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Monthly Archive

November 2017

Welcome to our Archives page. On this page you will find a total of 38 of our articles broken down into Months and Years.
Special Issue 2017
The Fountain
10394

What Went Wrong With Turkey?

Asli recounts how her mother-in-law recently caught her six-year-old son stealing a pomegranate from the neighbour’s tree. When she asked her grandson why he was stealing, he replied: "I’m stealing th... read more..

Special Issue 2017
M. Fethullah Gulen
11865

The Turkey I No Longer Know

The Turkey that I once knew as a hope-inspiring country on its way to consolidating its democracy and a moderate form of secularism has become the dominion of a president who is doing everything he ca... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Yüksel A. Aslandoğan, PhD
11728

What Really Happened in Turkey on July 15, 2016? An Alternative to the Turkish Government Narrative

On July 15, 2016, Turkey experienced a horrific event: an unsuccessful military coup. But a year after the tragedy, questions about what really happened remain unanswered. What we know for sure is tha... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Philip Clayton, PhD
10255

“And not equal are the good deed and the bad” - On Violence, Power, and Peace in Turkey’s Most Disastrous Year

Why do the most violent people in the world accuse the most peaceful of violence? The last year represents one of the darkest periods in modern Turkish history. In lectures around the world, I once a... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Jon Pahl, PhD
9728

A Meditation on Persecution

Among the many gospel hymns and spirituals that have provided strength for a suffering people over the decades, one has stayed with me in recent weeks. That song—sung by the great soul artis... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Peter A. Cohen, PhD
9961

“Have You No Sense of Decency?” An Open Letter to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Mr. Erdoğan: I have visited your lovely country no less than five times over the past ten years. On four of these visits, members of the Hizmet movement were my guides. I have also proudly been assoc... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Scott C. Alexander, PhD
10548

What Went Wrong? Purge, Persecution, and the Imperative to Stand with the Innocent in Turkey

The disturbing meme depicting criminals impaled on hooks with the words "The ideal method of execution for [the members of] the Fethullah Terrorist Organization: The Ottoman Way" is making i... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Sophia Pandya, PhD
10066

Erdoǧan’s Most Vulnerable Victims: Women and Children

Human rights violations in Turkey have increased exponentially in the aftermath of the July 15, 2016 attempted coup. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan blamed the plot on the Hizmet (Gül... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Thomas Michel, PhD
9631

The Gülen Community: Who to Believe – Politicians or Actions?

In the aftermath of the attempted coup on July 15, 2016, Turkish government has launched an unprecedented purge – with no evidence linking a vast majority of those pu read more..

Special Issue 2017
Ori Z. Soltes
9604

Turkey’s Coup That Was Never a Coup

Note: I first wrote most of the words that follow these in August, 2016, a month after the “coup” in Turkey. Between then and now, things in that splendid country have only gotten worse, and there are... read more..

Special Issue 2017
David L. Phillips, PhD
8670

Was Turkey's Coup For Real?

Much speculation exists about the coup in Turkey on July 15, 2016. Some even call it a “false-coup,” which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan organized in order to justify a crackdown against oppos read more..

Special Issue 2017
Anwar Alam, PhD
8667

Turkey: A State Under One-Man Rule

The July 15, 2016, failed military coup in Turkey, among others, has accelerated and strengthened the Erdoğan regime’s authoritarianism (albeit the democratic aspiration reflected in the people’s resi... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Zaman Stanizai, PhD
8699

Civil Liberties in the Throes of Turkish Authoritarianism

Objectivity in political analysis is a luxury often claimed, but rarely earned. Governments, no matter how responsive to public demands, often fall short of the people’s expectations and are, therefor... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Talip Aydın, PhD
8448

Judicial Independence No More: The Step-by-Step Destruction of the Rule of Law in Turkey

Judicial independence in Turkey has been dying for a long time, but it was annihilated after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. A comprehensive portrait of how the country, once a beacon of dem... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Sage Chen
8464

Erdoğan’s Fight against the Gülen Movement & The Demise of Turkish State Rationality

Since the corruption scandal of December 2013, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has waged an all-out war against the Gülen (or Hizmet) movement. The anti-Gülenist campaign started with... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Greg Barton, PhD
8317

What On Earth Has Gone So Wrong in Turkey?

One year after the mysterious coup attempt of July 15, the situation in Turkey has become much clearer. Unfortunately, it has also become much darker. In the confusing hours of that terrible... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Faruk Mercan
8406

No Return from Democracy: Democracy in the Thought of Gülen and Erdoğan’s Politics

Many countries around the world are facing a crises of democracy. With authoritarianism on the rise, countries from Asia to Europe to the Americas are grappling with critical choices about g... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Rev. Dr. Ian G. Williams
8834

"Ours Is Not a Caravan of Despair" - The Hizmet Movement of Fethullah Gülen and the Common Good – A Perspective from the UK

The Hizmet (service, in Turkish) movement associated with the Turkish teacher Fethullah Gülen [b. 1941] is part of the emerging “European Islam” which has its own diversity in the expression of Turkis... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Imam Omar Shakir
8979

Hizmet Embraces the Entire Human Family

I'm saddened to hear that the Hizmet Movement here is being categorized as a terror group. I've been working with them now for the past eight years. I've had an opportunity to work closely with them ... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Shaykh Muhammad Fathi Hijazi
9744

Fethullah Gülen Is One of the Most Distinguished Islamic Scholars of Our Century

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, “Scholars are heirs of the prophets.” The Islamic intellectual, the honorable Fethullah Gülen, is one of the distinguished scholars of our century. He i... read more..

Special Issue 2017
Ahmed Rehab
9437

Hizmet Is a True Embodiment of the Islamic Ideals of Love and Service to the Other

I have seen many un-Islamic cults play out in the word today: ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, al-Shabab. Hizmet is not an un-Islamic cult. From my interaction with the volunteers, it is anything... read more..

Issue 120 (November - December 2017)
The Fountain
9076

Editorial: Is There an American Muslim Song?

This question, posed by Dr. Ingrid Mattson during her address at the conference “Islam in America: Civic and Religious Youth Identities,” stresses the need for Islam to start feeling at home in the so... read more..

Issue 120 (November - December 2017)
M. Fethullah Gulen
9989

Perhaps One Day We, Too, Will Be Revived

In our gloomy lands, we have waited years for a breeze of revival, expecting the momentous sound of a resurrecting trumpet. Though we hope God will not make us wait any longer, we are determined to ac... read more..

Issue 120 (November - December 2017)
Harun Avci
10111

Water Management and the Qur’an

Water is a unique blessing, given to all living beings. It needs to be used with balance, harmony, economy, and justice. Agriculture, industry, and ecology depend on our water sources. What happens in... read more..

Issue 120 (November - December 2017)
Ali Gomaa
10045

Ethics: A Principle in Islamic Epistemology

Islam has been ordained for higher objectives designed to refine the conduct of those who endeavor to follow its guidance. The hope is to yield benefits both for society and individuals. These honorab... read more..

Issue 120 (November - December 2017)
Lawrence Brazier
9022

In A Different Light

Our cause is not the acceptance or rejection of religion, or the debate of Faith against Reason. We wish to make faith a matter of reason because, if the mystics are right, reason is not necessarily a... read more..

Issue 120 (November - December 2017)
Adam Allison
10641

Awesome Inspirations from Shark Skin

There are more than 500 species of sharks that have been identified. They can live both in the sea and in fresh water. According to the fossil records obtained to date, sharks have been around for abo... read more..

Issue 120 (November - December 2017)
Mubina Muftic
13116

Saadi Shirazi’s Influence on Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To Baron von Hammer Purgstall, who died in Vienna in 1856, we owe our best knowledge of the Persians,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson (d. 1882) in his essay “Persian Poetry.” Thus, it was an Austrian Orie... read more..

Issue 120 (November - December 2017)
M. Fethullah Gulen
10018

Ghayba (Absence)

Literally meaning disappearance and no longer being existent, ghayba (absence) denotes that the heart has cut its relationship with the corporeal world in order to give itself to exclusive devotion to... read more..

Issue 120 (November - December 2017)
Rafiq Ebrahim
9930

Stem Cell Treatments A Breakthrough in Medical Science

There have been certain moments in human history that have stunned humanity and changed the way we thought. Some have even altered the very course of civilization. The late twentieth century and the b... read more..

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