Fethullah Gülen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Fethullah Gülen
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Gülen in 2016
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Muhammed Fethullah Gülen
27 April 1941 Pasinler, Erzurum, Turkey
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| Died | 20 October 2024 (aged 83) Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Known for | Gülen movement |
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| Literary movement | Nurcu |
| Notable work | The Essentials of the Islamic Faith |
| Notable awards | 2015 Gandhi King Ikeda Award for Peace |
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Philosophy career |
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| School | Hanafi |
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Main interests
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Influences
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Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (27 April 1941 – 20 October 2024) was a Turkish Muslim scholar, preacher, and leader of the Gülen movement who as of 2016 had millions of followers. Gülen was an influential neo-Ottomanist, Anatolian panethnicist, Islamic poet, writer, social critic, and activist–dissident developing a Nursian theological perspective that embraces democratic modernity. Gülen was a local state imam from 1959 to 1981 and he was a citizen of Turkey until his denaturalization by the Turkish government in 2017. Over the years, Gülen became a centrist political figure in Turkey prior to his being there as a fugitive. From 1999 until his death in 2024, Gülen lived in self-exile in the United States near Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.
Gülen said his social criticisms are focused upon individuals' faith and morality and a lesser extent toward political ends, and self described as rejecting an Islamist political philosophy, advocating instead for full participation within professions, society, and political life by religious and secular individuals who profess high moral or ethical principles and who wholly support secular rule, within Muslim-majority countries and elsewhere.
In 2003, a number of Gülen movement participants allied with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's right wing Justice and Development Party (AKP), providing the AKP political and sorely-needed administrative support. This political alliance worked together to weaken left-of-center Kemalist factions, but fractured in 2011. Turkish prosecutors accused Gülen of attempts to overthrow the government by allegedly directing politically motivated corruption investigations by Gülen-linked investigators then in the judiciary, who illegally wiretapped the executive office of the Turkish president, and Gülen's alleged instigations of the 2016 coup attempt. Gülen denied the accusations.
A Turkish criminal court issued an arrest warrant for Gülen in 2016, and Turkey demanded his extradition from the United States. U.S. government officials did not believe he was associated with any terrorist activity, and requested evidence to be provided by the Turkish government to substantiate the allegations in the warrant requesting extradition, frequently rejecting Turkish calls for his extradition.
Gülen was described in the English-language media as an imam "who promoted a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, hard work, and education" and as "one of the world's most important Muslim figures." Gülen was wanted as a terrorist leader in Turkey and Pakistan, as well as by the OIC and GCC.
Contents
Biography
Muhammed Fethullah Gülen was born in the village of Korucuk, near Erzurum, to Ramiz and Refia Gülen. There is some dispute over his date of birth. According to some accounts, usually older ones, he was born on 10 November 1938, while others state his birth was on 27 April 1941.
Gülen's father was an imam. His mother taught the Qur'an in their village, despite such informal religious instruction being banned by the Kemalist government. Gülen's secular formal education ended when his family moved to another village. He took part in Islamic education in some Erzurum madrasas and was influenced by the ideas of Kurdish scholar Said Nursî. He gave his first sermon as a licensed state preacher in 1958, when he was in his teens.
Gülen was appointed an assistant imam at Üç Şerefeli Mosque in Edirne, 6 August 1959, and thus joined in the Turkish civil service where he served until he retired from formal preaching duties in 1981.
While Gülen was teaching at the Kestanepazari Qur'anic School in İzmir in March 1971, the Turkish military seized control of the government in an attempt to quell domestic political violence. During its aftermath, Gülen was arrested for organizing a clandestine religious group based on his teachings and was imprisoned for seven months.
Gülen's influence in civil society and number of followers grew steadily during the 1980s and 1990s. From 1988 to 1991 he gave a series of sermons in popular mosques of major cities. In 1994, he participated in the founding of the Journalists and Writers Foundation and was given the title "honorary president" by the foundation. He reportedly avoided making any comments about the forced closures of the Islamist Welfare Party in 1998 or the Virtue Party in 2001, or meeting with the leaders of Islamic political parties, although he did meet with some of their politicians like Tansu Çiller and Bülent Ecevit.
Coming to the United States
In 1999, Gülen relocated to the United States for medical treatment, and decided to stay there. According to the Kemalist Turkish law of the time, intending to ensure modernity and secularism, non-state sanctioned religious endeavors were outlawed and Gülen was under investigation for subverting the government, especially over remarks (aired after he immigrated to U.S.) which seemed to favor an Islamic state. In June 1999, after Gülen had left Turkey, videotapes were sent to some Turkish television stations with recordings of Gülen saying,
The existing system is still in power. Our friends who have positions in legislative and administrative bodies should learn its details and be vigilant all the time so that they can transform it and be more fruitful on behalf of Islam in order to carry out a nationwide restoration. However, they should wait until the conditions become more favorable. In other words, they should not come out too early.
Gülen was tried in absentia in 2000, and found guilty of conspiring to embed his supporters into the Turkish civil service in important governmental offices to overthrow the government. Gülen said his remarks were taken out of context, and his supporters raised questions about the authenticity of the tape, which he said had been "manipulated".
Gülen's conviction was reversed in 2008 under the new Justice and Development Party (AKP) government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a move that signaled cooperation between Erdoğan's AKP (whose Islamist ideas were becoming increasingly popular), and Gülen's movement (whose media, banking and educational network in Turkey and elsewhere was becoming increasingly powerful).
Gülen applied for a "green card", i.e. permanent residence in the United States in 2002. After 11 September 2001, the U.S. increased its scrutiny of its domestic Islamic religious groups. Objecting to Gulen's residency application were the FBI, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security. Gülen first based his claim to residency on his being an alien of extraordinary ability as an education activist; the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rejected it. Lawyers representing the Secretary of Homeland Security argued that Gülen had no degree or training in the field of education and questioned laudatory opinions about Gülen, cited by his lawyers, that had been expressed by scholars at academics conferences funded by Gulenist foundations. CIA National Intelligence Council former vice chairman Graham E. Fuller, former CIA official George Fidas and former US Ambassador to Turkey Morton Abramowitz wrote endorsement letters for Gülen's green card application in 2008. The court ruled against the USCIS and in Gülen's favor, granting Gülen his green card.
With the advent of Erdoğanist Turkey in the 2000s, structural impediments to Muslims' participation in civil life were gradually lifted. Many of those educated in institutions sponsored by participants in civil-society endeavors that Gülen had inspired ended up as members of the Turkey's judiciary, its governmental apparatus, and its military. While Gulen's movement had consistently maintained that it stayed above politics, in the 2011 election its print and broadcast media suddenly came out in support of Erdogan and his party, leading to another big AKP victory. But as Turkey's secular state was dismantled, tension grew between Erdogan and Gulen beginning with Erdogan's closing down of Gulen's network of university prep schools.
In the period just prior to the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, Erdoğanism changed in its perception of Gülenism from that of sometimes ally to a dangerous rival, attempting to construct a parallel state structure. On 19 December 2014, a Turkish court issued an arrest warrant for Gülen after over 20 journalists working for media outlets thought to be sympathetic to the Gülen movement were arrested. Gülen was accused of establishing and running an "armed terrorist group".
Before and after the attempted putsch, Gülenists became the greatest portion of those caught up in the massive 2016–present purges in Turkey. Since the 2016 coup attempt, authorities arrested or imprisoned more than 90,000 Turkish citizens, and shut down Gulen's entire media and business empire in Turkey.
Later life and death
Gülen had resided at the Hizmet movement-affiliated Chestnut Retreat Center, a 25-acre wooded estate in the Poconos (within Ross Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, near Saylorsburg). About thirty people live and work on the estate, owned by the Golden Generation Foundation. Never married, Gülen's own living quarters and study were within a pair of small rooms, whose rent he paid out of his publishing royalties and which contained a mattress on the floor, prayer mat, desk, bookshelves, and treadmill, within one of the estate's several structures, among which is a hall used as a mosque. Gülen was reported to be in ill health. In 2017, reports identified four candidates to succeed Gulen, if necessary, in leadership of the Hizmet movement: Mehmet Ali Şengül, Cevdet Türkyolu, Osman Şimşek and Ahmet Kurucan.
Gülen died at a hospital in Pennsylvania on 20 October 2024, at the age of 83. He was being treated for heart and kidney failure at the time of his death. Due to the political situation in Turkey, he is expected to be buried in Pennsylvania, contrary to his wish to be interred in Izmir.
Thought and activism
Initiatives
The Gülen movement is a transnational Islamic civic society movement inspired by Gülen's teachings. His teachings about hizmet (altruistic service to the common good) have attracted a large number of supporters in Turkey, Central Asia, and increasingly in other parts of the world.
Education
In his sermons, Gülen reportedly stated: "Studying physics, mathematics, and chemistry is worshipping God." With regard to terrorism, Gülen believes "The antidote is a religious education program that teaches the tradition in a holistic and contextualized way. To be able to resist the deceits of radical ideologues, young Muslims must understand the spirit of their scripture and the overarching principles of their Prophet's life".
Gülen's followers have built over 1,000 schools around the world. In Turkey, Gülen's schools are considered among the best: expensive modern facilities where the English language is taught from the first grade. However, former teachers from outside the Gülen community have called into question the treatment of women and girls in Gülen schools, reporting that female teachers were excluded from administrative responsibilities, allowed little autonomy, and—along with girls from the sixth grade and up—segregated from male colleagues and pupils during break and lunch periods.
Interfaith and intercultural dialogue
During the 1990s, he began to advocate interreligious tolerance and dialogue. He personally met with leaders of other religions, including Pope John Paul II, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, and Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.
Gülen said that he favors cooperation between followers of different religions as well as religious and secular elements within society.
Gülen showed sympathy towards certain demands of Turkey's Alevi minority, such as recognising their cemevis as official places of worship and supporting better Sunni-Alevi relations; stating Alevis "definitely enrich Turkish culture".
Publications
Gülen's official website lists 44 publications by him; these are, however, more akin to essays and collections of sermons than books on specific subjects with a specific thesis. He also authored many articles on a variety of topics: social, political and religious issues, art, science and sports, and recorded thousands of audio and video cassettes. He writes the lead article for The Fountain, Yeni Ümit, Sızıntı, and Yağmur Islamic philosophical magazines. Several of his books have been translated into English.
- The Messenger of God: Muhammad, Tughra Books, 2nd edition, 2008. ISBN: 1597841374
- Reflections on the Qur'an: Commentaries on Selected Verses, Tughra Books, 2012. ISBN: 1597842648
- Toward Global Civilization Love and Tolerance, Tughra Books, 2010.
- From Seed to Cedar: Nurturing the Spiritual Needs in Children, Tughra Books, 2013. ISBN: 1597842788
- Terror and Suicide Attacks: An Islamic Perspective, Tughra Books, 2008. ISBN: 1932099743
- Journey to Noble Ideals: Droplets of Wisdom from the Heart (Broken Jug), Tughra Books, 2014. ISBN: 1597843482
- Speech and Power of Expression, Tughra Books, 2010. ISBN: 1597842168
- Selected Prayers of Prophet Muhammad, Tughra Books, 2012. ISBN: 1597842265
Rise Up (Colors of Peace) album
Rise Up (Colors of Peace) was a musical project to turn Gülen's poems and writings in Turkish language into songs. A total of 50 poems were sent to various Muslim and non-Muslim artists from various countries, who were free to pick, and then compose and vocalize the poem chosen, record it in their own country and send it back for inclusion in the planned album. Reportedly, no restrictions were put on the artists in using instrumentation, despite reservations by stricter Muslim interpretations about music and use of musical instruments. The album Rise Up (Colors of Peace) turned into an album of world music encompassing various genres like jazz, pop, flamenco, rai, Indian music among others. The artists appearing (in order of appearance on the track list) were: The Good Morning Diary, Maher Zain, Faudel, Cristelo Duo featuring Bruno Gouveia, Ryan Shaw, Natacha Atlas, Bon Bon, KK & Reet, Mazachigno featuring Ely Bruna, Bahroma, Carmen Paris, Kobi Farhi & Ruba Shamshoum. The project took more than two years to realize and the album was released in 2013 by Nil Production and Universal Music.
See also
In Spanish: Fethullah Gülen para niños
