Gulen Movement by Muhammed Cetin |
May 25, 2012
A study tour of Turkey
Dr. Tariq Rahman
The hospitality of Turkey, more precisely the Gulen Movement, started in Pakistan in the form of a call by Harun Koken who looks after the Turkish schools in Pakistan, the Rumi circle and a number of other educational activities in Pakistan. He gave me a book entitled The Gulen Movement: Civic Society Without Borders (2010) by Muhammad Cetin and later the air ticket to Istanbul. So one day when the morn had not yet dawned, I found myself with my old colleague and friend Dr Rasul Bakhsh Rais on my way to Turkey.
A Visit with Turkey's Controversial Religious Movement
Piotr Zalewski
It is Monday evening in Diyarbakir, a city in Turkey's southeast, and a weekly meeting of several local members of the so-called Gulen movement has begun with a book reading. One of the eight men present — this is an all-boys affair — picks up a paperback by Fethullah Gulen, the charismatic Islamic preacher after whom the movement is named, and reads out a few paragraphs. The subject is one of the central tenets of Gulen's philosophy: hizmet, service to others. Once the reading ends, a few of the other members — smiling beneath cropped mustaches — begin to extemporize on the difficulties and rewards of teaching and the challenges of shaping young minds.
Children attend a class at Fatih College in Istanbul April 16, 2008. The 640-pupil school is run by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Muslim preacher who advocates moderate Islam rooted in modern life. (Photo: Osman Orsal - Reuters) |
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