Dr. Joseph Stoutzenberger* When I heard that the theme of this conference was to be “The Beloved Community,” I decided to revisit Fethullah Gulen’s writings about Sufism since love is so central to that expression of Islam. Sufism entails spiritual training that leads to self-purification so that one can experience God’s love for oneself the […]
Mustafa Kasim Erol* There are increasing concerns across the world for the necessity of looking after of our environment which surrounds us. The obvious reason behind the increase of that awareness has been the contribution of various organisations that have been keeping many issues relevant to the environment such as global warming, droughts, pollution etc. […]
Gurkan Celik & Yusuf Alan* Gülen was born in 1941in Erzurum, eastern Turkey, just twenty-odd years after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. The war for Independence, transition from one regime to another, the Second World War and global phenomena of modernity versus religion had all taken […]
Fabio Vicini* Fethullah Gülen thinks that in order to spread its beneficial effects, the religious message should reach as many members of society as possible. However, he rejects any political use of Islam. He argues religion cannot be yielded to party needs because it cannot be reduced to an ideological instrument. In his words politics […]
Maimul Ahsan Khan* Fethullah Gulen started his professional career as a traditional imam, trained and certificated by the governmental authorities in Ankara. His innovative ideas of educational and social reform have made him a household name in modern Turkey and increasingly around the world for several decades now. In 2008 he was recognized as the […]
Fabio Vicini* Gülen says the ideal person taking part in his project must be aksiyon insani (man of action). This person is one who must spend most of his time working in order to turn the world into a paradise. Indeed, according to the religious leader a “good Muslim” should be continuously engaged in accomplishing […]
Yetkin Yildirim and Suphan Kirmizialtin* Gülen differentiates between teachers, who simply pass on information and training, and educators (Gülen 1996a, 36). Educators communicate information, but also help students to build their characters and learn self-discipline and a sense of direction, as well as tolerance (Michel 2003, 75). Gülen describes the ineffectiveness of those teachers who […]
Yetkin Yildirim and Suphan Kirmizialtin* Turkey is a crucible in which Eastern and Western civilizations, secular ideas, and Islamic tradition merge. Using ideas born in the Turkish context, Fethullah Gülen and his followers have developed and put into practice an educational system that combines the strengths of both European and Islamic cultures, cultivating students of […]
Fabio Vicini* The members of the movement I met and frequented in Istanbul during my brief fieldwork in summer/autumn 2005, are all teachers in a school linked to the movement. There they prepared high school graduates to the entrance exam to Turkish state university. All of them live in a dormitory not very far from […]
Fabio Vicini* When Gülen criticizes traditional forms of Islamic education for not having been able to adapt to modern conditions, he expresses something more than a simple dissatisfaction with old methods of teaching. Instead he blames other Islamic scholars because they had not understood that the decline of Islam was not solely due to its […]
From Hizmet News