastern Turkey, said “It is a matter of course following the amendment to the current regulation.”

“The Art of Coexistence” discussed in Madagascar

Co-organized by Ravinala Culture and Dialogue Institute and Antananarivo State University, a symposium entitled “The Art of Coexistence” was held on Sep 30 thru Oct 1, 2013, at Antananarivo State University, in Madagascar.

Real Islam can eliminate radical groups in Islamic world, say analysts

Several terrorist attacks over the past weeks carried out by radical groups in different countries who claim to act with Islamic motivations are seriously damaging Islam's image, and the best response to such groups is to show the entire world the real face of Islam, which carries the meaning of peace, analysts have said.

Civil society-democratic relations, Gezi and the Middle East

Ihsan Yılmaz

Civil society and democratic relations are like the chicken and the egg. We do not know which one must come first, but we know that their existence depends on each other.

Hizmet school ready to pioneer education in Kurdish

Following the decision to allow education in languages other than Turkish in private schools, as part of the democratization package recently unveiled by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a private school run by Gülen movement volunteers said it is ready to start education in Kurdish once such a law is introduced.

Turkish American Society of Ohio Seeks to Foster Friendship and Understanding Between Cultures with Muslim Journeys and More

Morgan Maseth*

In existence since 2010 and headquartered in Columbus, The Turkish American Society of Ohio’s mission is to introduce Turkish culture into American Society. Through their efforts in dialog and unique community services they also seek to promote friendship and understanding between cultures. In his second year of working with this organization, Murat Gurer organizes a wide variety of programs to make sure their mission is upheld. These programs include Turkish Coffee Nights, breakfast, luncheons, forums and cultural activities as well as intercultural trips to Turkey. One of the latest efforts of Gurer and the rest of TASO Cleveland is their sponsorship of Muslim Journeys at the Library.

Huntington's Theory of "The Clash of Civilizations" and Gulen Movement

Mehmet Gundem: Do you think there is any possibility for Huntington's theory of "the clash of civilizations" to come true?

Fethullah Gulen: In fact, the ideas which constitute the basis of Huntington's theory had been expressed by others as well, but when it was re-suggested in a different fashion according to the understanding and perception of our time, I said, "If they are making such a broad-sweeping statement at the beginning, some are probably trying to prepare ground for making civilizations, cultures, and members of different religions come into conflict with one another."

Hizmet Movement Blog Launches Spanish and Chinese Editions

Born in December 2009 out of a mission to communicate the message of Honorable Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet (popularly known as Gulen Movement) he has inspired, the Hizmet Movement Blog has made every effort to make relevant latest news articles -including recent interviews and commentaries-, publications and analyses on Hizmet available to its readers.

Turkish school excels in Nepal

The Turkish school operating in the capital city of Nepal has ranked the second best school among one thousand nationwide. Noted for its academic staff and students’ performance, the school is now establishing a new campus in order to be able to meet the growing demand.

Using the Gulen Movement to Broaden Discussions in the West Concerning Muslim Women (2)

April L. Najjaj, Ph.D.*

…Through the various programs of the Gülen Movement, Americans can have the chance to interact with practicing Muslims, both men and women, on a personal basis and see the values of the movement being implemented and not just studied or read about in a book. From my own experience organizing tours of a local mosque and arranging iftar dinners at a local Middle Eastern restaurant for my college students, I know these techniques work and that such programs are making a difference in American perceptions of Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in today’s world. Such efforts give Americans the opportunity to experience the graciousness of Muslim culture on a personal level.