South African peace conference sends messages of hope

Türkmen Terzi


The Cape of Good Hope lived up to its name as nearby Cape Town played host to a conference on the potential contributions of the Gülen movement’s ideas and practices to reconciliation in South Africa.

The dialogue-based philosophy of Fethullah Gülen, which has already gained traction in America, Europe and Asia, has lately been discussed by important thinkers from almost every walk of life in Africa. A volunteer movement inspired by Gülen that carries out events around the world in the name of peace brought together members of the South African community, which continues to struggle with racism, at a conference titled “Potential Contributions of the Gülen Movement’s Ideas and Practices Toward Reconciliation of South African Society” at Cape Town’s Westin Grand Hotel. Despite ending of the apartheid system and holding democratic elections for the first time in 1994, bringing Nelson Mandela power, total societal reconciliation has still not been achieved in South Africa.

Fethullah Gülen and the philosophy of happiness

Serdar Turgut

After I saw the schools founded by the Gülen community abroad, I thought about the major mistakes that have occurred in the history of our republic once again.

A person can’t help but wonder if the republican regime or secular civil society organizations could have done what the community has done when they had the chance to. People keep talking about the Gülen community’s financial resources. Didn’t the republican regime and secular forces have any money? Couldn’t big businessmen who were devoted to the republic and the secular system have been encouraged to lead these kinds of educational activities? Didn’t it occur to the state, government or political parties at all? Now that the community is doing this as a voluntary civil movement, they are getting upset. The main issue that is hardest to grasp is why this kind of system, which is so beneficial for Turkey, was not thought of and carried out by another group during the republican period. If one community has the means to do this, then most likely the Turkish state does, too. But undertaking this kind of tremendous task was not thought of or desired. The problem isn’t money; it’s the mentality.

Published on Today's Zaman, "Turkish Press Review" AKŞAM, 3/26/2010

Ottoman Dreaming: The Turks have new ambitions for trade and influence in Africa

Kinshasa & Yaounde

Mbombo Ibrahim Moubarak, an Islamic cleric who runs Cameroon’s Islamic humanitarian-assistance programme, has a dream. “Turkey must reclaim its mantle as leader of the Islamic world,” he said on March 17th, as Abdullah Gul became the first Turkish president to visit Cameroon and Congo. Mr Moubarak believes that Turkey’s brand of moderate Islam, which embraces Western-style democracy and the free market, offers a model for Africa’s Muslims. He sees nothing sinister about the mosques, madrassas and schools built, restored or run by Sunni Turks across the continent.

Quotes about Fethullah Gulen : By Michael David Graskemper from Harvard University, USA

Due to the spread and popularity of Gülen-inspired schools, the Gulen movement has become more than just a faith-based movement battling localized issues. It has instead become a world-wide educational movement that seeks to build a more peaceful world through dialogue and cooperation.

Quotes about Fethullah Gulen: By Prof. Paul Weller from University of Derby, Derby, UK

Prof. Paul Weller

It is precisely at this time of transition in the particular corner of the world that Fethullah Gülen's teaching can play such an important role. This is because Gülen is one “who knows how to argue the case on Islamic grounds” and thus to have the possibility to “redirect the religious fervour of hot-headed young men” from violent and near Manichean confrontationalism towards a self-critical renewal. Gülen's teaching is not ‘modernist’, and so it cannot, with integrity, be denounced as a ‘sell-out’ to secularism. Nor is it “reformist” in the sense that many mean by this.

Quotes about Fethullah Gulen: By Maria Maigre from London School of Economics, London, UK

Fethullah Gülen's cultural and religious influence on both the business and political classes within the Gulen movement has driven the moderation of political Islam and opened the way toward the integration into the new reality of globalization where the frontier between religion and business are blurred and those notions are brought together within a new conception of Culture.

Growing pains of Turkish democracy

Aydoğan Vatandaş

In a recent op-ed piece, “Turkey’s Republic of Fear” (March 4, 2010), Soner Çağaptay, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), hurled cheap and unsubstantiated shots at Turkey’s current ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the moderate, pro-democracy Fethullah Gülen movement.

Gülen movement is a chance for humanity, American professor says

Today's Zaman


Prof. Jill Carroll

The Fethullah Gülen movement is a chance for humanity, Rice University Professor Jill Carroll said while speaking at a high-level conference in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Saturday.

The Baltic Turkish Culture Academy and Vilnius Pedagogical University jointly organized a conference on Gülen and the Gülen movement’s ideas on dialogue and tolerance. Speaking during the conference, Carroll, who is the author of a book called “A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gulen’s Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse,” said the Gülen movement is open to innovation and that dialogue has become part of the movement’s life. “The Gülen movement is a chance for humanity,” Carroll stressed.

Bangladeshi scholar publishes book on Fethullah Gulen

İbrahim Sağır

A ceremony celebrating the publication of a book called “Introducing Fethullah Gülen to the Bengal and Beyond” by Professor Maimul Ahsan Khan was held at the Turkish Cultural Center in Dhaka on Saturday.

Focused on the life, ideas and work of Gülen, who was selected as the world’s top intellectual by the Foreign Policy journal in 2008, Khan’s new book was published both in English and Bengali. Leading academicians, reporters and respected invitees from all walks of life attended the ceremony.

Stating that they are greatly impressed by Gülen's ideas, participants discussed Gülen and the newly published book. Issues such as dialogue, tolerance, contribution to world peace and efforts to advance education were mentioned during the speeches.

The protocols of the learned elders of Fethullah Gülen

Mustafa Akyol

If you have the chance to talk to a staunchly secular Turk these days and want to hear something mind-boggling, just ask him a simple question: “What the hell is this Gülen movement?”


Fethullah Gulen

It is very likely that you will then listen to a chilling conspiracy theory about how this evil cadre of “Islamists” is taking over Turkey step by step. You will learn how they have “infiltrated” every state institution, from the police to the judiciary, and now are defusing the power of the military, the last bastion of secularism. You might even hear that the 69-year-old Mr. Fethullah Gülen, who has lived in the United States since 1999, is similar to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the sense that he will soon come back to bless an “Islamic revolution” prepared by his disciples.

No central authority in the Gulen Movement

Prof. Pim Valkenberg

Which term should we use to denote the supporters of Fethullah Gülen, if we stop using the convenient but theologically problematic term “Gülen Movement”? The only term that should certainly be included, would be the term “service”, derived from the Turkish word hizmet, and used by Fethullah Gülen himself.

Blessed Disconsolation

Bernadette Skubik

In the depths
of our nothingness- Yokluğumuzun derinliklerinde

The bringing forth
out of nothing- Hiçbir şeyden birşeyler getirmek

Is being reiterated
in the heart- Kalblerimizde zikrediliyor

Oh heart, heart
become my own- Ey kalb bana ait ol

Be broken in
holy longing- Bu kutsal özlemde bu yolda kırıl (boyun bük)

Oh heart, heart
become His own- Ey kalb O'nun ol

Be embraced within
His enthronement- O'nun kürsüsüyle kuşatıl

Be the praise
of His creation- Ve O'nun yaratıklarının gıptayla baktığı varlık ol

Inspired by the Hizmet Movement this poem was written by a follower of this blog

"What is Hizmet Movement?"

Karen A. and Michael J. Fontenot

"The Hizmet (Service) movement associated with the Turkish theologian M. Fethullah Gülen is probably the most powerful Islamic reform movement operating in the world today. Promoting religiously inspired modernization, it offers a revitalized form of mysticism that is wedded simultaneously to traditional Muslim practice and to the scientific and technical methods that have so clearly lifted the material level of Western society.

While business people and students form the core of the movement, Gülen also appeals to a much wider audience within Turkey. Fethullah Gulen promotes a particularly sophisticated view of Turkish identity, claiming it was forged in pre-Anatolian times, then shaped and honed by the Ottomans into a multi-national, multi-cultural civilization of extraordinary cosmopolitanism. That interpretation, which satisfies ethnic pride while avoiding a narrow nationalistic definition, resonates with many Turks.

Furthermore, he has taken a very strong stand against the use of terror; moderate Turks who are unsympathetic to Islamic extremism and secular republicanism find Gülen's positions very attractive.

The Hizmet movement has also attracted numerous non-Muslim supporters. It is difficult to estimate how many people are involved, but supporters are active in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East."

An excerpt from the article entitled, "M. Fethullah Gülen as a Transformational Leader: Exemplar for the “Golden Generation”" by Karen A. Fontenot and Michael J. Fontenot as presented at the recent Gulen Conference titled East and West Encounters: The Gulen Movement

Related Video:

Dr. Fontenot: There is so much to write about Hizmet Movement

What is behind Çağaptay’s aggression from the other side of the Atlantic? (2)

İdris Bal*

Why are Mr. Soner Çağaptay and the like trying to cast doubt on coup attempts and preparations in Turkey?

And why do they deliberately ignore clear evidence, recorded conversations, seized weapons and ammunition, confessions and the statements of so many anonymous witnesses? Has Turkey never suffered through military coups staged for this reason or that? Who launched the military coups of 1960, 1971 and 1980 and the postmodern military interventions many years later? Who unjustly executed Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and two ministers of a democratically elected government? While even primary school children know the truth about these facts today in Turkey, should we not take even the slightest sign of a coup very seriously? Or is this callous behavior and turning a blind eye to these events and even distortion of the truth the exact mentality of the coup hawks?

What is behind Çağaptay’s aggression from the other side of the Atlantic? (1)

İdris Bal*

The impact of the Turkish struggle for democracy has already surpassed the boundaries of Turkey. Now all trump cards have been played.

On one side of the game are those who advocate a real democracy similar to that in Western European countries and the United States and the universal values of human rights, equality and justice for all to be established in Turkey. Today, the common people, whose importance has until now been downplayed, want to be on an equal footing with everyone else. They want to get rid of the ridiculously degrading humiliations of the elite; firmly establish the real rule of law in the country; stop the unsolved murders, the number of which has reached thousands; make the statesmen realize their role of serving the public through an embracing collaboration; and ensure harmony between all organs of the state. Whereas on the other side of the game, the unmitigated conformists are thrashing about to protect their own interests in the status quo and are disconnected from the general public, where both the civilian and military bureaucrats are disobeying rulers representing the common people and governmental, legislative and judicial powers are not properly separated and where the legal structure is more defiled than at any time before.

And now, the plot [against the Gulen movement and AKP] is proven…

Mustafa Akyol

Something very important happened last Monday. A short statement from the Turkish General Staff noted that its investigators had gathered “evidence that might prove the existence of the document in question."

“The document in question” was quite a terrible one. It was a military plan to overthrow the AKP government and suppress the popular Islamic movement led by Fethullah Gülen, a retired preacher who lives in the U.S. One idea was to “find” weapons in the homes of people from the Gülen Movement by planting them there first and thus portraying the peaceful community as a terrorist group.

Peace curriculum includes Fethullah Gulen

Ebru Tv

The Peace Learning Center in Eagle Creek, Illinois has been teaching thousands of young people about how to be a peacemaker using the examples of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King.


Fethullah Gulen

Now the Peace Center has added Fethullah Gulen to the curriculum and Executive Director Tim Nation says Gulen's work to promote interfaith dialogue and community service makes him an excellent peacemaker.

"By reading Fethullah Gulen’s work and seeing that he is been able to help start over fifteen hundred schools around the world that is so inspirational because I know and I am committed to education my self. If you can educate a child and I really love the theory that we need to is raise and enlighten generation of young people. Young people who are tolerant of difference and that is the muslim of peace learning center and that is who we thought Fethullah Gulen will made an excellent peacemaker" said Tim Nation.

The Crisis in Turkey?

John L. Esposito

In the past week, several alarmist pieces, including Soner Cagaptay's "What's Really Behind Turkey's Coup Arrests?' and Daniel Pipes' "Crisis in Turkey," have warned of a mortal crisis that threatens Turkey's future and its relationship with Europe and the US. Both are particularly exasperated by the continued arrest and indictment of senior military for conspiring to commit acts of terrorism in a plot to overthrow the government and what they see as an alliance between the ruling AK party and Fethullah Gulen's movement. As Pipes puts it at his most alarming hyperbolic best: "The arrest and indictment of top military figures in Turkey last week precipitated potentially the most severe crisis since Atatürk founded the republic in 1923. The weeks ahead will probably indicate whether the country continues its slide toward Islamism or reverts to its traditional secularism. The denouement has major implications for Muslims everywhere." Not to be outdone, Soner Cagaptay warns: "All signs point to Fethullah Gülen, whose shadowy Islamist movement is rapidly extending its tentacles into all aspects of Turkish political life."

“Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition”: A Biased, Selective, Misleading, Misrepresentative and Miscalculated Article

Doğan Koç

Rachel Sharon-Krespin’s article titled “Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition: Turkey’s Islamist Danger” published in the Middle East Quarterly’s 2009 winter issue was brought to my attention by a colleague due to its citation of an article which I co-authored with Helen Rose Ebaugh. In her article Sharon-Krespin states:

He (Fethullah Gülen) is a financial heavyweight, controlling an unregulated and opaque budget estimated at $25 billion (p56).

She gives our article as the source of the above information, citing it in the footnotes as Helen Rose Ebaugh and Dogan Koç, “Funding Gülen-Inspired Good Works: Demonstrating and Generating Commitment to the Movement,” fgulen.com, Oct. 27, 2007.

It appears as if Sharon-Krespin was using Ebaugh and Koç (2007) as a source for her statement. It is unclear, however, just which part of her statement she attributes to our article. Regardless, her statement misquotes what we presented in the article.

Foreign Policy rankings and Fethullah Gulen

Muhammed Cetin

Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Islamic scholar, has come in first on a list of the top 100 living public intellectuals in a survey organized by the British magazine Prospect and Foreign Policy, a US publication.

The results apparently surprised the organizers: The top 10 individuals in the poll were all Muslim intellectuals, two of whom were Turkish citizens. The rankings are already generating discussion and their implications are relevant to many people from different backgrounds, cultures and societies, whether they are Muslim or not. Here we should acknowledge the editors of the journals and those who conducted the survey for permitting the selection of these nominees, for not interfering with the voting process and for sharing its results with the whole world.

East and West Encounters: The Gulen Movement or 'Hizmet'

Muhammed Cetin

The conference titled "East and West Encounters: The Gulen Movement" held on Dec. 4-6 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, indicated that Turkey and its people have much to offer all humanity.

Academics discussed the socio-cultural, political and spiritual services provided by people and institutions inspired by Gulen. Interestingly, most non-Turkish academics used the name "hizmet" for the services provided by movement participants.

Welcome to Our Blog

Hizmet Movement Blog

Welcome to our blog. Here, you will find articles including news stories, academic works, commentary, book reviews, and interviews on the Hizmet Movement (a.k.a. The Gulen Movement), and Fethullah Gulen.

Inspired by M. Fethullah Gulen, millions of people around the world, gather locally and act collectively to institute schools, universities, dialogue centers and charitable organizations. This volunteers' movement has been named as Hizmet Movement by academics in a conference titled "East and West Encounters: The Gulen Movement".