Gulen’s latest book launch celebrated at Istanbul Forum

Journalists, politicians and writers gathered together for a forum in İstanbul on Tuesday to mark the launch of renowned Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s latest book, “Yaşatma İdeali,” (The Ideal to Let Others Live).

In his message, Gulen said “As you will agree, a person who only thinks of himself is not a human at all, but a human with a deficiency. The way real humanity can be achieved is through self-sacrifice for others. The value of a person in the eyes of God can be measured by the level of their benevolence. The most obvious sign of a high level of benevolence is sacrificing one’s personal pleasures and joys for the happiness of others.” Read rest of the story

Diversity Management in Slovenia

In one of its Ambassadors Speaking programs the Rumi Forum hosted Slovenian Ambassador Roman Kirn. In his presentation, which is titled Slovenia and Diversity Management: Lessons for the Future Amb. Kirn explained key aspects of diversity management in Slovenia. Ambassador emphasized the importance of Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue. Read rest of the story

Children in the World of Adults

Periodical called Dialogue Eurasia has dedicated it’s the 35th issue to parenting, children and child education. I would like to bring your attention to this interesting issue called Where are Children in the World of Adults. This issue is like a guidebook for parents compiled from a number of essays written by various scholars to emphasize the importance of parent-children relations and child education. Read rest of the story

Hong Kong professors visit Kimse Yok Mu

Recently, Bogazici University’s Political Sciences and International Relations Department hosted a workshop sponsored by the University of Hong Kong, about Charity and Legitimacy of Organization, Law, Accountability and Transparency. Many professors from Hong Kong, China and others carrying out studies in various countries payed a formal visit to KYM Association. Read rest of the story

KYM Clinic helping Ugandan patients

Kimse Yok Mu, Turkish humanitarian aid organization established by followers of Fethullah Gulen’s ideas, opened a clinic which has become the hope of Ugandan patients living in a country struggling with health problems. Volunteer doctors worked on the internal and external design of the hospital in Cinga, and were involved in the uptake of medicine and medical supplies. They said they are very happy to be giving medical service in Uganda. Read rest of the story

Turkish school in Pakistan produces math world champion

Usama Mahmoud Hawar, a student at a Turkish school in Pakistan, has become the world champion in mathematics in an exam commissioned by the British Council’s Cambridge University, the Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday.

Hawar, one of 12 million students from 200 countries to participate in the exam, was a final-year student at Lahore High School for Boys, one of the Turkish schools operating in Pakistan. The math world champion received a great deal of attention from the Pakistani media, which congratulated the successful students, teachers and schools of the exam. Read rest of the story

“Bustling Will Power”, M. Fethullah Gulen

Close not your eyes to the beauty
Do not be stuck in the ugly!
Behold Him as mountains do the sun!
Watch ever for His Holy Light,
Put the darkness aside!

These winter months are cold and can be bitter, making our bodies, and even our will power, cold and tired. In his poem, “Bustling Will Power”, Mr. Gulen implores the believer, the servants of humanity to not bow to the harsh and desperate phenomena in our midst but to rise above it all and . . . Read rest of the story

Book Review: A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gülen’s Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse

Review of Jill Carroll’s A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gulen’s Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse. 2007. Somerset, NJ: The Light, 114pp. US $13.95. ISBN 978 1 59784 110 8.

Renewed interest in civil society movements has inspired many scholars to undertake full-time research on democratic political processes and institutions across the globe. Yet few of them have focused on the role of ideas that bring people together nowadays; even less have attempted to put those ideas in the context of the larger humanities.

Dr. Jill Carroll, in a more critical spirit than was formerly possible, delves into the intellectual world of one of the most influential thinkers of our time and carries on a constructive conversation between him and giants of Western thought. Her book, A Dialogue of Civilizations, aims to explain the points where the ideas of Fethullah Gulen, an influential Turkish intellectual and scholar of Islam, find echo in the texts of Confucius, Plato, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and Jean Paul Sartre. This important study advances public knowledge of the cross-cultural religious dialogue in the twenty-first century and highlights opportunities for improved human understanding. Read rest of the story

Foreign Policy’s emotional and biased journalism

Last week, Foreign Policy magazine published a piece titled “Behind the Bars in the Deep State” by Justin Vela. The piece is neither objective nor accurate. It is one-sided and biased. It is also prejudicial against the Hizmet (Gülen) movement. It fails to give a balanced picture of Turkish politics and democracy and thus betrays its readers.

The FP piece claims that because of Gulen movement Turkey is becoming a less free country but neither mentions nor explains the following “dilemma”: If the movement hates freedoms, liberties and criticism why it is still the biggest champion of the EU process, transparency and accountability of the state and a new democratic constitution?

Read more

Awaited Generation

Humankind has never been so wretched as they are today. They have lost all their values: the ‘table of art and literature is vandalized’ by drunks; thought is capital wasted in the hands of people suffering from intellectual poverty; science is a plaything of materialism; and the products of science are tools used in the name of unbelief.

Fethullah Gulen sees  as our young people are living in and through a most distressing period. The neglect of past centuries has brought to fruit the successive calamities we are experiencing now. The young have been buried under a heavy burden of anxiety with nothing of use coming to them from their fathers and mothers, from the home or the school, nothing whatever of any spiritual value. Read rest of the story