Fethullah Gülen

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Fethullah Gülen

Fethullah Gülen [ɡyˈlɛn] (born April 27, 1941 in Korucuk, Erzurum Province , Turkey ) is the spiritual leader of the Gülen movement , which is considered to be the Neo-Nurcu movement in the succession of Said Nursîs . Since March 21, 1999 he has lived in self-chosen exile in Saylorsburg , Pennsylvania , USA . Gülen's movement in Turkey was declared a terrorist organization FETÖ by the AKP government . The head of the Federal Intelligence Service contradicted the assessment of the Turkish government that the Gülen movement was Islamic extremist or even terrorist: "The Gülen movement is a civil association for religious and secular further education," he said. The contact person in Germany for Gülen's values ​​and positions is the Dialog and Education Foundation , whose headquarters are in Berlin.

Life

Youth and education

The young Gülen

Gülen's father taught him Arabic, his mother Rafia taught him at home until elementary school. He was later taught in a private religious school in Hasankale . After his theological training, he accepted a position as a preacher in Edirne as an employee of the Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı until 1958/59 . At a young age he was also known as an active anti-communist; he joined the Nurculuk movement and headed the Turkish Association for the Fight against Communism in Erzurum .

Military service and preacher

During his military service he witnessed the military coup in Turkey in 1960 , after which he returned to Edirne as a preacher. In 1966 Gülen was transferred to the Kestanepazarı Mosque in Izmir . Here he began to expand Said Nursî's teachings to include socially conservative and nationalist elements, drawing on the writings of intellectuals such as Necip Fazıl Kısakürek , Nurettin Topçu and Sezai Karakoç . As a result of preaching trips, his following grew strongly, especially among high school and college students, whom he increasingly addressed in terms of content. Gülen is a kind of modern traveling preacher.

His sermons were widely used on audio and video cassettes. According to Gülen's religious views, they move in the Sunni mainstream, they also tend towards Sufism .

Movement and advancement

In 1981 Gülen ended his ministerial work in the civil service in order to devote himself entirely to the new movement. Through public relations work and good relations with the government of Turgut Özal , who, due to his neoliberal orientation, had supported the construction of private educational institutions and media companies in Gülens (magazine, newspaper, news agency, television station) since 1982, he reached a wide audience since the late 1980s. His sermons were broadcast nationwide on video. When the Islamist party Necmettin Erbakans came to power in 1996 , Gülen stayed away from this party and its theses of an Islamic state. In return, he emphasized that he respected the secular state , and thus gained the goodwill of leading Turkish politicians such as B. the secular left- wing politician Bülent Ecevit , who saw himself as an arch-secularist. In 1997, Gülen's Hizmet movement made contact with Hansjörg Bitterlich , the son of the founder of the Roman Catholic Engelwerk . Gülen campaigned for the promotion of education and founded several hundred private schools and student residences in the Turkic states of the former Soviet Union and later worldwide, for example in Pakistan and Malaysia . In doing so, he created a broad public for his ideas. His three main concerns are education, dialogue and the media, according to FAZ editor Rainer Hermann in October 2008. The ideology of an educated society that conforms to the West seems to arouse a lot of sympathy in the West too, but the widespread expansion of the movement frightens critics. Hermann summarized further in 2008:

“Nevertheless, the 'secular' Kemalists in the state apparatus and their friends abroad do not trust the preacher and his movement. Gülen does not accept that there is a conflict between modernity and religion that the 'secular' hardliners are constructing. They come to the prognosis that religion will wither away in the modern age. Gülen, on the other hand, sees a need for religion and metaphysical values ​​in modern times. That makes him an enemy of the state in Turkey; the Berlin journalist Necla Kelek even assumes that he has a 'deeply reactionary mindset'. The Kemalist establishment and its friends abroad use the argument that everything that Islam produces beyond theology must be political. In this way, Islam is making itself a counter-model for the political and social order of the modern West. In addition to political Islam, as it exists in large parts of the Arab states, there have always been social movements in the Islamic world that have people in mind, not the political order. Gülen and his movement stand in this tradition. "

Gulen refuses to succeed Said Nursi. It was never his intention to stand out from the crowd, let alone become a leading figure. Gülen met high-ranking political and religious figures from all over the world for a dialogue between religions , including Pope John Paul II.

Economical meaning

Numerous companies belong to the Gülen movement and many institutions are influenced by it. In addition to private schools and universities such as Fatih University in Istanbul , these include educational associations, radio and television broadcasters - including Samanyolu TV and, until the end of broadcasting, its non-Turkish offshoot QLAR (previously Ebru TV ), a news agency, Bank Asya, insurance companies such as Işık Sigorta, media companies such as the World Media Group , publishers and daily newspapers such as Zaman , the highest-circulation newspaper in Turkey , two hospitals, educational institutions, university preparatory classes, dormitories, a business association and trade unions. It is foreseeable that the “radical Islamist Gülen movement will soon be the decisive media power” in Turkey, commented Die Presse .

The number of members of the Gulen movement is difficult to estimate. In 2008, the sociologist Helen Rose Ebaugh assumed that 10–15% of the population in Turkey feel close to the movement. According to Ebaugh, there are around 1,000 schools in over 100 countries. He may have between eight and ten million sympathizers worldwide.

Teaching

"Renewal of religion from the traditional sources of Anatolian popular Islam" is how the American sociologist Helen Rose Ebaugh characterizes Gülen's thinking. Gülen's teaching, which has undergone some change over the past 40 years, differs from other Nurcu groups in that it emphasizes modern Turkish nationalism , free market economy and the importance of education . Gülen expanded the social base of the Nurculuk movement by emphasizing the ghazawāt and trying to Islamize Turkish nationalism more strongly. His nationalism is more a comprehensive religious one, less an ethnic or racial one. In its inclusiveness, it includes almost all Muslims of the Ottoman Empire between Bosniaks and Kazakhs . However, he uses undertones hostile to Persians and Arabs .

The preacher rejects Darwin's theory of evolution , castigates atheism and places Islam above democracy. A judgment about “worldly systems” is always “relative”, says Gülen on the Internet. Science, too, must be measured by its conformity with the teachings of Islam: “The Koran and Hadith are true and absolute. Science and scientific facts are true as long as they are consistent with Quran and Hadith. But as soon as they take a different position or lead away from the truth of the Koran and Hadith, they are flawed. Even unequivocally established scientific facts cannot be the pillars on which the truths of iman (belief) rest. ”Democracy should“ broaden its horizons ”and“ consider the life of man after death ”.

Unbelief and apostasy

Until the 1980s, Gülen viewed apostasy in Islam as treason; Islamic law provides for the death penalty for this.

“According to Islamic law, apostasy is judged just as harshly by most states and all armed forces as (land) treason. One must hope, through supplication, prayer, persuasion, and any other legitimate means, to prevent such a crime from becoming public and harming society. Those who continue down this path must be invited to reconsider the gravity of their actions and repent. And if they reject that possibility, the death penalty is appropriate. "

- Fethullah Gülen.

According to Gülen, unbelief was a crime:

“The punishment for murder, which usually lasted no more than a few minutes or even a few seconds, ranges from many years to life imprisonment or the death penalty. But unbelief is a much more serious crime than murder [...] Nobody but God knows whether a person will go to paradise or hell. Although unbelief deserves eternal punishment, it is not our place to judge whether a particular unbeliever will actually go to hell. Because maybe one day he will accept the faith and still find the way to paradise. "

- Fethullah Gülen.

Bülent Uçar points out, however, that the opinion of Gulen and other contemporary theologians on apostasy has changed in recent decades and that he has revised his position. Ucar refers to an interview from 2014 in which Gülen revised this view and said that in the article quoted above he only reproduced the usual doctrine , but also emphasized that this was a political judgment and not a theological. In this interview, Gülen explains his point of view as follows:

“At a time when the world was divided into two areas, Dar al-Islam (the area of ​​Islam) and Dar al-Harb ('areas of war'); At a time when almost the entire non-Muslim world had declared an offensive war against Islam and Muslims, the Fuqaha, the Islamic legal scholars, viewed the apostasy as a transition to the opposite front and therefore apostasy not as a question of faith, but rather judged as a political crime. If we look at the topic from a theological perspective, we see that both the Koran and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad [...] secure the freedom of belief or non-belief for individuals. People can enter religions whenever they want and leave them whenever they want. I also expressed this to Mr. Eyüp Can in an interview in 1997. "

- Fethullah Gülen.

woman's role

Fethullah Gülen does not ask women to veil themselves or wear a headscarf, but most of his followers behave like that. Necla Kelek writes that externally he represents "a kind of Islam light", while he propagates "internally [...] a power-conscious Islamic chauvinism". Fethullah Gülen himself sees beating women as forbidden in Islam. In an interview with the FAZ , Gülen stated on the role of women in Islam that women can take on almost any role, including that of a judge or a head of state.

In this interview, Gülen explains his stance as follows:

"A woman is also a free and independent personality. Her femininity does not undermine or narrow any of the qualifications she possesses. If one of her rights is affected, she, like men, can claim her rights. She owns what if someone else holds it, they can bring it back. Muslims of different peoples had dressed their historical wealth of experience in the dress of Islam, they presented their customs and traditions as if they belonged to the foundations of the religion. There were also some theological reports, ijschtihads, in this direction In this way the rights of women were alienated, day by day they were pushed into an ever narrower area and, without understanding where it all was going, in some areas they were even completely excluded from life There is no man with any of the topics that concern the basic principles of Islam - such as freedom of belief and freedom of expression, the B. seat and consumer rights, equality before the law, the right to fair treatment before the law, the right to marry and to have a family, the right to intimacy and the inviolability of privacy. As with men, their property, life and sexuality are also protected. Anyone who violates this faces severe penalties. "


Evaluation and controversy

His followers see him as an important Islamic scholar with liberal ideas and interreligious dialogue intentions, while critics accuse him of wanting to undermine the secular Turkish republic and replace it with an Islamic state. Besides nationalism , his movement is also accused of Islamism .

In critical book publications by well-known Turkish authors such as Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener , the “Gülen sect” is described as the ruler of an Islamic-minded deep state that is emerging in the Republic of Turkey and that subverts authorities, the police and the judiciary. Former Turkish chief prosecutor İlhan Cihaner , who investigated Fethullah Gülen and his movement, was subjected to heavy pressure, arrested and had to resign. Cihaner criticized the movement's influence with the words: "Anyone who messes with Gülen will be destroyed".

Turkey

In the Republic of Turkey, Fethullah Gülen and his movement are extremely controversial. The schools of the Gülen movement should be closed by September 2015.

In 1998, after the Refah Partisi Erbakans were banned , an investigation into the alleged infiltration of the military by Islamists resulted in a scandal over a cut speech by Gulen, which - apparently filmed with a hidden camera - was broadcast in 1999 on the ATV television channel and in which he had supporters urged to work patiently to take control in the state:

“You have to expand the positions in the Ministry of Justice and the Interior that you have been given. These units are our guarantee for the future. The community members should not be satisfied with offices such as those of judges or district administrators, but should try to reach the upper organs of the state. Without making yourself noticeable, you have to go on and on and discover the crucial points of the system. You must not, to a certain extent, enter into an open dialogue with the political rulers and with those people who are one hundred percent against us, but you must not fight them either. If our friends reveal themselves too soon, the world will crush their heads and Muslims will experience something similar to Algeria. The world is very afraid of Islamic developments. Those of us who are in this service have to act like diplomats, as if we ruled the whole world, until you have reached that power that you are then able to participate with to fill in your own strength until you have usurped power in all constitutional organs within the framework of the Turkish state construction. "

Shortly before the television broadcast, Gülen traveled to the United States allegedly for health reasons . Presumably he wanted to evade his imminent arrest and a court case initiated in 2000 for so-called treason of the republic by absenteeism. In 2003 the trial against Gülen was suspended, in 2006 Gülen obtained his acquittal in his absence due to changes in the law. Gülen's application for permanent residency in the US, which was initially denied, was finally approved in 2008.

“The arrests of several retired Kemalist generals as alleged putschists in Turkey at the beginning of July [2008], insiders suspect in Ankara, also go back to the Fethullahcis, the supporters of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. They now hold high positions, not only in the AKP, but also in the state apparatus and the police. ” According to a report by the official research institute of the United States Congress , some critics suspect that the Gülen movement is behind the Ergenekon investigation and other proceedings stands against the military to seek revenge for Gülen's past conviction.

The former deputy director of the Turkish police intelligence department, Hanefi Avcı , writes in his autobiography that the Fethullah Gülen movement has brought the Turkish police under their control. They also commit illegal wiretapping and other illegal activities. Avcı was arrested shortly after his book was published. He therefore sees his arrest in connection with a campaign by the Gülen movement against him. Four MPs from the opposition CHP said in a press release after a visit to Avcıs prison: “We knew that the movement is organized in particular within the police apparatus; however, the further revelations were a shock to us. The Intelligence Service and COM - Smuggling and Organized Crime Department are outside the law and beyond state control. ”And further:“ There is an organization in which religious people are in charge. The proportions are terrifying. We said that a reign of terror is being established in Turkey. Now we know where that comes from. "The Turkish Chief Public Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner comments:" Anyone who takes action against these groups ends up in prison and faces charges. Everything is directed from a central office. ” According to a report in the Turkey bulletin of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Türkan Saylan also sees the Fethullah Gülen movement behind her arrest because she had campaigned for an education in a secular order.

In an article for Foreign Policy , the political scientist Soner Çağaptay describes the Gülen movement as "ultra-conservative" and writes that the current development in Turkey, in which the power of the military has been suppressed, only superficially appears to be democratization. In reality, the power imbalance has been reversed so that the Gülen movement has now taken the place of the military and forms a new " deep state ". The movement controls the police and their intelligence service and is gaining more and more influence in the judiciary.

On March 3, 2011, Ahmet Şık and other journalists were arrested as part of the Ergenekon investigation. In the process, Şık himself and colleagues revealed in the weekly magazine “Nokta” 2007 the coup plans of an admiral who had meanwhile been accused in the Ergenekon trial. It is therefore much more likely that Şık's arrest was related to his book The Imam's Army , which was about to be published. In it he presents his research on Gülen and his movement. In the book that was confiscated when he was arrested and has since been not only banned, but whose possession is already under threat of punishment, Şık reports on the infiltration of the Turkish police and judiciary by the Gülen movement who thereby established a “state within the state”.

A corruption scandal began in Turkey in mid-December 2013 ; Prime Minister Erdoğan exchanged numerous ministers in the Erdoğan III cabinet . Erdoğan repeatedly accused the Gülen movement of attempting to overthrow and claimed that the movement operated a "deep state" . The Turkish government proceeded with arrests, mass transfers and dismissals in the judicial and police apparatus and had Gülen supporters removed from state institutions. Erdogan accused Gülen of setting up a "parallel state" within the Turkish administration and conducting a coup. The planned closure of the Gülen schools in order to deprive the movement of the main source of income was stopped by the Constitutional Court in June 2015. In February 2015, an Istanbul court issued a new arrest warrant for Fethullah Gülen. He is accused of “founding and leading an armed terrorist organization”.

On July 16, 2016, Erdoğan accused Gülen of being responsible for the failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016 , which Gülen has denied; he criticized the coup. Turkey is demanding its extradition from the USA. In an interview with the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, Gülen himself denies having anything to do with the coup, which betrays the principles of his Hizmet movement. He suggested that the events be investigated by an independent commission of international experts, which he was ready to face. He is convinced that President Erdoğan himself is behind the coup, which on July 16, 2016, described him as a “gift from God”.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal , representatives of the Turkish government Michael Flynn and his son are said to have offered up to fifteen million dollars to kidnap Gülen and bring him to Turkey's prison island İmralı . Flynn, at the time Donald Trump's security advisor , is said to have met with representatives in December 2016 and discussed the plan to forcibly take Gülen to Turkey and then to prison in a private plane. According to the report, this is also the subject of investigations by FBI special investigator Robert Mueller over the possible links between Trump's election campaign and Russian intelligence services.

Germany

In Germany - according to the Islamic scholar Bekim Agai from the University of Bonn - the movement is active with tutoring centers "in almost every major city and tries to open private schools without having an official head office, which does not mean that the Activities in the network are not coordinated ”. In Cologne the private high school Dialog is associated with Fethullah Gülen. In Berlin , the TÜDESB Bildungsinstitut Berlin-Brandenburg e. V. in particular the Wilhelmstadt schools . TÜDESB is also considered part of the Gülen movement. In Germany, Gülen is honorary chairman of the Berlin-based forum for intercultural dialogue .

Klaus Mertes , director of the St. Blasien College , emphasizes the quality of the schools supported by the movement. He points to analogies between the educational program of the Jesuits and that of the Hizmet movement and denies a lack of transparency within the schools with reference to a great interest in interreligious dialogue. Uwe Gerrens also sees a "sensational presentation" of allegations, especially against the so-called "light houses", student residential communities of the movement, whose allegations are not verifiable. He considers structures in which peer pressure can occur to be conceivable, but points to similar phenomena, for example in evangelical communities.

In 2004, Rainer Hermann from the FAZ called Fethullah Gülen the “voice of reason”. In 2010 the FAZ criticized the "ethnic niche" offered by the Turkish Gülen schools. The Islamic scholar Ralph Ghadban considers the movement to be dangerous because it is "inconceivable": "Under the pseudo-modernist varnish there is an Islamist view" . The social scientist and critic of Islam, Necla Kelek, criticized the fact that Gülen was developing a global network of Muslim intelligentsia that promoted power-conscious Islamic chauvinism . She wrote: "Outwardly he (Gülen) represents a kind of Islam light, internally he propagates a power-conscious Islamic chauvinism." She calls his movement a "sect with a corporate structure" .

The Alevi human rights activist Serap Çileli is of the opinion that the Gülen movement is a religious community with missionary intentions. Germans' indifference and ignorance about the Gülen movement would lead to fatal consequences.

In 2012, the parliamentary group of the Left Party made a small question . In it, she asked the federal government whether the Gülen movement was being monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution . The federal government denied this.

In February 2014, the CDU parliamentary group chairman in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament, Peter Hauk , demanded access to internal reports by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in which the Gülen movement was accused of being in conflict with the free-democratic basic order. The Interior Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Roger Lewentz (SPD), also wrote to the Federal Interior Minister calling for the Gülen movement to be intensively examined by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and for the Conference of Interior Ministers to address the issue. The President of the Federal Intelligence Service Bruno Kahl contradicts the statement propagated by Turkey that the Gülen movement is an Islamic extremist or even a terrorist movement: "The Gülen movement is a civil association for religious and secular further education."

In this context, Uwe Gerrens emphasizes that despite the examination, none of the constitutional protection authorities of the federal states have started monitoring. In the changing positions of politics on Hizmet he recognizes a pattern in which the respective opposition inquires about the contacts of the government to Hizmet by means of small inquiries, which the respective government replies with the reference to the lack of “sufficient actual evidence of extremism” will. In the debate about the presentation of the Gülen movement as sect-like, Gerrens accuses the EZW in particular of an at least unbalanced and one-sided presentation. Overall, Gerrens sees the criteria for evaluating the movement as a sect as not being met.

United States

In June 2008, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania - Gülen's place of residence - dismissed Gülen's action against the non - grant of his green card application. Gülen had lodged an objection, whereupon the proceedings - possibly with support from the FBI and CIA - had been resumed. With effect from October 10, 2008, Gülen received his Green Card . He lives there with around 100 followers.

Helen Rose Ebaugh from the University of Houston claims in her study that the movement always distances itself from politics and places education and spiritual development of the individual in the foreground - it differs from other Islamic movements primarily through its advocacy of the humanistic worldview, globalization , the free market economy and the symbiosis of tradition and modernity; However, Ebaugh has been accused of ignoring critical questions. The New York Times wrote that Gülen's schools would offer Pakistan "a gentler, more moderate Islam that can coexist with the Western world." The newspaper dubbed Gülen a “nationalist”.

Austria

The Austrian daily Der Standard reported that the Gülen movement was betting on the interest in education. Therefore, high-performing young men and women are targeted and initially advertised with leisure activities. Only after some time does it become clear how the network of the Cemaat (community) works.

Fonts

Gülen has published over 60 books on religious, social and political topics, as well as a large number of essays and poems. Many have been translated into several languages, including some into German. Hundreds of Gülen's speeches are available as audio and video cassettes. Gülen regularly writes articles in newspapers and magazines related to his movement.

Books published in German:

  • Questions to Islam. Volume 1. 3rd, revised edition. Institute for Information on Islam and Dialogue, Hamm 2003, ISBN 3-935521-04-9 .
  • Sufism. Emerald hills of the heart. Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism. Institute for Information on Islam and Dialogue, Hamm 2003, ISBN 3-935521-07-3 .
  • Life after death (= window to faith. Vol. 4). Fontäne-Verlag, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2005, ISBN 3-935521-17-0 .
  • The need for interfaith dialogue. A Muslim perspective (= window to faith. Vol. 10). Fontäne-Verlag, Mörfelden-Walldorf 2005, ISBN 3-935521-23-5 .
  • Muhammad, the Messenger of God. The Life of the Prophet 2nd Edition. Fontäne-Verlag, Offenbach 2005, ISBN 3-935521-05-7 .
  • Pearls of wisdom. 2nd revised edition. Fontäne-Verlag, Offenbach 2005, ISBN 3-935521-11-1 .
  • Towards a global culture of love and tolerance. Fontäne-Verlag, Offenbach 2006, ISBN 3-935521-29-4
  • Religious upbringing. Fontäne-Verlag, Offenbach 2007, ISBN 978-3-935521-36-9 .
  • The basics of the Islamic Faith. Understanding and belief. Kaynak, Izmir 1999, last 4th edition, Fontäne, Offenbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-935521-05-5 .
  • The statue of our soul. Fontäne-Verlag, Offenbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-935521-47-5 .
  • What i think what i believe Herder, Freiburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-451-33274-6 .
  • The Prophet Muhammad. The infinite light - a contextual analysis of the universal message , Define Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-946871-11-8 .
  • No turning back from democracy. Main-Donau Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-946871-09-5 .

literature

  • Walter Homolka , Johann Hafner , Admiel Kosman, Ercan Karakoyun (eds.): Muslims between tradition and modernity - The Gülen movement as a bridge between cultures , Herder Verlag, Freiburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-30380-7 .
  • Ercan Karakoyun : The Gülen Movement. What she is, what she wants . Herder Verlag, Freiburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-451-37679-5 .
  • Wolfgang Günter Lerch : Muhammads Erben , Patmos Verlag Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf 1999
  • Helen Rose Ebaugh: The Gülen Movement. A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam . Springer Verlag Netherlands, Houston 2009, ISBN 978-1-4020-9893-2 .
  • Bekim Agai: Between Network and Discourse - The educational network around Fethullah Gülen (born 1938). The flexible implementation of modern Islamic ideas. EB-Verlag, Schenefeld 2004, ISBN 3-936912-10-6 .
  • Cemil Sahinöz: Fethullah Gülen and the Gülen Movement in: The Nurculuk Movement. Creation, organization and networking . Nesil, Istanbul 2009, ISBN 978-975-269-620-4 .
  • M. Hakan Yavuz, John L. Esposito (Eds.): Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement . Syracuse University Press 2003, ISBN 0-8156-3040-9
  • Wendy Kristianasen: New Faces of Islam . Le Monde Diplomatique, 1997.
  • Kemal Balcı: Fethullah Gülen's Missionaries . The Turkish Probe, 1998.
  • Ünal Bilir: Turkish Islam as a political and religious worldview in its historical context from the II. Meşrûtiyyet period to the present . Dissertation University of Hamburg, 2004 PDF
  • Ralph Ghadban : The pseudo-modernists Said Nursi and Fethullah Gülen . In: Ralph Ghadban: Islam and Islam criticism. Schiler, Berlin / Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89930-360-5 .
  • Jochen Thies : We are part of this society. Insights into the educational initiatives of the Gülen movement. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-451-30698-3 .

Film documentaries

  • The Imam's Long Arm - The Network of Fethullah Gülen . ARD, 2013 (45 min.)
  • In the service of Allah - the followers of Fethullah Gülen . ZDF, 2014 (29 min.)
  • Erdogan's archenemy - who is Fethullah Gülen? WDR, 2016 (28 min.) ( Online copy in the media library until July 2017 )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ * Scientific service of the German Bundestag : The Fethullah Gülen movement in Germany WD 1-3000-072 / 08 : 1938
  2. ↑ M. Hakan Yavuz: Towards an Islamic Liberalism ?: The Nurcu Movement and Fethullah Gülen . In: Middle East Journal . 53, No. 4, 1999, ISSN  0026-3141 , pp. 584-605. .
  3. ↑ Istanbul: Police storm government-critical newspaper "Zaman". In: Spiegel Online . March 4, 2016, accessed June 9, 2018 . .
  4. ↑ Justice: BND chief contradicts Ankara: Gülen movement is not behind attempted coup . In: The world . March 18, 2017 ( welt.de [accessed March 15, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Yuriko Wahl-Immel: Gülen Movement: How Erdogan Influences Schools . welt.de , July 31, 2017, accessed August 5, 2017; Foundation website .
  6. ^ Y. Aktai: Diaspora and Stability. In: Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse NY 2003.
  7. ↑ a b c M. Hakan Yavuz: Towards an Islamic Liberalism ?: The Nurcu Movement and Fethullah Gülen . In: Middle East Journal . 53, No. 4, 1999, ISSN  0026-3141 , pp. 584-605, p. 593.
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Günther Lerch: Muhammad's heirs. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1999, p. 136.
  9. ↑ DEVLET CARKLARININ ARASINDA ISLAMCILIK. NTV MAG, 2000 (via archive.org) ( Memento of February 16, 2003 in the Internet Archive ).
  10. ↑ Helen Rose Ebaugh: The Gülen Movement: An empirical study , Freiburg 2012, pp. 61, 64.
  11. ↑ cf. on this: Wolfgang Günther Lerch: Muhammads Erben. Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1999, p. 137.
  12. ^ A b Heinz Gstrein : Erdoğan in power - night falls in Turkey. Tyrolean daily newspaper from June 3, 2016.
  13. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Archiv
  14. ↑ Rainer Hermann: The Turkish movement of Fethullah Gülen combines Islam and modernity. ( Memento of February 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). FAZ.net: CV Rainer Hermann .
  15. ↑ [2] The Turkish movement of Fethullah Gülen combines Islam and modernity. ( Memento from February 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) The Turkish educated citizens. In: FAZ. February 19, 2008.
  16. ↑ Turkish high school: Senate did not ask the protection of the constitution. ( Memento from April 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Der Tagesspiegel. October 21, 2004.
  17. ↑ preacher Fethullah Gulen in the FAZ interview FAZ of 6 December 2012 found.
  18. ↑ Helen Rose Ebaugh: The Gülen Movement. An empirical study. Freiburg 2012, p. 152ff.
  19. ↑ a b c d e f Maximilian Popp: Islam: Der Pate , Der Spiegel , August 6, 2012.
  20. ↑ Globalization and Diversification of Islamic Movements: Three Turkish Cases ( Memento from June 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 139 kB) Ahmet T. Kuru, Political Science Quarterly Volume 120 Number 2 2005.
  21. ^ Fethullah Gülen's Grand Ambition Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2009, XVI No 1
  22. ↑ Detlef Kleinert: Turkey: The advance of the Islamist chauvinists. In: The press. April 30, 2011, Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  23. ↑ cf. Helen Rose Ebaugh (University of Houston): The Gülen Movement. A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam. Springer Verlag Netherlands, Houston 2009, p. 15. Presentation of the book on http://gulenmovement.com/ ( Memento from December 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  24. ↑ Preacher, poet, soul guide . FAZ, Aug. 9, 2010.
  25. ↑ M. Hakan Yavuz: Towards an Islamic Liberalism ?: The Nurcu Movement and Fethullah Gülen . In: Middle East Journal . 53, no. 4, 1999, ISSN  0026-3141 , pp 584-605, p 594. .
  26. ↑ a b M. Hakan Yavuz: Towards an Islamic Liberalism ?: The Nurcu Movement and Fethullah Gülen . In: Middle East Journal . 53, no. 4, 1999, ISSN  0026-3141 , pp 584-605, p 595. .
  27. ↑ Fethullah Gülen: "How should we behave when it is pointed out that modern science and scientific facts agree with the Koran?", May 9, 2004 archive link ( Memento from September 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
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personal data
SURNAME Gulen, Fethullah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish Islamic scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 1938 or 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Korucuk , Erzurum Province , Turkey