Dialogue and Education Foundation

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Dialogue and Education Foundation
(SDuB)
purpose Dialogue with civil society and lobbying for the Gülen movement in Germany
Chair: Ercan Karakoyun
Establishment date: 2014
Seat : Berlin
Website: sdub.de

The Foundation Dialogue and Education - Contact Person for Hizmet in Germany (SDuB) in Berlin is the central institution of the Gülen movement in Germany. The foundation, established in 2014, acts as a point of contact for the media and the public.

History and background

Based on the idea of ​​the Gülen movement, educational institutions in particular were founded and operated in Germany . The movement finances around 50 private schools and 120 tutoring clubs and operates around 300 student residences, the so-called "light houses" ( ışık evleri ) with shared apartments for Muslim students. Contact with churches, scientists and politicians is to be established with around 15 foundations. Nationwide and internationally in over 160 countries, the Gülen movement operates an extensive network of educational, dialogue, media and business companies.

In Germany, the movement responded in 2013 to the increased media and public attention with a central contact person for the public. In May 2013 a "Hizmet working group" was founded to bundle public relations in the Gülen movement. Hizmet (Turkish "service") is the preferred self-designation of Fethullah Gülen's supporters . The initiator of the AG was the current chairman of the Ercan Karakoyun Foundation. Karakoyun was previously chairman of the Foundation Forum for Intercultural Dialogue in Berlin (FID) for several years . He was able to win well-known personalities for the advisory board of the predecessor foundation FIR. These included the former President of the Bundestag Rita Süssmuth (CDU), the former Bundestag member Markus Meckel (SPD) and Rabbi Walter Homolka , director of the Abraham Geiger College .

The Dialogue and Education Foundation was established in 2014 with around 80 donors from all over Germany. According to its own statement, it is the first foundation established by people with a migration background in Germany.

organization

The chairman of the foundation and "the face of the Gülen movement in Germany " is the sociologist Ercan Karakoyun (born 1980) from Schwerte . Media scientist Rukiye Canlı contributes to the scientific profile of the foundation. The foundation is based in Berlin, near the Gendarmenmarkt . The Dialog and Education Foundation is a member of the Federal Association of German Foundations .

The SDB is connected to the Bund Deutscher Dialog Institutions (BDDI) , the coordination platform of the Gülen movement related dialogue associations.

The foundation's supporters are primarily leaders of movement institutions, including:

  • Hilal Akdeniz, journalist for the daily newspaper Zaman
  • Muammer Akın, head of the BIL schools in Stuttgart
  • Mustafa Altaş, Deputy Chairman of the World Media Group in Offenbach
  • Eyüp Beşir, chairman of the FID e. V. Frankfurt
  • Önder Kurt, managing director of the Federal Association of Entrepreneurs' Associations in Berlin
  • S. Ahmet Tokmak, head of the Sema schools in Mannheim
  • Uğur Ünal, Public Relations Officer of the Academy e. V. in Frankfurt
  • Fatih Yılmaz, board member of Rumi Forum am Rhein e. V., Düsseldorf

Content and work

The Dialog and Education Foundation wants to “promote dialogue and strengthen new educational concepts in Germany that are geared towards social participation.” An important goal is to provide information about Hizmet in general and Fethullah Gülen in particular. This is done through events and public relations. The foundation wants to scientifically deepen individual topics.

The foundation emphasizes that its activities are based on the principles of free democratic principles and universal values.

After the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016 , the Turkish government blamed the Gülen movement for the attempted coup and took action against supporters of the Gülen movement in all areas of society. The SDUB then called on German politicians to call on Turkish President Erdogan to prevent the German-Turks from being instrumentalized . Ercan Karakoyun said that the developments in Turkey are not only worrying for the people living there, but are also damaging the integration of German-Turks in this country.

rating

Friedmann Eißler from the Central Office for Weltanschauung questions of the EKD wrote in 2014 about the then newly established foundation:

“The newly established foundation names freedom of expression and religion , democracy and participation , equal opportunities , tolerance, equality between men and women, peace and nonviolence as the values ​​it stands up for . […] However, it is not nitpicking if one draws attention to the differences between self-portrayal and the teachings of Gulen, as well as between the widespread understanding of these terms and their apparently little contested understanding in internal discourse, as shown by the example of religious freedom. It's not about quibbles, but about basic questions of living together in a religiously plural society. [...]

The Dialog and Education Foundation will have the task of presenting these in an understandable manner and dealing with them, providing answers to critical inquiries and thus meeting the demand for more transparency. So far, she's still keeping the loopholes. With the typical evasive maneuvers and a little varnish of melodious phrases, however, the task will not be manageable. Conclusion: So far it actually doesn't say what's inside. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b tagesschau.de: How should Germany deal with the Gülen movement? Accessed January 23, 2017 (German).
  2. ↑ a b Fetullah Gülen's Hizmet Movement - Islamic Conversion or Open Forum for Dialogue? In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed on January 23, 2017]).
  3. ↑ Volker Siefert: Gülen movement: brainwashing on behalf of the imam . In: The time . December 27, 2013, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed January 23, 2017]).
  4. ↑ Islam: Preacher Gulen breeds a Turkish elite - WELT. In: THE WORLD. Retrieved January 13, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b c d EZW: Material service. In: www.ezw-berlin.de. Retrieved January 13, 2017 .
  6. ↑ a b Foundation Dialogue and Education - BDDI.org. In: bddi.org. Retrieved January 13, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Germany can no longer remain silent towards Erdogan / German Gülen movement demands clear words against the anti-democratic course of the Turkish government . In: presseportal.de . ( presseportal.de [accessed January 15, 2017]).