Altruistic Society or Sect?: The Shadowy World of the Islamic Gülen Movement

[sysop]

Millions of Muslims around the world idolize Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen, who likes to present himself as the Gandhi of Islam. His Gülen movement runs schools in 140 countries and promotes interfaith dialogue. But former members describe it as a sect, and some believe the secretive organization is conspiring to expand its power in Turkey.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...848763,00.html

[sahinyavuzturk@gmail.com]

The Gulen movement is not shadowy, it is open to anyone and crystal clear. You can get more information about Gulen Movement and its pillars from official pages: http://www.GulenMovement.ca & http://en.fgulen.com/

[europeforever]

Hello,

this article sounds like a typical "turkish" article and not like a neutral SPIEGEL-article. It`s normal that some people want to disturb the good atmosphere during the holy month ramadan by writing bad things about people like Mr Gülen, who spent their whole lives for peace an dialogue.

[owa72]

china and russland banned this sects activity a while ago... they seem to be aware where this movement comes from and who is building and backing up this sect. african countries seem to be to helpless to realize what this movement under the umbrella of charity is really carrying in to their countries.

for a very long time the german intelligence service did not have any published reports about this sect. they let them willingly operate and grow everywhere in german cities, suburbs and rural areas. starting with activly spotting and inviting important personals in neighbourhoods to their circles of religious conversations, surrounding them and finally it become a social pressure to join their meetings. within this circles the next level is recruited as decribed in the article. and it goes on and on with this recruitments. in the meantime they have build up a financial networks, educational instituions for tutoring and for achieving degrees which are difficult to get for immigrant children, and providing "safe" marriage opportunites for urban muslim women who by divorce for example got socially lost more or less... anytime the gulen movement can import any important person for their sect-system by marriage to any place in the world.

I could observe the establishing process of several schools in germany and I was more than astonished by the naivete of town councils who were invited to trips to turkey to see gülen educational work in turkey and enjoy extra holiday in turkey. the trips were all paid by this sect. but they are not free of cost for any society. and the cost for germany is getting infiltrated by this sect which is obviously following takkiya... and even for hardcore fundamentalists, its not so sure for whom they are doing this "takkiya"-strategy. at the moment fethullah gülen followers are already in important instituions in germany. they sit in the secret service, they are in education, they are even active in the christian democrat party, not to mention all the others...
in turkey, where they are already wiretapping and videotaping and blackmailing all kinds of people of public interest, they are since many years already in control. There are just few people who dont bow to their authority.

İt makes me wonder why nothing really relevant about fethullah gulen and his followers is published in english, especially in usa where they are so active. But on the other hand, what recep tayyip erdogan pretends to be on the political level in middle east, fethullah gülen is forseen to become on the religious level. and besides preaching religious tolarance... turkey never had so bad relationships with israel like right now, the religious minorities in turkey have never being so much under pressure and it makes me wonder why some christian orthodox in istanbul still claim, its better than never before... I can just assume, that they dont want themself to become spotted targets for society.
big ups, and big thanks for having the courage to report about fethullah gulen and his deceptive practices.

[vodemi]

I think this article is not based on real facts but on strange accusions and prejudice. There is no evidence for the statements and there are only speculations. Actually I first read this article in German last week, and the movementis described as sect/mafia/turkish ghandi/opus dei.. all in one. This article is not professional and it doesn't consider recent researches from scientist about the movement. I think this article from Popp is kind of shame for Der Spiegel that usually offers more quality articles. I would advise them to excuse for this crap but I know they won't. I think the movement is very clear, most people in the movement are religious, conservative and modern, honest and open-minded for every human. They have no criminal aims or plans. This article is too low for Spiegel-Magazine. Regards, student from Germany.