Rainer Hermann interviews Fethullah Gulen - Do good and let it unfold

The Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen has been living in the United States for 13 years now. An extensive network of supporters has developed there, serving in projects under his name.

There is no sign on the road to indicate the exit and the dirt track which leads you through a foggy broadleaf forest, coloured in all the shades of autumn, to an estate with eight houses. Thirteen years ago, the most influential preacher of Turkish Islam Fethullah Gulen retreated to this secluded place. Back then, the still powerful military had driven him out of Turkey. Stricken with illnesses, he decided to undergo surgery in American hospitals. Since then, he has rarely left the estate despite being issued a visa and a residence permit by the United States.

The voice of the 74-year-old Gulen sounds more powerful than ever, even from afar. It was his voice which has transformed the Muslims of Anatolia into a dynamic middle-class during the past decades. Gulen is the voice of these “black Turks”. Many movements have challenged Kemalism, the ideology of the “white Turks”. The urban, educated and secular upper-class of Istanbul – and later also of Ankara – have for decades ruled over Turkey. They looked down with contempt upon the uneducated, rural, poor and religious people of Anatolia. Inspired by Gulen’s teachings, many of these Turks sought education and became wealthy, yet remained religiously devout. As Gulen effectively challenged the Kemalist elite, he was declared as an enemy of the state. If Gulen was to return to Turkey, it would open old wounds. This is why Gulen, who shies away from conflicts, has decided to stay in Saylorsburg.

Strategic Defamation of Fethullah Gülen

I would like to make an addition to a famous statement made by Sakallı Celal, “Such extensive ignorance is possible only by education.” Prejudice should also be included in the preceding remark because Fethullah Gülen, who is the main subject matter in the book “Strategic Defamation of Fethullah Gülen: English vs. Turkish” that I will discuss in this column, is victimized by the prejudices of some people who call themselves intellectuals and, unfortunately, he has been subjected to hatred and enmity as well as competition and jealousy caused by these prejudices.

Who are they?

They are members of a group of people who are trying to become Westerners even though they are actually Easterners. These figures have appeared sometimes as bureaucrats, sometimes as businessmen, members of the media and sometimes as politicians. And it seems that there will be more in the future as well. In other words, let me quote from Hilmi Yavuz: “They are not Westerners but trying to be Westerners.” They are members of a group approaching their own people from a Western perspective. From this angle, they cannot be considered Western; instead, they are Orientalists, referring to the approach employed by Westerners towards the East. We could call them domestic Orientalists. They have no knowledge of Islam; and for this reason they are extremely distant to religion or religious elements. With some modifications in the famous statement by Celal, we may say: “These are people who suppose that they are becoming Westerners by running westward in a ship heading east.”