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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