"Gülen Represents the Outward-looking Brand of Islam"
As the holy month Ramadan begins, the leading American daily newspaper The Washington Post covered the activities and the notion of tolerance in Islam that Turks in the United States have conceptualized, those who have been affected by the ideas of Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish mystic and scholar of Islam.
Caryle Murphy's article titled "A Modern, Mystic Ramadan" described a meeting that the readers of Gülen had in Fairfax, Washington, where they exchanged opinions about religious issues.
"Such sessions are common among Turkish Muslims who -- like the Fairfax group -- embrace the ideas of Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish mystic and scholar who teaches a moderate, outward-looking brand of Islam," the article read.
"After 9/11, a lot of groups said they are moderate and changed their rhetoric," Zeyno Baran, member of a Washington think tank at the Nixon Center. "But the Gülen movement for the last 30 to 40 years has been saying the same thing. They have not changed their language because they want to be okay now."
The Washington Post portrayed Mr. Gülen, 64, as a recluse who has been living in the US because of "his health problems" for the past six years, and who has been avoiding newspaper interviews and television appearances, adding "but in recent years, his outlook, which stresses modern life and Islamic spirituality, has gained a growing number of supporters in Turkey and among the Washington area's estimated 20,000 Turks."
Gülen's system of thought is heavily influenced by "Sufism," and his supporters show great respect particularly for Mavlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, it was reflected in the article along with the photos of a performance of the whirling dance on Saturday night at the Warner Theater, arranged by the Rumi Forum of interfaith dialogues in Washington, in which Mr. Gülen serves as honorary chairman.
Gülen presents "a modern interpretation of Islam compatible with science, democracy and freedom," said Hasan Ali Yurtsever, a research assistant at Georgetown University Department of Mathematics and the Rumi Forum's president.
Nonpolitical though it may be, there is a controversial side to the Gülen movement as well; the author asserted saying, "Radical Islamists revile it, saying it is too open to Western ideas and other faiths".
"In Turkey, the Gülen movement is a presence in hundreds of schools that follow a rigorous secular curriculum heavily weighted toward science," noted Murphy with strong emphasis on the role of Gülen's thoughts in Turkish education: "Religious instruction follows a government-approved syllabus or is nonexistent."
Washington Post writer Caryle Murphy's description of the meeting which began in Ali Unsal's "simply furnished" Fairfax living room with a reading of some versus from the Koran, followed by exchange of opinions of Gülen's essay on "Sincerity or Purity of Intention" is this:
"The guests came casually dressed and, following Turkish custom left their shoes outside, at the front door. The men and women mingled. [They] talked about the spiritual benefits of fasting [during Ramadan]. The group included two businessmen, a schoolteacher and a historian."
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