Fethullah Gülen Quotes

The reactions of the West and America to human rights violations in Turkey fell far behind expectations. We cannot say that they did not make any noise. Voices were raised from time to time from members of parliament, senators, ministry spokesmen and organizations within the European Union, but these mostly remained verbal and did not turn into sanctions. Unfortunately, short-term interests come to the fore in interstate relations. Europe's concerns about Syrian refugees and America's strategic relations with Turkey are among the main dynamics that shape the issue. Essentially, Turkey's embrace of Syrian refugees is not Erdogan's personal decision, it is the general attitude of the Turkish people. When we look at the issue from a security perspective, we can say that; Erdogan's taking all of Turkey's democratic institutions under his tutelage, one by one, drags the region into a tangle of problems. On the one hand, they are coerced into cooperating in the military and intelligence fields, while on the other hand, they are pursuing policies that pave the way for the continuation of violence and terrorism. A Turkey that moves away from being a democratic state of law is likely to be a part of radicalism and conflicts rather than being a representative of stability and peace in the region... As a matter of fact, we see examples of this.

My first Quran teacher was my mother. He made me memorize the Quran at a young age. At that time, despite the pressure from the state, he also taught the Quran to village children. Since it was forbidden to teach the Quran, he used to teach it in a barn next to our house, with a hidden entrance. His sacrifice impressed me greatly. From my father, I learned love for the companions and respect for Islamic scholars.

Before either of those things can happen, however, the Turkish government must stop the repression of its people and redress the rights of individuals who have been wronged by Erdogan without due process.

Throughout my life, I have publicly and privately denounced military interventions in domestic politics. In fact, I have been advocating for democracy for decades. Having suffered through four military coups in four decades in Turkey — and having been subjected by those military regimes to harassment and wrongful imprisonment — I would never want my fellow citizens to endure such an ordeal again. If somebody who appears to be a Hizmet sympathizer has been involved in an attempted coup, he betrays my ideals.

For the past 50 years, I have been fortunate to take part in a civil society movement, sometimes referred to as Hizmet, whose participants and supporters include millions of Turkish citizens. These citizens have committed themselves to interfaith dialogue, community service, relief efforts and making life-changing education accessible. They have established more than 1,000 modern secular schools, tutoring centers, colleges, hospitals and relief organizations in over 150 countries. They are teachers, journalists, businessmen and ordinary citizens.

For 3 years, in an unprecedented way in the history of the Republic of Turkey, all the security and judicial forces of the state have been mobilized to reveal the "parallel state" that they claim to govern. The government described the corruption investigations in 2013 as a coup attempt organized by my sympathizers in the bureaucracy, but despite the arrest of 4000 people, the dismissal of tens of thousands of people from their professions, and the illegal seizure of hundreds of institutions and companies, not a single piece of evidence was found to prove these allegations. The then prime minister, who compared the possibility of meeting with me in May 2013 to a blessing falling from the sky, began to use hate language in the public squares, including terms ranging from assassin to bloodsucking vampire, about the participants of this movement after the corruption investigation.

I probably will not live to see Turkey become an exemplary democracy, but I pray that the downward authoritarian drift can be stopped before it is too late.

Perhaps the most difficult obligation for many, though, will be forgoing the long-planned gatherings of the season, in order to comply with precautions issued by authorities. But following these measures is a duty of our citizenship and a necessity of our social responsibility to respect God’s laws in the universe. For instance, the Prophet Muhammad — whose belief and trust in God was beyond description — even advised quarantining a town in the event of an infectious disease.

However, all these oppressions led to something they had never considered. The world got to know the service much better. He saw that we were not in the same line with those who used Islam for politics, and a curiosity and sometimes favor arose. Although this has a heavy price, it is a blessing from God Almighty.

Those in political power continue the witch hunt they started in Turkey in the world. As their first duty, diplomats are trying to have the educational institutions of the Service transferred to the Maarif Foundation or closed down. They are trying to put our friends who work here on planes and send them to Turkey, disregarding international law.

There are different administrative systems in the world. These may vary from country to country. However, the main thing is to comply with universal principles such as separation of powers, rule of law and guaranteeing fundamental human rights and freedoms. I do not think that these principles are or will be respected in the system that is intended to be implemented in Turkey.

Volunteers of this movement have been monitored by hundreds of governments, intelligence agencies, researchers or independent civil society actors around the world for 25 years and no illegal activity has been found. For this reason, many countries do not take seriously the Turkish Government's theses about the Hizmet movement.

But the Turkey that I once knew as a hope-inspiring country on its way to consolidating its democracy and a moderate form of secularism has become the dominion of a president who is doing everything he can to amass power and subjugate dissent.

However, it is not right to associate members of various Islamic movements in different countries around the world, who sincerely serve the religion without engaging in any form of violence, with terrorism in a wholesale approach. Otherwise, injustice would be done to those who are against terrorism, and therefore some people would be pushed into the arms of radical movements through such an unfair and unlawful practice.

Our obligation to help and support those in need also takes on added meaning this year as our neighbors and communities face sickness, grief, economic hardship and the loneliness of self-isolation.