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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