All Posts in Category: OP-ED

In his latest book, Embracing the World, Ori Z. Soltes makes distinct connections between Rumi in his time and M. Fethullah Gulen in our time. Soltes defines this link by saying that “fundamentally, the former one spoke and taught and wrote and while the latter speaks and teaches and writes…

I would like to share an article written by the prominent scholar and intellectual Fethullah Gulen. Fethullah Gulen is a well-known Muslim scholar who was born and raised in Turkey but has been residing in the US since 1999. He is recognized for his ideas that emphasize the importance of…

Tafaqqur, meaning deep thinking and systematic reflection on a subject, has an important place in Islam. This disciplined method of thinking requires pondering on a subject with an aim. As the Islamic sources tell us it was highly practiced by Prophets, their disciples, sufis and the learned ones.  It has…

Recent tragic yet thought-provoking incidents such as the one happened back in Aug in Fergusson and the one occurred in Staten Island in New York this summer should alone be enough to show how important to invest in education, especially as it relates to schooling practices that are geared to…

Fethullah Gulen wrote a very inspiring and thought-provoking article in the 30th Issue of a bimonthly magazine Fountain. In this article titled Forgiveness he elaborates on the importance and beauty of forgiveness. I advise everyone to read this article, because it makes you realize how important forgiveness is for the peaceful state…

In today’s secular world, most people perceive the religious concepts negatively. You don’t need to have a religious perspective to be blamed; it is enough to describe a concept using an adjective that could have some religious connotations. You are immediately labeled as dogmatic or fanatic or God forbid a…

“A piece titled “What’s Really Behind Turkey’s Coup Arrests?” by Soner Çağaptay, who works for the pro-Israeli Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), was published very recently by the Foreign Policy journal. He starts his unsubstantiated claims by saying that the Gulen movement is a shadowy Islamist movement. I…

Tolerance is defined as allowing someone or something to exist without interference. In social and political settings, it means to let other opinions and practices that are different than ours to exist and thrive.  Aristoteles defines virtues as being balanced and determining prudently in any given human condition. As a…

In his 2013 book, “Toward an Islamic Enlightenment-The Gulen Movement”, Hakan Yavuz examines the “structure” of the Hizmet Movement by analyzing the authority, networks and opportunity spaces perspective. According to Yavuz, Fethullah Gulen argues that salvation cannot be found in the exit or withdrawal from social life. On the contrary,…

I will go green. This is one of my New Year resolutions for 2011. I know I am already late but better than never. Besides I am already half green. I have been printing less; reading my articles online. I have unsubscribed from printed version of the daily paper and…