Eastern Turkey's ancient wonders

Kevin Rushby

Pillars at the temple of Göbekli Tepe.
(Photograph by Vincent J Musi
National Geographic Society)

Urfa, in eastern Turkey, is, at 11,000 years old, the oldest monument ever found, yet was only discovered a decade ago. It is the site of man's first efforts at farming and is also said to be the birthplace of Abraham.

Given the power to travel in time, which period would you choose for your tour? Well, here's one to consider: the early Holocene. Not grabbing you? Well, to be more precise 9,600BC in what is now eastern Turkey. That period and place are known to have been pivotal in human prehistory, although they left precious few traces.

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Disarming America's Gun Culture

Alex Pattakos, Ph.D.*

The horrific massacre of 26 people, including 20 young children, inside a Connecticut elementary school was an act so evil, so vile, so unconscionable, and so shocking, that it is hard to believe it could have happened. Coming less than two weeks before Christmas, the rampage is one of the world's worst mass shootings and the nation's second-deadliest school shooting. Coping with the tragedy of losing a child, let alone in such a tragic and unthinkable way, is an unspeakable heartbreak. Like you, my heart and prayers go out to the victims, their families and other loved ones.

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Book Review: Pearls of Wisdom

Michael Starzinski

This work by M. Fethullah Gülen is a continuation of a long tradition of books and articles promoting the cause of serving society through the advancement of universal education. Fethullah Gülen is a widely known and respected Turkish scholar, religious leader, educator, and social reformer, whose values stem from his Islamic faith, and whose overriding interest is in the well-being of Muslims as well as all of mankind.

Fethullah Gülen's many life experiences including a teaching post in Edirne Turkey, and those acquired throughout his life within his faith, have contributed to his understanding of the role of education in shaping the world we live in. His corresponding beliefs that tyranny can be eliminated and justice achieved through education for all mankind are copiously illustrated in this and all of his former works.

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Turkish, Armenian students foster coexistence with exemplary project

Putting aside all their prejudices and what their course books taught them, a group of students from a Turkish high school and an Armenian high school have joined hands to get to know each other and develop bonds of brotherhood among different religious and ethnic groups in the country with a joint project, which has resulted in a prominent award from the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV).

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Rasmussen: Turkey ‘matters’ in NATO

Turkey has a major role within the NATO in shaping policies and Ankara’s views are heard across in all allied capitals, NATO chief Rasmussen says.

NATO chief Rasmussen (L) with
Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoğlu.
(Daily Photo: Selahattin Sonmez)

In this exclusive interview with TPQ, the honorable secretary-general provides an overview of the major developments of the past two years in Turkey’s neighborhood, including the Libya operation and crisis in Syria, and assesses NATO’s stance thereof. He points out that unlike in the Libya case, there has not been a united response from the international community or a UNSC mandate in the case of Syria. Emphasizing NATO’s open door policy, he commends Georgia for its commitment to a vision of NATO membership and underlines the democratic success marked by the recent elections in this country. The secretary-general also notes NATO’s decision to enhance cooperation with partners and include partners that contribute to NATO operations into relevant decision-shaping processes.

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Hizmet academic set to visit Taipei

Fethullah Gulen

An international conference on the Hizmet Movement, a civic movement inspired by the Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, will be held in Taipei to promote its teachings and practices in Taiwan, organizers said Thursday.

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Let's not forget Superstorm Sandy's victims

Steph Goralnick*

Photo by Steph Goralnick via Instagram

(CNN) -- When Superstorm Sandy hit New York, it blacked out Lower Manhattan and crippled the mass transit system. I was fortunate that the rising water from the East River never reached my home in Brooklyn. But it was heartbreaking to see many parts of my beloved city wounded and so many people struggling.

When the ferry service was partially restored, I took the first boat with a friend to Lower Manhattan at dawn. We walked through the financial district -- normally bustling with activity -- where the traffic lights were dead and the streets were eerily quiet.

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Designing geometric designs

Niki Gamm

CNN International had an item this week on the use of Arabic geometric design incorporated into architectural designs in order to fancy up buildings in the United Arab Emirates. The designs were taken from traditional lattice work windows that allowed defuse light inside and kept windows cool without having to resort to air conditioning. Geometric design has been a part of Arabic art as far back as anyone can trace it and certainly its use proliferated in the century following the proclamation of Islam. Although few artifacts remain in the Arabian Peninsula prior to Islam, there is no reason to think that geometric design immediately appeared there after 622 AD.

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Conference on Gülen’s thoughts on ideal society to be held in Pakistan

A press conference regarding the international conference “Ideal Human and Ideal Society in the Thoughts of M. Fethullah Gülen” was held at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Professor Dr. Liaqat Ali, the Acting Vice Chancellor, Assistant Professor Maria Maldonado, Director of International Linkages, Harun Köken, Chairman of Rumi Forum, and Hakan Yeşilova, Editor of The Fountain announced the program and briefed on the conference.

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What does Petraeus testimony reveal about the Benghazi attacks?

Former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus, who recently resigned because of an extramarital affair, testified to the US Congress and clarified that the attacks which led to deaths at the US consulate in Benghazi, including that of US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, had nothing to do with the anti-Islam movie the “Innocence of Muslims.”

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JWF Coexistence Awards Largely Honors Turkey's Minorities

GYV's 4th Coexistence Awards

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) has largely honored Turkey's minority groups and oppressed voices with its landmark 4th Coexistence Awards in the hope to give a stimulus to those promoting, despite scarce resources yet in a sustained effort, peaceful coexistence.

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Hermann looks closer into Hizmet movement, Gülen's life in FAZ article

Rainer Hermann speaks during
a conference in İstanbul. (Photo: Cihan)

Rainer Hermann, a respected writer for Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) daily, puts the Hizmet Movement, which includes followers of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen's principles, and Gülen's life under spotlight in an article published on Friday.

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Turks, Armenians and Ottomans

Mustafa Akyol

Akdamar Church, Van/Turkey

I really was not expecting to eat the best lahmacun of my life on the western coast of the United States. (Lahmacun, a sort of thin pizza with minced meat, is prominent in Turkish cuisine.) However Jack’s Bakery, a small family restaurant in the greater Los Angeles area, went beyond all my expectations. Not only its lahmacun, but everything I tasted here were both very delicious and very “Turkish.”

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Book Review: Civic Service Without Borders

Anwar Alam *

The Gülen Movement, as it is usually referred to in English, has attracted the attention of “critical public minds and scholarship” throughout the world in recent years for two important reasons. First, Fethullah Gülen’s ideas and praxis demonstrate the potential role of religion in reshaping the present violent, conflict ridden world into an inclusive, humanistic society and world order based on the principles of pluralism, intercultural dialogue, and mutual living. Second and more important, Gülen, through his twin tools of Islamic hermeneutics and public actions, particularly in the field of education, has restored the “humane face of Islam” in the public eye—something that was lost due to centuries of a radical, positivist, secular and Orientalist narrative of Islam and more recently due to acts of violence in the name of Islam—and has demonstrated the complementarity of Islam and modernity. This reconciliation of faith and reason—both in terms of theory and action—solves a conundrum that has plagued the Islamic scholars for long.

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Let jailed journalists refer to the Strasbourg court

Abdülhamit Bilici

No one can say that everything is rosy in terms of democracy and freedom of thought in a country that is being ruled by a constitution drafted by coup generals as in Turkey. There are many steps that need to be taken for the progress of democracy, and the proponents of a universally valid democracy are all aware of them.

Old Turkey used to show allergic reactions to criticisms voiced by foreign countries about its democratic performance. And the country would spend time and energy responding to these criticisms instead of investing its efforts in the measures that would eliminate, say, torture. Most naturally, this course of action would never be able to put an end to torture nor would this good-for-nothing heroism sound convincing to the critics.

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Freedom as the highest value in Islam

Şahin Alpay

I was extremely happy to visit, during most of the past week, Tunisia, the cradle one may say of the recent Arab revolutions against autocratic regimes. The occasion was the invitation to the symposium on “Religion and State in the Arab World” jointly organized by Centre for Arab Unity Studies based in Beirut and Swedish Institute, Alexandria, to present a paper on Turkey’s experience. The symposium took place between October 15 – 17 at the coastal city of Hammamet, and was attended by distinguished academics, journalists and some politicians from all over the Arab world. It provided a great opportunity for me to gain insight into Arab affairs in the post – Arab Awakenings era.

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"Women and Islam" lecture

Jessica Kimmet

Tonight I had the privilege of attending a lecture at the Rosegarden Turkish American Cultural Center here in Portland. I signed up for their mailing list a while ago to follow any Turkish language classes and read about this lecture in one of the emails they sent out. It was given by Dr. Sophia Pandya from California State University, Long Beach, and I really enjoyed it.

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Murder of Christian missionaries and the deep state

Markar Esayan

Remembering the victims of Malatya

In my article on Friday I underlined the crucial importance of the investigations into coups and the deep state for Turkey's democratization and the establishment of a new state apparatus. Today I want to discuss the landmark trial launched in connection with the murder of Christian missionaries at the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya on April 18, 2007.

Turkey has so many issues that have accumulated over time and such a busy agenda that we can hardly allocate sufficient time or interest to the very important developments. Yet it is of vital importance to maintain the general public's interest in such trials and processes. This is because when they are relegated to oblivion, these critical trials may be sabotaged by the deep state networks that still survive in our time.

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The quest for Muslim liberalism: An Egyptian’s journey from ultraconservatism to liberalism

Ahmed M. Abou Hussein *

An Egyptian man waves the national flag 

next to a graffiti on a newly whitewashed wall

 in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday, Sept. 21. 

(PHOTO ap, Nasser Nasser)

I come from a typical Egyptian family that did not emphasize religious teachings as much as it did morals in general. Stealing, lying and cheating are bad traits because they are immoral, not because they are forbidden.

My relationship with Islam was very opaque until the age of 15, when a friend of ours started attending religious seminars and listening to Islamic recordings by state-banned sheikhs. I started to indulge myself in conservative Islamic teachings so fast that, as I remember, in the first few months of being a practicing Muslim, I read dozens of Islamic books and booklets (printed in the Gulf), listened to multiple recordings and attended dozens of Islamic seminars. The excitement of getting to know my religion and doing something against the state was quite gratifying, yet not fulfilling. Soon and at the age of 16, I stopped talking to girls or shaking their hands, listening to music, watching television or going to the movies. My family had some objections, but the more they objected, the more stubborn I became.

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Elif Shafak reflects on Ankara, Turkey

Elif Shafak *

“The best thing about Ankara is returning to Istanbul.” Harsh as it may sound, that expression, attributed in one form or another to prominent Turkish poet Yahya Kemal, resonates with many Turkish artists and writers. It also suggests the discrepancy, if not the conflict, between the country’s two major urban settlements. Turkey’s contemporary history, including its transition from the multiethnic Ottoman Empire to a modern, secularist nation-state, is, in its core, a tale of two cities.

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Definitions in Turkey

Elle Loftis *

Turkey is located at the crossroads (Image: Google Maps)

While packing for our upcoming move, I came across an old box of papers and books from when I first came to Turkey in the late 1990s.

This is part of what makes moving pleasantly tedious: stumbling across old things that necessitate taking time to look back and reflect. I was a university student then, majoring in Middle Eastern studies. I was mainly interested in Turkey, and read everything I could get my hands on regarding Turkish studies. Before my initial visit, I considered myself an “expert.” My sophomoric attitude was evident in the following research papers I submitted after my visit. It continued after I moved to İstanbul a few years later.

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Will Erdoğan and Gül really clash?

Etyen Mahçupyan

The back-to-back speeches given by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the recent Justice and Development Party (AK Party) congress and then by President Abdullah Gül in Parliament have triggered some vocal comparisons.

These types of analyses have been very popular for a while now in the secular media. Some of the same voices who just five years ago lent support to the political intervention carried out by the General Staff headquarters over the Internet, without even a vague attempt to recall the past, are now voicing support for Gül. Actually though, the five years that have passed since that Internet intervention have changed neither Erdoğan nor Gül at all. The prime minister is a character who draws strength from his own charisma, who puts no distance between his stance as a politician and as a human and who does not shy away from reactive behavior. As for the president, he is careful, with a personality that is somewhat distanced and likes to listen and hear things. There are actually no great differences between them when it comes to their shared desire to integrate the sensitivities of Islamic factions with the global world system. Both men have voter blocs that they appeal to and to whom they listen, and actually, their dual stances seem to come together in one united bloc.

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A Classic Hatchet Job

Scott C. Alexander

In response to the Stephen Schwartz's recent article that appeared on Gatestone Institute's website:

I am puzzled by the fact that a man as seemingly intelligent and articulate as Mr. Schwartz appears to have deliberately misread the Op-Ed piece by Mr. Gülen. I say this because, in the very beginning of Mr. Schwartz's critique, he clearly demonstrates that he has no intention of striving for even the least degree of objectivity and fairness in his analysis of Gülen's remarks. In fact, I am saddened to say that what Mr. Schwartz attempts to offer as a trenchant critique of Gülen and the global Gönüllüler Hareketi ("Volunteers' Movement") amounts to little more than a hatchet job on a religious leader who has inspired thousands, perhaps millions, of men and women to a reawakening of their faith and a faith-based commitment to service.

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How to teach... World Food Day

Emily Drabble

A little girl receives free food from a

distribution point on World Food Day

 in 2010 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Photograph: Anjum Naveed/AP

Nearly one is six people around the world do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life – most of them living in developing countries.

It is World Food Day on 16 October as well as harvest festival assembly time, so the Guardian Teacher Network has a bounty of resources to share that introduce and delve deeper into the challenges and injustices that people face over food.

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Islam without Extremes: A Muslim case for liberty

Şahin Alpay

“Is Islam a religion of coercion and repression? Or is it compatible with the idea of liberty -- that individuals have full control over their lives and are free to be religious, irreligious or whatever they wish to be?

There are many good reasons to ask these questions. Islamic societies in the contemporary world are really not beacons of freedom… Not a single Muslim-majority country today can be defined as ‘fully free’…”

The above questions and assessments are the starting point of a new book by Mustafa Akyol, a young Turkish journalist who has recently distinguished himself for dealing with questions that are truly worth asking. It can be said that Akyol’s book, “Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case For Liberty” (Norton, 2011), primarily addresses the widespread prejudices in Western societies about Islam -- though neither prejudices about Islam nor those who need to learn more about it are confined to the Western world.

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Democracy May be Rejected by Religions, but Not by Believers

Reza Aslan *

The question of whether Islam is compatible with democracy is nonsensical at its core, first because it ignores basic empirical evidence (the five most populous Muslim countries in the world are all democracies) and second because it presumes that Islam is somehow different, unique or special -- that unlike every other religion in the history of the world, Islam alone is unaffected by history, culture or context.

Anyone who would answer “no, Islam is not compatible with democracy” does not even deserve a response; this is merely recycling the same old tired and disproven stereotypes about Islam that are frankly starting to get boring.

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Istanbul to celebrate Jewish Culture Day

The European Day of Jewish Culture
will be celebrated with a series of events.
DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL

Istanbul’s Jewish community invites the city’s residents and visitors to learn about Jewish culture on Oct. 7, with the Turkish Jewish Society organizing a series of events in honor of the European Day of Jewish Culture.

The event will be celebrated simultaneously in 30 countries around the world. Each year an international committee selects one overarching theme for the event, and this year’s theme is Jewish humor. To honor this theme, the Istanbul events will include two cartoon exhibitions, one at the Schneidertempel Art Center featuring works by Izel Rozental, the cartoonist of the Jewish daily Shalom, and the second with work by Irvin Mendel, displayed in the entrance hall of Neve Shalom Synagogue.

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Monumental: Istanbul’s Dazzling Architecture

Ron Gluckman

The soaring Hagia Sophia reflects different periods in Istanbul’s history. (Photo: John Cavacas)

Istanbul makes all the latest travel hot lists, for good reason. Domed mosques, topped with fairy-tale minarets, anchor scores of neighborhood squares where prayer calls echo down cobbled lanes. Boats of every size navigate the Bosporus Strait, where old men crowd bridges to drop fishing lines and gossip, while along the shores, cafés serve thimbles of thick Turkish coffee.

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Violence is not in the Tradition of the Prophet

M. Fethullah Gülen *

Muslims pray each day: “O Lord! Keep us on the straight path.” It is a prayer to help us move away from the extremes and maintain balance in our lives. We must neither be hostage to our reactionary instincts, nor must we remain completely silent in the face of the systematic defamation of our values and beliefs. This balance has been upset by the violent response to the insults targeting the legacy of beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The violent response was wrong and strayed from the straight path.

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Teaching Peace in Schools

Alp Aslandoğan *

This week New York City hosts the United Nations General Assembly, the Clinton Global Initiative and the Education Nation conference. These massive events focus on international diplomacy and peace, societal problem-solving and improving classroom instruction. However, just a few blocks away from these grand assemblies, a smaller group met for the first time to tackle all these issues with a single, bold strategy.

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Ramifications of ‘Sledgehammer'

Yavuz Baydar

It took 21 months.

After a painful, intensely debated judicial process, Turkey's critical coup trial ended with not much surprise -- except to those who are the relatives of the suspects -- when a heavy series of prison sentences were issued by the court in İstanbul.

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Norwegian Christian leader: Islamophobia not just fear, includes hatred

Sevgi Akarçeşme

Gunnar Stalsett, the bishop emeritus of Oslo, warned about a hatred of Islam at a joint panel discussion organized by the Abant Platform and Fountain Magazine in İstanbul on Friday.

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Is it freedom of expression or a hate crime?

Bülent Keneş *

Let me be clear at the beginning so that no one gets confused: No provocation or instigation could justify or legitimize the killing of innocent people.

From this perspective, the murder of an American envoy and three diplomats who had nothing to do with the incidents in Benghazi of Libya cannot be tolerated, even if it was carried out in response to a heinous movie insulting our Prophet Muhammad. It is my hope that this massacre, which violated the inviolability of the right to life and the immunity of diplomats, is expeditiously investigated, and that those who committed this horrible crime receive the punishment they deserve.

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John L. Esposito: Islamophobia is symptom of broader problem

Moinuddin Ahmed

Living in a globalized world poses a great challenge for theologians and scholars as they try to develop an understanding of how people belonging to different religions and faiths can coexist.

However, we are living in a time where stereotyping a particular community has become a common practice and hampers the functioning of pluralistic societies.

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U.S. Muslims are not measured by the exemplary work of its mainstream

Jihad Turk and Salam Al-Marayati *

As American Muslims, we are civically challenged - challenged by some of our fellow Muslims, by the media, and by our limited success in having our voices (and those of the mainstream of our community) heard. Our e-mail boxes are replete with Muslim condemnations of the violent protests in reaction to the video, “Innocence of Muslims,” yet the perception remains that Muslims are silent to extremism.

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Obama praises Turkish PM for call for calm over anti-Islam film

U.S. President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday to discuss regional and global issues with the Turkish leader, the White House announced. Obama commended Erdoğan's "leadership" in his calls to resist provocation in the wake of deadly protests which erupted after a U.S.-made anti-Islam film spread over the Internet.

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Murdering the US ambassador to Libya: Anti-Westernism and Islamophobia

Ahmet T. Kuru *

US Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed a few days ago as a result of either a calculated terrorist attack or random violent anti-US protests in Libya.

It is not known yet exactly who the murderers are, but it is not early to explore the global significance of the incident.

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Time for Muslim anger management

Mustafa Akyol

Welcome to yet another clash between Muslim notions of sacredness and Western attempts to defy them: A vulgar anti-Islamic film called “The Innocence of Muslims,” which was apparently produced by a group of anti-Islamic Americans, has sparked a wave of violent anti-American protests in Egypt, Libya and Yemen. In Benghazi, U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his team members were tragically killed. Fears are that the protests might lead to violence against other American targets in the Muslim Middle East and perhaps beyond.

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Guterres, Jolie discuss Syrian refugees with Turkish officials

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres and UN Refugee Agency special envoy Angelina Jolie had a series of talks with Turkish officials in Ankara on Friday, discussing the situation of Syrian refugees living in camps along Turkey's southern border.

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Political greed

Yavuz Baydar

In a manner of distancing itself from the real essence of demands of social transformation, Turkey's dominant politics is redefining itself on a new path, which means more trouble.

It has passed two benchmarks: the referendum on partial changes to the Constitution and the national elections last year. The direction of the vote in the two events gave strength to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and consolidated its power. And it put the leadership of the AKP before a crucial choice: It would either convert the consolidation into collectivization of power, or a personification of it.

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Turkish aid foundations working to resolve water problem in Africa

Numerous Turkish aid foundations are working to resolve Africa's long-standing water supply problem by digging wells in various countries across the continent, with over 1,500 sunk so far.

Africa suffers from a lack of drinking water due to drought, which is common across the continent. Research being conducted into the issue shows that 4,900 children die every day in Africa due to a lack of drinking water or diseases caused by drinking contaminated water.

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Bells at Diyarbakır Armenian church to toll after 97 years

The bell-tower of Diyarbakır’s Surp Giragos Armenian Church, a very important church for the Armenian community in the Middle East, is set to return to use after a 97-year interval, with a new bell made in Russia.

As part of repair and restoration work at the Surp Giragos Church a new bell was made in Moscow, and has been delivered to Diyarbakır. The bronze bell weighs 100 kilograms, and will ring from the bell-tower beginning at its reopening ceremony on Nov. 4.

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My Summer in Turkey

Despite her various concerns, Kassandra Fotiadis, a high school junior in New Jersey took a bold step and decided to spend her summer in Turkey. Here, she shares how this life-changing experience let to a broader/better understanding of the country, its people, culture and religion:

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World is over-armed and peace is under-funded

An opinion piece by Ban Ki-moon, The Secretary General of the United Nations, appeared on the Korea Times on August 28, 2012.

The UN Secretary General pointed out the nuclear weapons and huge global military spending as threats to international peace and security. He then urged the global powers to address basic human needs, "dramatically cut spending on nuclear weapons, and invest instead in social and economic development, which serves the interests of all by expanding markets, reducing motivations for armed conflicts, and in giving citizens a stake in their common futures."

Below, you may read his analysis and suggestions:

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'Sikhs are not Muslims' sends a sinister message

Such declarations by the news media and others has an insidious subtext: that there's something wrong with being a Muslim in America.

Scott C. Alexander *

Almost from the beginning of their coverage of the horrific and deadly shooting at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, CNN and other news media went out of their way to send a message to the American public: "Sikhs are not Muslims."

But what were we to make of that message? If the temple's members had been Muslims, would the attack have then been justified?

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Wrestling with Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Democracy in Turkey

K. Adamson

Review of James C. Harrington’s Wrestling with Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Democracy in Turkey: The Political Trials and Times of Fethullah Gulen. 2011. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 185pp. ISBN 978 0 7618 5461 6.

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Turks provide aid in Mogadishu, where others fear to tread

Alan Boswell *

(Photo: Today's Zaman)

On the edge of Somalia's battered capital of Mogadishu, on a hilltop overlooking the Indian Ocean, there's an unlikely oasis of white tents laid out in perfect rows, where foreigners mingle with locals, a bakery provides free fresh bread daily and even the sandy floors are swept. Flapping audaciously in the seaside breeze above it all is the symbol of Mogadishu's newest foreign patron, the red and white flag of Turkey.

"In other camps, there is not enough food, the tents are too small, there is no medical care. Those are not problems here," said 70-year old Mahmoud Mohammed Afrah, who fled to Mogadishu two years ago and now, for the first time, has two tents for his large family.

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Armenian-Turkish youth orchestra brings harmony to divided cultures

The lights dimmed and excited chatter subsided as the audience took their seats in the modern, wood-paneled, 400-person Garanti Kültür Merkezi concert hall at Boğaziçi University in trendy Bebek on Wednesday night.

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Book Review: Speech and Power of Expression

Nisa Nur Terzi


Mankind has been given exclusive possession of speech-a weapon so powerful that it is mightier than the sword. The power of speech extends vast distances, far enough to revive a mortified soul yet deadly enough to start a war. In his book Speech and Power of Expression, Gülen argues that speech is the sword of humanity. "Wherever the flag of speech waves, the most powerful armies will be defeated and scattered. In the arenas in which speech shouts out, the sounds of cannon balls will become like the buzzing of bees."

Speech and Power of Expression is a book about the art of speech, and it comes from the master of this skill. While Fethullah Gülen is known for his authority as a scholar and an activist in promoting education and dialogue, his power of expression and oratory skills as a prolific writer and poet earn him equal renown and surpass his counterparts.

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Strategic Defamation of Fethullah Gülen: English vs. Turkish

Strategic Defamation of Fethullah Gülen, by Dogan Koc consists of close to 500 defamation articles, books, and other forms of writings which are analyzed according to their languages. Koç concludes that these defamations are not random and that they appear according to their respective audiences. Fethullah Gülen is a moderate Turkish Muslim scholar who is known mostly for his education and dialogue activities. The Hizmet Movement, inspired by Gülen, has established hundreds of education and dialogue institutions throughout the world. Several books and hundreds of articles and news reports have been written about Gülen himself and the movement. In recent years, a defamation campaign has been launched against Gülen and the Hizmet Movement. Although these defamation articles may seem random, this book shows that the articles are written strategically in a campaign manner.

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Turkey and its many sides

Olusola Fabiyi, who has just returned from a trip to Turkey, writes on his experience and places of interest, especially in Istanbul, which is the only city in the world that is on two continents. Fabiyi shares his impressions on a panoramic museum that depicts conquest of Istanbul in 1453, and gives extensive details on the artwork in the museum.

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New Book: The Gulen Hizmet Movement and its Transnational Activities

A project that was conceived at the East and West Encounters: Hizmet (Gulen) Movement conference comes to life in a new book.

The Gulen Hizmet Movement and its Transnational Activities: Case Studies of Altruistic Activism in Contemporary Islam is a book put together by Sophia Pandya of California State University Long Beach and Nancy Gallagher of University of California in Santa Barbara. This volume of essays on the Gulen, or Hizmet (service) movement, a Turkish Sufi, Sufi Muslim and humanitarian civil society group, looks at the recent activities of its followers to practice their form of Islam and carry out collective interfaith projects at the international level. It adds to the newly burgeoning discourse by focusing on the ways in which participants challenge ideological and sectarian boundaries. Included are the essays which discuss how the movement is organized, structured and institutionalized in many parts of the world, explore Turkey's global influence, evaluate criticisms of the movement and suggest directions for further research.

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The Structures of Sinan

Inside Selimiye Mosque

New York Times reporter Andrew Ferren tracks the 16th-century architect and engineer named Sinan. Ferren writes, "Sinan (circa 1490-1588) was chief architect and civil engineer of the Ottoman Empire, working when the empire was at its apogee; his employers, Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent and his heirs, were the most powerful men on earth."

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’60 Minutes’ segment on Gulen Movement highly speculative

Ahmed Rehab

By most objective standards, Fethullah Gulen is a hero of the modern age. While religious polarization has emerged as one of the most nagging problems our time, stumping educators and causing politicians to loose sleep, the Turkish Muslim scholar has inspired millions around the world to rise above petty ideological differences that only work to divide people and instead to embrace all human beings as God’s creation regardless of their faith, national identity, or ideological affiliation.

For Gulen, Jews, Christians, Muslims, atheists, secular nationalists and others have shed too much blood and exhausted too many centuries declaring each other enemies; Instead, he sees ignorance as the common enemy of all people.

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AK Party faces risk of losing popular support

Lale Kemal

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which came to power for the third term after the June 12, 2011 elections, has increasingly been enjoying a situation in which it faces no real opposition from other political parties in Parliament.

There is no pressure forcing the AK Party to feel the heat and force it to rethink its highly controversial policies, which have included a departure from reformist policies and resorted to a more conservative stance such as dictating policies on a possible ban on abortion. It is a known fact that Turkey's greatest democratic deficit is the lack of an opposition. The existing opposition parties in Parliament are ideologically motivated, but trapped in narrow politics.

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Book Review: Islam and Peacebuilding

Stanley Ridge*

Fethullah Gülen's work and thinking starts and ends in faith. In a world that commonly extends conflict by speaking of religion either in stereotyped or in ideologized terms, this is a refreshingly engaged perspective.

Faced with the challenge of mounting hostility between the Islamic world and the West, and with belligerent and increasingly fundamentalist groups on both sides supposedly speaking in the name of religion, the need for peacebuilding with integrity is pressing. The writers of different traditions whose essays resonate here explore the faith-based ideas of one of this century's seminal thinkers and tease out their implications and potential for peacebuilding.

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Freedom award recipient Bartholomew praises Gülen's peace efforts

On May 13th, 2012 Sunday's Zaman reported, "Freedom award recipient Bartholomew praises Gülen's peace efforts"

Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew poses to cameras with Dutch Queen Beatrix after receiving one of a Roosevelt Institute's Four Freedoms Award on May 12, 2012. (Photo: Cihan)

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Abdulhamit Bilici poses a “serious question for” the New York Times and Herald Tribune

Abdulhamit Bilici

In an article that appeared in the Sunday’s Zaman on April 29th, 2012, Abdulhamit Bilici questions the reporting of the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune in regards to a recent story about the Gulen Movement.

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Setting the facts straight on the Gülen movement

James C. Harrington

In response to an article by Dan Bilefsky and Şebnem Arsu in the International Herald Tribune, titled “Shadow Force Grows in Turkey” Professor and human rights lawyer, James Harrington wrote an article in Today’s Zaman.

Prof. Harrington says that much of what the article “describes about Fethullah Gülen and Turkey’s recent history is accurate, but the authors cast a shadow of innuendo and loose conclusions, apparently more driven by personal predispositions than reality.”

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Mr. Gülen is concerned with the world of thoughts, not individuals, institutions, or political ambitions

Fethullah Gulen


In response to an article titled “Shadow force grows in Turkey” by Dan Bilefsky and Sebnem Arsu which appeared in the International Herald Tribune on April 18, 2012, Mr. Fethullah Gulen’s representative released a statement.

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“The problem is not political Islam but authoritarian Islam," says Mustafa Akyol

Mustafa Akyol (Photo: Today's Zaman)

Speaking to the Washington Times’ Luke Montgomery, columnist Mustafa Akyol said:

In Islamic history, we have a tradition of pluralism. At times, pluralism was attacked and those were bad times for Islamic civilization, so I think we need to have more pluralism. In order to have that, you need neutral states without an official doctrine. I’m not advocating a strong separation between religion and politics, but I’m an advocate of the secular state in the sense that it is neutral towards different religious communities. In other words, the problem is not political Islam but authoritarian Islam.

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Hizmet a civilian movement, has no political ambitions

The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), whose honorary chairman is well-respected Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, released a statement on its website on Thursday explaining the stance of the Hizmet [service] movement inspired by Gülen as a civilian one with no political ambitions. The full story from Today’s Zaman can be found here.

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The Rise and Fall of Military Tutelage in Turkey: Fears of Islamism, Kurdism, and Communism

Dr. Ahmet T. Kuru writes in the most recent issue of Insight Turkey (Vol. 14, No.2, 2012, pp. 37-57) about “The Rise and Fall of Military Tutelage in Turkey: Fears of Islamism, Kurdism, and Communism.”

The abstract of the article is as follows:

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Fethullah Gülen: I am in favor of freedom of expression and the press

Fethullah Gulen

On March 27th, 2012 in Today’s Zaman, an English Language daily Newspaper from Turkey Fethullah Gülen’s comments on the freedom of expression and press were outlined.

Turkish Muslim thinker Fethullah Gülen has said he advocates broader rights specifically in the arenas of freedom of expression and freedom of the press for journalists, including those who “unjustly” accuse him of conspiring against them.

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Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens talks to Pacifica Institute

OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens

After the Luncheon Forum, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens sat down for a one-on-one interview with Pacifica Institute. During the interview Sheirff Hutchens talked about nonprofits, Homeland Security and how she deals with the streses of her job.

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“Hizmet is a civic movement rooted in Islam,” Prof. Ebaugh

Helen Rose Ebaugh, professor at the University of Houston and author of The Gulen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam talked about the Hizmet Movement as a civic movement with deep roots in Islam. In an interview with Prof Adnan Aslan, Prof. Ebaugh said that the Hizmet movement is different from many other movements rooted in Islam in that the Hizmet’s aim is not to proselytize but in fact it is a ”social movement and a civil social movement” which happens to root itself in Islamic teachings.

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An Open Letter to Violent Muslim Protestors from Imam Antepli

On February 28th, 2012 Imam Abdullah Antepli wrote an open letter to his fellow Muslims. The letter was published in the Huffington Post. The Imam’s letter addresses the violent protestors in Afghanistan reacting to the NATO Qur'an burning scandal.

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How the Hizmet Movement and partners are facilitating dialog

In an article in The Sunday India, Sauranh Kumar Shahi talks about the successes and challenges of bringing the Abrahamic faiths together in post 9/11 USA.

Leo D. Lefebure, a Catholic priest by training and Professor at Matteo Ricci Chair, Department of Theology at Georgetown University, who has been instrumental in the initiative of Abrahamic dialog, were in New Delhi to share their experience about their interaction with followers of Fethullah Gulen and his Hizmet movement in the US.

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A memoir out of a culture both deeply Ottoman and deeply Jewish

(c) Stanford University Press

Years ago sitting in the manuscript room of the Israel National Library, Aron Rodrigue came across something and as soon as he laid his eyes on it, he knew it was going to be something very special.

What he had come across that day was the earliest known memoir in the Ladino language, written sometime in the early 1880s by a Jewish printer who lived in Salonica, Greece in the days of the Ottoman Empire named Sa’adi Besalel A-Levi.

After years of having the manuscript sit on his shelf , unsure of what to do with it, Rodrigue and his co-editor, Sarah Stein, finally translated and transliterated the book from its original Judaeo-Spanish text in to English and launched the book at an event hosted by the center for Jewish studies at UCLA, Wednesday.

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Gülen Movement, emphasis on service, and reaching out

Dr. John Esposito speaks to Pacifica Institute

At a fundraiser sponsored by the Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) on Wednesday February 15th, Dr. John Esposito, one of America’s leading experts on Islam, was invited to give a talk about the future of Islam in the 21st century.

After a brief introduction of Dr. Esposito by the president of MPV, Ani Zonneveld, the event was started with a 30-minute lecture followed by a Q&A session moderated by KPCC’s Shirley Jahad.

Dr. Esposito started off by giving a brief history of the turbulent relationship the West has had with Islam and its origins.

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Turkish President shares his vision of the new constitution

During a speech given at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in October of last year, President Abdullah Gül talked about some of the problems the country could face in the near future. Among the most important issues was the need for a new constitution.

The necessity to throw out the almost 30-year-old constitution of 1982, he said stems from the fact that “The constitution currently in force does not meet our needs, attempts to restrict Turkey’s democratic maturity and diversity, and ignores the richness that Turkey represents.”

Not only is a new constitution vital in order to achieve true democracy in Turkey, he said, the way in which language is used in the new constitution is also extremely important.

“Up until now, our constitutions have been skeptical and rigid on the subject of freedoms, but expansive and flexible in language concerning restrictions,” Gül said.

In an article President Gül wrote for the Turkish Review he outlines exactly what changes and benefits the new constitution should bring to the Turkish people and the country.

He starts out by stressing that the new constitution should avoid going into too many details. Instead, he said it should “set out fundamental principles” which will allow for “flexibility and progress.”

The new constitution should also “strengthen and guarantee the concept of equal citizenship in every aspect on the basis of fundamental rights and freedoms for everyone,” he said.

“The road to ensuring this outcome is a freedom-based approach, acting under the precepts of a vision of trust in each and every individual in our nation, regardless of political view, orientation or background,”

Furthermore, keeping the achievements of the country’s last 200 years in mind, he said the new constitution needs to be uncompromising in protecting “the fundamental principles of [the] republic as a democratic, secular, social state respecting the rule of law shared by us all.”

Another element vital to the new constitution, the writer points out is that the “constitution should clearly depend on the general will of the people as in contemporary democracies, instead of implicitly providing for tutelage through other bodies of authority.”

The new constitution should also reflect “important qualities of contemporary democracies such as transparency and accountability,” and a system of checks and balances should also be established.

Most importantly, Mr. President said, “the new constitution should not bear the seal of any particular idea, party, ideology or doctrine.” It should bare only one seal, the seal of the Turkish nation.

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