My philosophy — inclusive and pluralist Islam, dedicated to service to human beings from every faith — is antithetical to armed rebellion. For more t… - Fethullah Gülen

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.

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.

One of the important reasons for the conflict is that the Hizmet Movement, which carries out successful educational activities around the world, did not embrace the "leadership of the world's Muslims" discourse claimed by Erdogan and did not support it in the international arena. For this reason, they are now trying to use state resources and mobilize all diplomats and intelligence agencies to close down Hizmet training institutions around the world or have them transferred to the Maarif Foundation, and to extradite the Hizmet participants there to Turkey and imprison them.