Assalamualaikum wr wb,
I have presented the following paper at National Seminar on “Perspective on
the
Crises in the Contemporary Muslim World” orgnised by Islamic Studies Dept. Aligarh Muslim University on 04-05 April 2012.
Fethullah
Gülen movement and its Global impact
Shaikh
Ayaz Ahmed
A
Brief Biography of Fethullah Gülen
Fethullah
Gülen is a Turkish Muslim scholar, thinker, author, poet,
opinion leader, educational activist, and preacher emeritus. He is
regarded as the initiator and inspirer of the worldwide social
movement of human values known as the Hizmet (Service) Movement or
the Gülen Movement
.
This
paper examines the Gülen movement and its Global impact.
Fethullah
Gülen was born into a humble family in Erzurum, Turkey, in 1941,
and was raised in a spiritually enriching environment. He attended a
public elementary school for three years but could not continue due
to the appointment of his father to a village where there was no
public school. He later obtained his diploma by self-studying and
passing a comprehensive examination. His religious education
consisted of studies in classical Islamic sciences such as Qur’anic
recitation and memorization, exegesis (tafseer), Arabic language,
Prophetic Tradition (hadith) as well as the spiritual tradition of
Islam (tasawwuf), which he studied under renown scholars and
spiritual masters around his hometown such as Muhammed Lutfi Efendi
of Alvar.
During
the 1950s Fethullah Gülen completed his religious education and
training under various prominent scholars and Sufi masters leading to
the traditional Islamic ijaza (license to teach). This education was
provided almost entirely within an informal system, tacitly ignored
and unsupported by the state and running parallel to its education
system. At the same time, Fethullah Gülen pursued and completed
his secondary level secular education through external exams. In the
late fifties, he came across compilations of the scholarly work
Risale-i Nur (Epistles of Light) by Said Nursi but never met its
famous author. Nursi, whose name comes from the village of Nurs but
brings to mind the word Nur, meaning 'light' in Arabic, became the
founder of the Nurcu (Followers of Light) movement. Although
Nursi's roots were in the strictly orthodox and conservative
Naqshabandiyah Sufi order (tarikat), his message was that Muslims
should not reject modernity, but find inspiration in the sacred texts
to engage with it.
After
passing an exam administered by the Turkish State’s Directorate of
Religious Affairs (Diyanet Isleri Baskanligi) in 1958, Gülen was
awarded a state preacher license and began to preach and teach in
Edirne, a province on the European part of the country. In this
period of his youth, he had the opportunity to deepen his knowledge
in the Islamic tradition, informally study social and natural
sciences, and examine the classics of both Eastern and Western
philosophy and literature. Among the historic figures who had the
most impact on his intellectual life we can mention Imam Abu Hanifa,
Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali, Jalal al-Din Rumi, Ahmet Sarhandi, Bediüzzaman
Said Nursi, Imam Rabbani, Yunus Emre, and most importantly, the
companions of the Prophet. It was his broad-ranged reading attitude
that equipped him for his well-known comprehensive interpretations.
In
1961, Fethullah Gülen began his compulsory military service in
Ankara and was later transferred to the Mediterranean coastal city of
Iskenderun.
In
1963, following military service, Fethullah Gülen gave a series
of lectures in Erzurum on Rumi. In 1964, he was assigned a new post
in Edirne, where he became very influential among the educated youth
and ordinary people. On March 11, 1964 Gülen was transferred to
the Izmir region, where he held managerial responsibility for a
mosque, a student study and boarding-hall, and for preaching in the
Aegean region.
In
1970, as a result of the March 12 coup, a number of prominent Muslims
in the region were arrested. On May 1, Fethullah Gülen too was
arrested and held for six months without charge until his release on
November 9.
In
1971, Fethullah Gülen left his post but retained his status as
a state-authorized preacher. He began setting up more student study
and boarding-halls in the Aegean region. It is at this point that a
particular group of about one hundred people began to be visible as a
service group, that is, a group gathered around Fethullah Gülen’s
understanding of service to the community and positive action.
Between
1972 and 1975, Fethullah Gülen held posts as a preacher in
several cities in the Aegean and Marmara regions, where he continued
to preach and to teach the ideas about education and the service
ethic he had developed. He continued setting up hostels for high
school and university students.
Also,
from 1966 onward, Fethullah Gülen’s talks and lectures had
been recorded on audio cassettes and distributed throughout Turkey.
Thus, through already existing networks of primary relations, this
new type of community action, the students’ activities, and the new
technology of communication, the hizmet (service) discourse was
becoming known nation-wide.
In
1974, the first university preparatory courses were established in
Manisa, where Fethullah Gülen was posted at the time. Until
then, it was largely the children of very wealthy and privileged
families who had access to university education. The idea took hold
that, if properly supported, the children of ordinary families could
take up and succeed in higher education. As word spread of these
achievements, Fethullah Gülen was invited, the following year,
to speak at a series of lectures all over Turkey.
In
1976, the Religious Directorate posted Fethullah Gülen to
Bornova, Izmir, the site of one of Turkey’s major universities. in
addition to his daily duties giving traditional religious instruction
and preaching, Fethullah Gülen devoted every Sunday evening to
these discussion sessions.
In
1977, he traveled in northern Europe, visiting and preaching among
Turkish communities to raise their consciousness about values and
education and to encourage them in the same hizmet ethic of positive
action and altruistic service. He encouraged them both to preserve
their cultural and religious values and to integrate into their host
societies.
Now
thirty-six, Fethullah Gülen had become one of the three most
widely recognized and influential preachers in Turkey. Fethullah
Gülen encouraged participants in the Movement to go into
publishing. Some of his articles and lectures were published as
anthologies and a group of teachers inspired by his ideas established
the Teachers’ Foundation to support education and students.
In
1979, this Foundation started to publish its own monthly journal,
Sizinti, which became the highest selling monthly in Turkey. Its
publishing mission was to show that science and religion were not
incompatible and that knowledge of both was necessary to be
successful in this life. Each month since the journal was founded,
Fethullah Gülen has written for it an editorial and a section
about the spiritual or inner aspects of Islam, that is, Sufism, and
the meaning of faith in modern life.
In
February 1980, a series of Fethullah Gülen’s lectures,
attended by thousands of people, in which he preached against
violence, anarchy and terror, were made available on audiocassette.
In
1980 after the military coup The faith communities, including the
Fethullah Gülen Movement, continued with their lawful and
peaceful activities without drawing any extra attention to
themselves. Fethullah Gülen and the Movement avoided large
public gatherings but continued to promote the service-ethic through
publishing and small meetings. At this point, the Movement turned
again to the use of technology and for the first time in Turkey a
preacher’s talks were recorded and distributed on videotape. In the
years immediately following the coup, the Movement continued to grow
and act successfully. In 1982, Movement participants set up a private
high school in Izmir, Yamanlar Koleji.
In
1989, Fethullah Gülen's Preacher’s license was reinstated to
enable him to serve as an Emeritus Preacher with the right to preach
in any mosque in Turkey. Between 1989 and 1991, he preached in
Istanbul on Fridays and on alternate Sundays in Istanbul and Izmir in
the largest mosques in the cities. His sermons drew crowds in the
tens of thousands, numbers unprecedented in Turkish history. These
sermons were videotaped and also broadcast.
In
1991, Fethullah Gülen once again ceased preaching to large
mosque congregations. However, he continued to be active in community
life, in teaching small groups and taking part in the collective
action of the Movement. In 1992, he traveled to the United States,
where he met Turkish academics and community leaders, as well as the
leaders of other American faith communities. By this stage, the
number of schools in Turkey established by the participants in the
Gülen Movement had reached more than a hundred, not counting
institutions such as study centers and university preparatory
courses. From January 1990, Movement participants began to set up
schools and universities in Central Asia too, often working under
quite harsh conditions.
Starting
in 1994, Fethullah Gülen pioneered a rejuvenation of the
Interfaith Dialog spirit in the Turkish-Muslim tradition, which was
forgotten amidst the troublesome years of the early twentieth
century. The Foundation of Journalists and Writers, of which Gülen
was the honorary president, organized a series of gatherings
involving leaders of religious minorities in Turkey such as the Greek
Orthodox Patriarch, Armenian Orthodox Patriarch, Chief Rabbi of
Turkey, Vatican’s Representative to Turkey and others.
During
this period Fethullah Gülen made himself increasingly available
for comment and interview in the media. In the mean time “February
28, 1997 military coup, forced the Virtue Party-True Path Party
coalition government to resign.
In
March 1999, upon the recommendation of his doctors, Fethullah Gülen
moved to the U.S. to receive medical care for his cardiovascular
condition. He currently lives at a retreat facility in Pennsylvania
together with a group of students, scholars and a few visitors who
consider it a “good” day in terms of his health if he is able to
have a half-hour conversation answering their questions. [1]
Fethullah
Gülen Movement:
Now
let us analyze Gülen Movement. It is not an organization by
definition, rather is the name given to series of activities carried
out by individuals and associations inspired by Gülen's
Teachings and ideas. These individuals and associations are called as
Gülenist.
Wikipedia
defines it as “The Gülen movement is a transnational civic
society movement inspired by the teachings of Turkish Islamic
theologian Fethullah Gülen. His teachings about hizmet
(altruistic service to the "common good") have attracted a
large number of supporters in Turkey, Central Asia and increasingly
in other parts of the world. The movement is mainly active in
education and interfaith (and inter cultural) dialogue , however has
also aid initiatives and investments on media, finance, and health.
The movement in Turkish is called Hizmet, and it is sometimes
referred to in English as the Hizmet movement.” [2]
The
exact number of supporters of the Gülen movement is not known,
as there is no membership system, but estimates vary from 15 million
to 20 million. Answering to a question Fethullah Gülen Forums
official Abdul Hamid Turker stated that “According to a recent
survey by Akbar Ahmed of American University, 84 percent of Turkish
society has a highly favorable opinion of Gülen and the civil
society initiatives Gülen has inspired. Turkey’s most
circulated daily newspaper Zaman is also affiliated with the Gülen
Movement, and it has close to a million daily circulations in Turkey.
Millions of students attend to educational institutions that are
established by the Gülen Movement. While all these numbers can
tell that millions of people are influenced by the ideas of Fethullah
Gülen and support Gülen Movement’s activities, they won’t
be able to give us a certain number. Matter of fact, it might be
impossible to get that certain number.” [3] The movement consists
primarily of students, teachers, businessmen, journalists and other
educated professionals,[5] arranged in a flexible organizational
network.[6] It has founded schools, universities, an employers'
association, as well as charities, real estate trusts, student
bodies, radio and television stations, and newspapers.[3] The schools
and businesses organize locally, and link into networks on an
informal rather than legal basis.
The
Economist described the Gülen movement as a Turkish-based
movement which sounds more reasonable than most of its rivals, and
which is vying to be recognized as the world's leading Muslim
network.[4] It stated that Gülen has won praise from non-Muslim
quarters with his belief in science, inter-faith dialog and
multi-party democracy. Nilüfer Göle, professor of sociology
at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, who is known for her studies
on modernization and conservatism, has described the Gülen
movement as the world's most global movement.[5]
One
of the main characteristics of the movement is that it is faith-based
but not faith-limited.
Gülen
Movement’s Activities:
TheGuardian
Newspaper describes Gülen Movement activities as “These can be
roughly summarised as living together in peace; appreciating
differences; accepting everybody as they are and bringing about
inter-religious and intercultural dialogue and tolerance, which he
developed to counter the theses of inter-religious and intercultural
clashes. For the realisation of his ideals, he has initiated a civil
voluntary movement. Today Fethullah Gülen is able to easily
mobilise his followers, estimated at millions, who are craving to
accomplish his ideal of transforming the world into an oasis of
peace.
Education
Globally,
the Gülen movement is especially active in education. In 2009
Newsweek claimed that movement participants run "schools in
which more than 2 million students receive education, many with full
scholarships".Estimates of the number of schools and educational
institutions vary widely, from about 300 schools in Turkey to over
1,000 schools worldwide. This number could even be higher . Two
American professors at the the Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Philadelphia and Temple University wrote that, "These schools
have consistently promoted good learning and citizenship, and the
Hizmet movement is to date an evidently admirable civil society
organization to build bridges between religious communities and to
provide direct service on behalf of the common good."Participants
in the movement have also founded many private universities in
different parts of the world. An article by Sabrina Tavernese in
NewYork Times of May 4, 2008 elaborates Gülen School's
activities in big cities as well as in tribal areas of Pakistan. [6]
More
than 1,500 Gülen schools and 20 Universities are running in 120
countries of the world in five continents offer education inspired by
the teachings of Gülen. [7]
Especially
in conflict-ridden regions such as the Philippines, Macedonia,
Afghanistan, Northern Iraq, Bosnia and Kenya, these schools are
bastions of inter-religious and interethnic harmony.
Gülenist
businessmen build these institutions and sponsor scholarships and
higher education to them. They also conduct talent hunt programs in
India, Pakistan, Indonesia and other Asian and African countries. The
selected students are sponsored for higher education in Turkish and
other Countries reputed Universities. Whenever you ask who’s
funding anything, Gülenists reply “a group of Turkish
businessmen,” “a Turkish businessman,” “a Turkish-American
businessman,” or “our Turkish friends.”
Interfaith
and intercultural dialogue
Similar
to Said Nursi, Gülen favors cooperation between followers of
different religions (this would also include different forms of
Islam, such as Sunnism vs. Alevism in Turkey. Center for
Inter-religious Understanding Director Rabbi Jack Bemporad has said
the Gülen movement aims to create a more peaceful world and
invites all people to unity.
Gülen
movement participants have founded a number of institutions across
the world which promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue
activities.Gülen personally met with leaders of other religions,
including Pope John Paul II, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch
Bartholomaios, and Israeli Sephardic Head Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.
In recent years, movement initiated dialogue with also those of no
faith.
Intercultural
dialogue:
Since
1998 the Journalists and Writers Foundation, whose honorary president
is Gülen, have conducted independent working groups with the aim
of reaching consensus on issues which are politically or culturally
divisive.
Media:
Movement
participants have set up a number of media organs, including
Turkish-language TV stations (Samanyolu TV, Mehtap TV), an
English-language TV station in the United States (Ebru TV), a
Turkish-language newspaper (Zaman), an English-language newspaper
(Today's Zaman), a news agency, and the magazines and journals in
Turkish (Sızıntı, Yeni Ümit, Aksiyon), English (The Fountain
Magazine), and Arabic (Hira), an international media group (Cihan
)and a radio station (Burç FM). Though it is claimed by the
Gullienists that none of these companies are controlled by Gülen
or have any direct link with him. As with all Gülen-inspired
projects, Gülen simply provides inspiration, motivation, vision,
and some guiding and overarching principles.”
Aid
The
aid charity Kimse Yok Mu? (Is anybody there?) was established in
March 2004 as a continuation of a TV program of the same name which
ran on Samanyolu TV for some years. It provides aid to those in need
in Turkey and the region and in other areas (including, e.g. Peru,
Sudan, and Haiti). Gülen Movement has built hundreds of
Hospitals, clinics and Nursing homes around the world. It reaches to
the areas of natural calamities and disastour to provide aid.
likeTsunami in South-east Asia, the floods in Bangladesh, the
earthquakes in Pakistan and Peru and the ethno-political violence in
Darfur. The organization assumed sponsorship of a village in Darfur,
rebuilding their schools and a new medical clinic.
Business
and Finance
In
1996, according to University of Houston sociologist Helen Ebaugh,
who has studied the movement, men encouraged by Gülen
established Bank Asya, now Turkey’s largest Islamic bank, with
billions of dollars in assets. Meanwhile, TUSKON, a Turkish
businessmen’s association, boasts 50,000 companies as members.
(“Most of our members admire Gülen,” says Hakan Taşçı,
the group’s Washington, D.C., representative.)
Movement
supporters have also formed business lobbying groups and think tanks
in Washington and Brussels and these inter-connected businesses
constitute one of the strongest capital bases in Turkey[according.
[9] Movement's activities are supported by donations coming from all
classes of people in the society[10]
In
1983, Gülen’s followers founded a conglomerate called Kaynak
Holding, which today includes some
15 companies involved in the retail, I.T., construction, and food
industries. The main division, Kaynak Publishing, maintains 28
publishing labels. It produces hundreds of books per year on and by
Gülen, in addition to books on subjects like Sufism and Ottoman
history. Kaynak Publishing’s office, a beautiful white stone
mansion and mosque that sits on a hill on the Asian side of Istanbul,
also houses Akademi. According to the sociologist Joshua Hendrick,
who spent eleven months researching the Gülen movement and whose
dissertation is perhaps the most comprehensive independent analysis
of it.
According
to Ebaugh, Gülenists generally give between 5 percent and 20
percent of their income to the movement’s projects; she met one
businessman who gave $3.5 million annually. Every year, something
called the International Gülen Conference takes place in a
different cities of the world.
Civic
engagement and politics
Forbes
magazine identified the chief characteristic of the Gülen
movement as not seeking to subvert modern secular states but rather
encouraging practicing Muslims to use to the fullest the
opportunities those countries offer.The New York Times describes the
movement as coming from a "moderate blend of Islam that is very
inclusive."
Prospect
magazine reported that Gülen and the Gülen movement "are
at home with technology, markets and multinational business and
especially with modern communications and public relations.[11]
The
movement is sometimes accused of being "missionary" in
intent, or of organizing in a clandestine way and aiming for
political power.[12] Professor Thomas Michel of Georgetown
University, who observed schools in the Philippines, said: "This
movement has never been engaged in politics. It has reached millions
of children all across the world and helped with their education
regardless of their races, languages, religions and
nationalities."[13] In Europe, Former Norwegian Prime Minister
Kjell Magne Bondevik has said the ideas of Fethullah Gülen and
the activities of the Gülen movement are in complete harmony
with the approach of The Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights.
Gülen
Movement's Impact
B.
Jill Carroll of Rice University in Houston said in an Interfaith
Voices program, an independent public radio show that "Gülen
has greatly impacted three generations in Turkey. He also influences
considerable masses all across the world with his speeches and deeds.
He leads a very modest life. Thousands of institutions have been
established all around the globe by the Gülen movement, but he
doesn’t undertake the administration of even one of them. When
people see such aspects of this movement, they say 'these are not
Muslims in words, they are real Muslims'. Of the schools she said:
"These schools invest in the future and aim at creating a
community that offers equal opportunities for everyone."[13]
The
Economist Newspaper described Gülen Movement as is one of the
most powerful and best-connected of the networks that are competing
to influence Muslims round the globe—especially in places far from
Islam's heartland. The Pennsylvania-based sage, Fethullah Gülen,
who stands at the centre of this network, has become one of the
world's most important Muslim figures—not only in his native
Turkey, but also in a quieter way in many other places: Central Asia,
Indochina, Indonesia and Africa.[14]
In
its homeland, the Gülen movement is seen as a third power after
Military and Government. But in places far from home, the movement
has rather a Turkish nationalist flavour. In the former Soviet south,
it fights the “Turkish” corner in areas where the cultures of
Russia, China and Iran co-exist uneasily. “If you meet a polite
Central Asian lad who speaks good English and Turkish, you know he
went to a Gülen school,” says a Turkish observer. In
Kyrgyzstan, for example, the movement runs a university and a dozen
high schools, which excel in international contests.
Gülen’s
ideas and activism have inspired a faith-based social movement in
Turkey and several other countries. These are usually referred to as
“hizmet” which could be translated as volunteer service movement
or in Gülen’s own terms, the movement of humans united around
high human values.
Bulent
Kenes, article in TheGuardian analyzes Gulen Movements worldwide
presence and impact states that “It is possible to mention many
other examples that prove the universal nature of Gülen's
philosophy. However, to me, the biggest proof is that a major part of
Gülen's followers comprises of people from many different
ethnicities, religions and cultures other than Turks and Muslims.
Today from Siberia to Australia, from China to Canada, and from
Sweden to Brazil, you may find thousands of people who act upon the
ideas Gülen developed for a peaceful world”.
The
influence that the Gülen movement has quietly accumulated would
be a surprise to some veteran observers of Islam. There are different
groups and organizations are active in many Muslim and non-Muslim
countries. Compared with all these groups, the Gülen movement
offers a message to young Muslims that sounds more positive and
relevant to them. It tells them to embrace the Western world's
opportunities, while still insisting on Islam's fundamentals. It's
strategy is result oriented. It believe in evolution or tadrij rather
than overnight revolution.
It
is interesting to note that the brainstorming is going on in the
ranks of Islamic revivalist movements whether to adopt Taliban Model
or Gülen inspired Turkish Government Model. An article “Rengta
hua Islam (creeping Islam) by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, former Jamate
Islami Pakistan Amir is worth reading.
Analysts
around the world describes Gülen movement and its impact as a
unique and highly successful manifestation of flexible, modern Islam
in a globalised setting, and it is likely to have a lasting impact on
the Muslim societies. Graham Fuller, a former CIA agent and the
author of several books on political Islam, says that Gülen is
leading “one of the most important movements in the Muslim world
today.”
The
Gülen movement has been studied well. There are several academic
books and journal articles on the movement. About 10 international
conferences have specifically focused on the movement, and more than
200 papers were presented at these conferences. Many more Western
academics have referred to the movement in their works.
Gülen
Critics
There
are large number of critics of Gülen and his movement in Turkey,
Europe and America. In turkish media and public circles his opponents
portray Gülen is as a CIA/Zionist agent, a US puppet, a secret
cardinal of the Pope and a Western Trojan horse in the Muslim world
who is trying to either Christianize Muslims or making it easy for
Western powers to exploit the Muslim world through his moderate
Islamic teachings; on the other hand, in the English versions of the
critiques, he is portrayed as anti-Semitic, anti-Western and trying
to Islamize Christians, and as a second Khomeini who is trying to
establish an Islamic caliphate in the world. (Türker, 2009).
In
Western media Gülen is portrayed as an Islamic danger to the
Western world who is trying to establish an Islamic caliphate by
using religiously-sanctioned dissimulation (taqiyya) as his main
strategy. According to these articles Gülen is anti-Western,
anti-Semitic. Most of these articles in this category argue that
while Gülen is promoting tolerance, understanding, and
interfaith dialogue, in reality, he is establishing his caliphate
secretly. America’s
Khomeini: Same Evil Different Beard Michael
Rubin is a leading figure in the production of defamatory articles.
Another hard core critic Rubin, Fitzgerald says Gülen is more
dangerous than Khomeini, because he is ‘cunning, clever, and very,
very sinister.’ He states that Turkey is already taken by Fethullah
Gülen, and he has no fear to go back to Turkey, yet Gülen
chooses to stay in the United States for his bigger plans:
“Now
that Turkey is going just as Fethullah Gülen wished, you may ask
why he doesn't fly home to a hero's welcome. And the answer is that
he now has other, and bigger, fish to fry. He has the entire Western
world to help conquer from within (Fitzgerald, 2008).”
Many
western critics and analyst claims that it is the Gülent
movement is influencing Turkish Government in making strateic
decisions. Sharon-Krespin(2009) in her article in Middle East
Qurterly states: “Today, despite the rhetoric of European Union
accession, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned Turkey
away from Europe and toward Russia and Iran and reoriented Turkish
policy in the Middle East away from sympathy toward Israel and much
more toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria.
Anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic sentiments have
increased. ........... Gülen is Behind Turkey's transformation.
[15]
Paul
Williams, a western Gülen critic who is regarded as A Defamation
Machine by Gülen followers states:This
individual has amassed a fortune – – over $30 billion – – for
the creation of a universal caliphate. With the money, Gülen
established radical madrassahs (Islamic schools) and cemaats (Muslim
communities) throughout the Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan and newly-formed Russian republics in order to gain
control of the vast oil and natural gas reserves of these developing
countries. The movement grew to attract more than six million Muslim
adherents, who supported Gülen’s attempt to restore the
Ottoman Empire and to establish a universal caliphate.”
Conclusion:
I
will end my paper with a statement by Gullen in which he says. “
The West cannot wipe out Islam or its territory, and Muslim armies
can no longer march on the West. Moreover, as this world is becoming
even more global, both sides feel the need for a give-and-take
relationship. The West has scientific, technological, economic, and
military supremacy. However, Islam possesses more important and vital
factors: Islam, as represented by the Holy Book and the Sunna of the
Prophet, has retained the freshness of its beliefs, spiritual
essence, good works, and morality as it has unfolded over the last
fourteen centuries. In addition, it has the potential to blow spirit
and life into Muslims who have been numbed for centuries, as well as
into many other peoples drowned in the swamp of materialism.
References:
1.This
brief biography is mainly based on Fethullah Gülen’s
biographical interview, Küçük Dünyam (Istanbul:
Ufuk, 2006), his latest publications, the series of Kırık Testi (7
volumes, Istanbul), the biographical analysis about Fethullah Gülen
by Ali Ünal, Bir Portre Denemesi (Istanbul: Nil, 2002), and it
includes excerpts from “Chapter 2: Historical Background” of the
book entitled “The Gülen Movement: Civic Service without
Borders” by Muhammed Cetin (New Jersey: Blue Dome, 2008).
- ^ Gulen Movement: Financial Resources by Dogan Koc (http://www.fethullahgulenforum.org/questions_answers/18/gulen-movement-financial-resources)
- ^Bulut, Kadir (2008-03-14). "American university president likens Turkish schools to islands of peace". Today's Zaman. Retrieved 2008-07-06.
- http://interfaithradio.org/node/491/
- Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2009, pp. 55-66
- (Ünal and Williams 2000: 247)
MashaAllah, very nice paper. Went through it and liked it.
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