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.

In a review, human rights attorney James Harrington writes: "Dogan Koç’s book ably documents the efforts of [the] anti-democratic elements of the Turkish establishment, relying on the country’s weak defamation laws, to conduct a virulent libelous media campaign to undermine the moderate Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet Movement he has inspired."

Loye B. Ashton, Ph.D., chair, Interdisciplinary Humanities Department, Tougaloo College reviews the book as follows: "Dr. Koç gives us a timely and invaluable study of the social machinations of contemporary Turkey and its continuing democratization, especially with respect to how Islam and religious issues are manipulated by various parties and shadow entities for political consumption. The analyses of the critiques of the Gülen/Hizmet (“service”) Movement (GHM), and the motivations behind the state power stakeholders who generate this criticism, are a fascinating insight into how little Western readers really know about the true story of Turkey’s fight for democracy and the international dynamics that lie behind the Turkish struggle for a global and humane future."

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Posted in: Books, Dialogue, Dogan Koc, Fethullah Gulen, Gulen Movement, Hizmet Movement