Gülen’s ideal: Building bridges between Islam and the West

Helen R. Ebaugh A major focus of Mr. Gülen’s teaching is the need to create bridges between the Muslim world and the West, along with the importance of synthesizing scientific and technological advances in contemporary Muslim society. He believes that just Turks played a pivotal religious and cultural role under the Ottomans for centuries, Turkey […]

Terror from an Islamic perspective

M. Fethullah Gulen Terror, from the Islamic prospect, causes only disaster and tragedy in this world and leads to Hell in the Hereafter. The word Islam is derived from silm and selamet, which mean submission, salvation, providing trustworthiness, and peace. Innumerable arguments in Qur’an and the Hadith literature, the essential sources of Islam, support these […]

Fethullah Gülen’s Response to the “Clash of Civilizations” Thesis

Richard Penaskovic Unlike Huntington Mr. Gülen is not an academic. Rather, he writes as a preacher, a journalist, a visionary, and as an activist. His thoughts are simple yet profound, poetic rather than pedestrian. He finds his inspiration in the Qur’an, the hadith, the Sufi mystics, particularly Rumi the poet, and in the ideas of […]

Fethullah Gülen’s Views on Jihad, Peacemaking, and Violence

Asma Afsaruddin Fethullah Gülen’s views on jihad and peaceful co-existence of different faith and cultural communities are strongly grounded inQur’anic and Sunnaic perspectives and represent a mimetic continuity with them. As a practitioner of tasawwuf (Sufism), he emphasizes the importance of the greater internal jihad without disavowing the necessity of the lesser external jihad in specific situations. Thus in his explication of the distinction […]