"He's a New World Man"
We have wondered why the Turkish government has "gone more hard core Islamic" lately and there has been a trend tword the de-Westernization of Turkey. The Federation has always had a soft spot for the Turkish nation. So this Turkish Imam is to their liking. He should be to the liking of us liberals too because he is at long last a prominent religious leader who is willing to "bring Religion into the 21st Century". He teaches that you worship God, by teaching math and physics and chemistry to your young. To achieve these ends he has set up a vast web of schools here in America from Texas to Minisota and in fact most even vaguely urbanized states. He brings in Turkish teachers and oddly these teachers teach English over here. He also has a vast education program in Turkey itself where is aggressive instruction in the English language even to elementry school kids. But what got me was that the classrooms were like gigantic science fairs with do it yourself hands on projects where they build everything from remote controled robots to "hover crafts' made out of lawn blowers. (?) The guy has been around since at least the late nineties. He was charged with subverting the Turkish government in 2008 but they then cleared him of all charges. But now people are saying these imported teachers pay up to a forty percent kick back to the Turkish Imam. But I very much like the idea of us honoring God through the study of math and science. But he also teaches other things such as that the Bible teaches that it's a sin to earn as much money than you can. That's even a tad more extreme than what Judy believes. It's always nice to see a "rich ghetto" and private schools are just that. Ghettos for the rich in their own idiological echo chamber.
Since he is addressed as an Imam I must conclude that he is from the Sheite wing of the Islamic faith. Of course most Imams like the Ayatolah are extremist autocrats who teach reactionary thinking and rebel against western enlightenment. This guy believes in conciliation with the West and in open proselitizing or one might almost say "pitching' or selling the Faith. I know that guy on KFI this morning teaches that all Islanicists are Evil because they "hate Jesus" and all. This man is seventy and is aging and developing numerous health problems. He lives in seclusion in the Poconos, whereever they are - - I presume somewhere in the United States. Even people as it were who are his Followers - - have never seen him. The way Sixty Minutes tells it the polifferation of all these Charter Schools throughout America- - is still going on and the web of these schools is getting larger every day. And so it seems really strange that I have never even heard of this man until tonight. I do know that one of these Du Bai guys - - they had on a couple months ago - - has many of the same ideas as far as trying to Westernize his country and teach peach and brotherhood and all that stuff the Tea Party openly despizes. Walter Martin openly taught that "All men are NOT my Brothers. That role is excluded to fellow Christians (who think just like Me)" I am only even posting this at all right now because I'm wondering whether it will turn out to be one of these Stories that Sixty Minutes has on where the topic is never raised again - - - by Anybody. However here is more information about him. I've just been informed that Flash Shockwave has crashed. We'll now try this again and see. We seem to have encountered a technical glitch. Perhaps I can fix it. OK, we're trying it again.
Theology
Gülen does not advocate a new theology but refers to classical authorities of theology and takes up their line of argument. His understanding of Islam tends to be conservative and mainstream. Though he has never been a member of a Sufi tarekat and does not see tarekat membership as a necessity for Muslims, he teaches that Sufism is the inner dimension of Islam and the inner and outer dimensions must never be separated. His teachings differ in emphasis from those of other mainstream, moderate Islamic scholars in two respects, both based on his interpretations of particular verses of the Quran: (1) he teaches that the Muslim community has a duty of service (Turkish:hizmet)[24] to the “common good” of the community and the nation[25] and to Muslims and non-Muslims all over the world;[26] and (2), the Muslim community is obliged to conduct interfaith dialogue with the "People of the Book" (Jews and Christians).[27]Although this does not extend to other religions and atheists. In fact he appears to be intolerant of atheism, as in 2004 Gülen commented to the effect that terrorism was as despicable as atheism.[28] In a follow-up interview he explained he did not intend to equate atheists and murderers; rather, he wanted to highlight the fact that according to Islam both were destined to suffer eternal punishment.[29]
[edit]Service to the common good
The Gülen movement is a transnational civic society movement inspired by Gülen's teachings. His teachings about hizmet(altruistic service to the "common good") have attracted a large number of supporters in Turkey, Central Asia and increasingly in other parts of the world.[30]
[edit]Interfaith and intercultural dialogue
Gulen movement participants have founded a number of institutions across the world which promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue activities. While Gülen's earlier works are (in Bekim Agai's words) "full of anti-missionary and anti-Western passages",[31] during the 1990s he began to advocate interreligious tolerance and dialogue.[3] He personally met with leaders of other religions, including Pope John Paul II, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos, and Israeli Sephardic Head RabbiEliyahu Bakshi-Doron.[32] In the late 2000s, the movement also initiated dialogue with those of no faith. For example, the Dialogue Society in London, which is inspired by Gülen’s teaching, has more atheist and agnostic members of its Advisory Board than it has Muslims. Similar to Said Nursi, Gülen favors cooperation between followers of different religions (this would also include different forms of Islam, such as Sunnism vs. Alevism in Turkey) as well as religious and secular elements within society. He has been described as "very critical of the regimes in Iran and Saudi Arabia" due to their undemocratic, sharia-based systems of government.
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