In the News

M. Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Muslim scholar, educator and peace activist, has been awarded an honorary doctorate of education by Leeds Metropolitan University for his contribution to education, peace making and intercultural dialogue.

Özcan Keles, executive director of the London-based Dialogue Society charity, accepted the honorary doctorate on Thursday on behalf of Gulen at the university’s summer graduation convocation. “Fethullah Gulen considers this award as recognition of the work and efforts of what is known among academic circles as the Gulen movement or what Gulen himself prefers to call a movement of volunteers,” Keles, said.

Read more: Gulen awarded honorary doctorate by Leeds Metropolitan University

SAYLORSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA — Here in northeastern Pennsylvania, where fertile farmlands yield suddenly to the hauntingly beautiful foothills of the Pocono Mountains, quietly resides one of the most influential men in Turkey.

And one of the most controversial.

Admirers describe Fethullah Gulen, 69, a soft-spoken Muslim preacher, author and teacher with a huge following, in reverential tones.
John L. Esposito, a Georgetown University professor who has studied Mr. Gulen, said that if he were to compare Mr. Gulen to another public figure it would be the Dalai Lama.

The New York Times

SAYLORSBURG, Pa.—Imam Fethullah Gülen, a controversial and reclusive U.S. resident who is considered Turkey's most influential religious leader, criticized a Turkish-led flotilla for trying to deliver aid without Israel's consent.

Speaking in his first interview with a U.S. news organization, Mr. Gülen spoke of watching news coverage of Monday's deadly confrontation between Israeli commandos and Turkish aid group members as its flotilla approached Israel's sea blockade of Gaza. "What I saw was not pretty," he said. "It was ugly."

The Wall Street Journal.

In the midst of one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history, organizations and individuals across the world are providing whatever assistance they can to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Money, food, clothing and other supplies are making their way en masse to the small country, but Springfield’s Congregation Adat Reyim is making sure that prayers make their way there, too.

Herndon Connection

NEW BOOK on Fethullah Gulen by Helen Rose Ebaugh. Please click here.

Fethullah Gulen, Rumi Forum's Honorary President discussed at 'Muslim world' conference in Egypt. http://www.arabturkdialog.com/

John Tekman was born in Kayseri, Turkey. He moved to America when his father was commissioned to tile the National Mosque in Washington, D.C.

He is many things, including a Sunni Muslim, but when he came before his neighbors at the Delaware American-Turkish Cultural Education Foundation dinner, he was first and foremost a neighbor.

Capegazette

The University of Kentucky student organization, Interfaith Dialogue Organization (IDO), presented its fourth annual Dialogue Dinner recently at the University of Kentucky.

"The purpose of the dinner is to bring community and university together to promote religious and cultural diversity," said Mehmet Saracoglu, UK graduate student and president of IDO.

University of Kentucky News