List of articles on Gulen and the Gulen Movement from the international press
(This list is not by any means comprehensive.)
August 4, 2011 Turkey
BirGün "If you are against Gülen, you must be linked to Revolutionary Headquarters!" [Turkish language] by Zeynep Kuray
Summary: A university student says she was targeted by police, accused of being part of a terrorist organization, and detained for 4 days only because of her activities on an educational and collaborative project that the Gulen Movement viewed as competition. (Ironically, the author of this newspaper article, Zeynep Kuray, was herself arrested in Dec 2011 as part of a sweep that included a number of journalists and was widely condemned by human rights and press freedom groups.)
June 27, 2011 Netherlands
Trouw "An Environmental Olympics with an Islamic twist"[Dutch language] by Annemarie Geleijnse and Rineke van Houten
Summary: The INESPO environmental olympiad, which takes place annually in Amsterdam, is found to have 3/4 of its attendees coming from Gulen schools around the world. Dutch attendees feel that it is more for show than about academics. The organizers are vague about the event's funding.
June 12, 2011 Germany
Focus Magazine "It is our right to say no." [German language] by Andrea Hoffman
Arrested Turkish journalist Ahmet Sik talks about the contents of his book on the Fethullah Gulen Movement, which was banned in Turkey.
May 10, 2011 Senegal
Rewmi "Anger: serious charges against the Yavuz Selim School Group of Dakar" [French language] by Fara Michel Dièye
Summary: Teachers at one of the schools of the Yavuz Selim College group, a chain of Gulen schools in Senegal, allege labor violations, racism, nepotism and exploitation at the school, and say the school director is autocratic and unreasonable. They note that another school in the chain was in the news a year before because of abuses.
April 9, 2011 Austria
Der Standard "The fallen sons of Mr. Gulen" [German language] by Markus Bernath
Summary: Two former members of the Gulen Movement speak of its cult-like aspects, the pressure on students in its boarding schools, and the fact that the Movement has grown so fast and so big that it is now out of control.
Dec 31, 2010 Netherlands
De Volkskrant Sect under the wings of open society
Summary: Concerns about the Gulen Movement in the Netherlands, and particularly its boarding schools, have arisen in the past, and the issues have still not been resolved. Even though in December 2010 a report by Martin van Bruinessen was released and debated in the Dutch Parliament, it elided some of the key issues. The report denies connections between the various schools, boarding schools, homework help centers and Gulenist organizations even though it is clear that such connections exist. The report also states that all boarding schools are closed, yet the author concedes this may not be so. Parents are calling for transparency, especially after finding from personal experience that the schools and homework help centers are used for recruitment for the Movement. The response of the government does not appear to be adequate in the eyes of the parents.
Dec 15, 2010 Netherlands
Trouw: Shadow of a doubt by Annemarie Geleijnse and Rineke van Houten
Summary: Trouw's investigations show that the Gulen Movement appears to be running boarding schools in the Netherlands, even though a report by Martin van Bruinessen, commissioned by the Dutch Parliament, says they are all closed. Students attending these boarding schools seem to hardly ever go out, and there are rules as well as strong social pressures on them to conform to the Gulenist lifestyle. The journalists found that people who speak about these boarding schools seem to all be afraid of retaliation.
Dec 7, 2010 Belgium
De Standaard: Gulen Movement finances research at Catholic University of Leuven, by Pieter Lesaffer
Website: Original (subscription required) Full article (in Dutch) available without subscription here
Summary: This article confirms that the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, a Gulenist foundation in Belgium whose honorary chairman is Fethullah Gulen, is funding the "Fethullah Gulen Chair for Intercultural Studies" at the Catholic University of Leuven. Johan Leman has been appointed to this chair. Leman has attended Gulen conferences and events, and his words of praise for the Gulen Movement can be read on a number of Gulenist websites.
July 28, 2010 Germany
Stuttgarter Zeitung: Islam in the sign of the rainbow? by Heinz Siebold
Summary: Gulenists have already been operating study halls in Germany for some time and are now starting to open private schools, for example, the "Rainbow Elementary School” in Freiburg. The student body seems to come entirely from the Turkish immigrant population. There are concerns that these schools hinder integration of the immigrants and their children into mainstream German society. Sociologist Necla Kelek is quoted as saying of Gulen that "inwardly, he preaches a power-conscious Islamic chauvinism."
Dec 29, 2009 France
Le Monde: A Turkish brotherhood opens a state college in France by Guillaume Perrier
Summary: France is one of the last countries in Europe that the Gulen Movement is settling in. The Gulen movement's first schools Educactive just opened in September. School tuition is 4500 Euros per year.
"Teachers visit parents and inspect the rooms, in order to better monitor the student in his "extracurricular" career. 'We have never seen such working conditions elsewhere,' says Walter Pacelat, the music teacher."
November 7, 2009 Belgium
De Standaard: Integration – or Ghetto School ? Behind the curtains of the Lucerna College by Pieter Lesaffer
Summary: There are concerns about the quality of academics at the Lucerna College (a high school) in Belgium, and also about whether this school hinders integration of immigrants into mainstream society. Some teachers say the students are not learning Dutch properly. There is a controversy regarding whether creationism is being taught in the school. The Belgian State Security Service's position is that Lucerna has links to the Gulen Movement, and that the Movement's main objectives are "the Islamization of Turkish nationalism, the development of a Turkish Islam that is superior to that of Arab Islam, and the Islamization of modern society." Critics of the Movement say it puts pressure on people, including businessmen and parents, and tries to recruit talented youth. Businessmen who decline to contribute to the Movement are usually boycotted by Gulenists in their area. Lucerna is insistent on denying any connection with the Gulen Movement, and claims its name comes from "enlightment," referring to the school's mission. However, it is clear that in actuality the name derives from "Nur" ("Nurcu" is another name used for the sect that Gulenists belong to) which means light in Turkish. The article also mentions study halls where students are tutored by other Turkish students, and dormitories where Turkish students live together. Turkish students are under pressure to sell subscriptions to the local edition of Zaman newspaper. The school director maintains that all criticism is baseless and the scrutiny is unfair.
Oct 29, 2009 Switzerland
Beobachter: Gulen Movement: A network of conservatives by Peter John Meier and Gian Signorell
Summary: The Gulen Movement is starting to establish itself in Switzerland, with the Dialog Institute and the Sera Foundation. The Movement also has study halls, and in August a secondary school opened. The Director of the Dialog Institute denies that the schools are religious.
"For the Berlin Gulen expert Claudia Dantschke, there is no doubt that such schools will be used to gain new adherents. "They are run on an informal level. Students are motivated, for example, to move into a Muslim apartment-sharing community. There, they are then encouraged to live in a strictly Islamic way.” Bekim Agai of the University of Halle, who has written his thesis on the Gulen movement, emphasizes the importance of this informal domain for recruiting leaders."
Aug 26, 2009 Belgium
Mondiaal Nieuws (English translation) The growing influence of a religious reform movement in Turkey by Tine Danckaers
This article is very insightful. It explains how the Gulen Movement recruits new followers, by offering them educational opportunities, and then applying psychological pressure.
Noteworthy lines:
"In the opinion of Etyen Mahcuypan, [it] is their system of favouritism which irritates and frightens people about this movement." ...
"I have big issues with the Gulen movement', says Dogan Bermek, the spokesman of the federation of Alevitic organisations. ‘I talked to them on one of their interreligious forums. But not one single idea arose from the discussion, not even an opposite opinion. There is no point talking with them. I'm convinced that the Fethullahci are influencing the political agenda and that they have strong ties to the highest state circles, even if I can't demonstrate this with concrete examples. Are they aiming to install a sharia state? Who knows. Nobody understands what this organisation wants exactly, as they never made any clear statement. It's a subjective community, which could either become a liberal and modern Islam movement or a fundamentalist conservative one. I don't know the Gulen group well enough, but what confuses me is the fact that they preach a liberal attitude and apply the Sunni dogmas at the same time. We shouldn't be naive about this. I am definitely concerned." ...
'The Gülen movement is a money generating network, influencing the whole society', says Turkish columnist Etyen Mahcupyan.
May 28, 2009 Germany
Der Tagesspiegel Modern Muslims: With Math on the Way to Allah by Claudia Keller and Thomas Seiber
A Gulen conference is taking place at the University of Potsdam in Germany, not far from Berlin. While the program states that the Gulen Movement will be studied scientifically, it appears that the conference is dominated by the Movement's supporters and sympathizers.
"Parents of Turkish origin send their children to what is by now 150 tutoring institutes and 12 schools run by the Gülen movement. Meanwhile, the tutoring facilities can be found in nearly every major city. In the Spandau borough of Berlin , schools run by the supporting organization TUDESB belong to the network. Up to now, these religiously-inspired educational institutions have sought to hide from the public the fact that they belong to the Gulen network."
Mar 11, 2007 Russia
Middle East Institute (Moscow) Activities of the Turkish “Nurcular” religious sect by M.N. Davidov
The article describes Gulenist activities and schools in Russia. The "home visit," one of the common characteristics of all Gulen charter schools in the United States, is practiced by these schools too.
"The idea of commitment to Islamic values and Turkish culture is actively inculcated into students, with consciousness of their Muslim unity. During the course of the educational process, the Turkish teachers purposefully engage in studying the moral and personal qualities of high school students and their close relatives, the practice of visiting their place of residence, the establishment of interpersonal relations. According to available information, a regularly updated file is put together for each student, which reflects information about the social status of his parents, his abilities, academic success, moral and psychological traits, and the evolution of his views on Islam and Turkey."
August 4, 2011 Turkey
BirGün "If you are against Gülen, you must be linked to Revolutionary Headquarters!" [Turkish language] by Zeynep Kuray
Summary: A university student says she was targeted by police, accused of being part of a terrorist organization, and detained for 4 days only because of her activities on an educational and collaborative project that the Gulen Movement viewed as competition. (Ironically, the author of this newspaper article, Zeynep Kuray, was herself arrested in Dec 2011 as part of a sweep that included a number of journalists and was widely condemned by human rights and press freedom groups.)
June 27, 2011 Netherlands
Trouw "An Environmental Olympics with an Islamic twist"[Dutch language] by Annemarie Geleijnse and Rineke van Houten
Summary: The INESPO environmental olympiad, which takes place annually in Amsterdam, is found to have 3/4 of its attendees coming from Gulen schools around the world. Dutch attendees feel that it is more for show than about academics. The organizers are vague about the event's funding.
June 12, 2011 Germany
Focus Magazine "It is our right to say no." [German language] by Andrea Hoffman
Arrested Turkish journalist Ahmet Sik talks about the contents of his book on the Fethullah Gulen Movement, which was banned in Turkey.
May 10, 2011 Senegal
Rewmi "Anger: serious charges against the Yavuz Selim School Group of Dakar" [French language] by Fara Michel Dièye
Summary: Teachers at one of the schools of the Yavuz Selim College group, a chain of Gulen schools in Senegal, allege labor violations, racism, nepotism and exploitation at the school, and say the school director is autocratic and unreasonable. They note that another school in the chain was in the news a year before because of abuses.
April 9, 2011 Austria
Der Standard "The fallen sons of Mr. Gulen" [German language] by Markus Bernath
Summary: Two former members of the Gulen Movement speak of its cult-like aspects, the pressure on students in its boarding schools, and the fact that the Movement has grown so fast and so big that it is now out of control.
Dec 31, 2010 Netherlands
De Volkskrant Sect under the wings of open society
Summary: Concerns about the Gulen Movement in the Netherlands, and particularly its boarding schools, have arisen in the past, and the issues have still not been resolved. Even though in December 2010 a report by Martin van Bruinessen was released and debated in the Dutch Parliament, it elided some of the key issues. The report denies connections between the various schools, boarding schools, homework help centers and Gulenist organizations even though it is clear that such connections exist. The report also states that all boarding schools are closed, yet the author concedes this may not be so. Parents are calling for transparency, especially after finding from personal experience that the schools and homework help centers are used for recruitment for the Movement. The response of the government does not appear to be adequate in the eyes of the parents.
Dec 15, 2010 Netherlands
Trouw: Shadow of a doubt by Annemarie Geleijnse and Rineke van Houten
Summary: Trouw's investigations show that the Gulen Movement appears to be running boarding schools in the Netherlands, even though a report by Martin van Bruinessen, commissioned by the Dutch Parliament, says they are all closed. Students attending these boarding schools seem to hardly ever go out, and there are rules as well as strong social pressures on them to conform to the Gulenist lifestyle. The journalists found that people who speak about these boarding schools seem to all be afraid of retaliation.
Dec 7, 2010 Belgium
De Standaard: Gulen Movement finances research at Catholic University of Leuven, by Pieter Lesaffer
Website: Original (subscription required) Full article (in Dutch) available without subscription here
Summary: This article confirms that the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, a Gulenist foundation in Belgium whose honorary chairman is Fethullah Gulen, is funding the "Fethullah Gulen Chair for Intercultural Studies" at the Catholic University of Leuven. Johan Leman has been appointed to this chair. Leman has attended Gulen conferences and events, and his words of praise for the Gulen Movement can be read on a number of Gulenist websites.
July 28, 2010 Germany
Stuttgarter Zeitung: Islam in the sign of the rainbow? by Heinz Siebold
Summary: Gulenists have already been operating study halls in Germany for some time and are now starting to open private schools, for example, the "Rainbow Elementary School” in Freiburg. The student body seems to come entirely from the Turkish immigrant population. There are concerns that these schools hinder integration of the immigrants and their children into mainstream German society. Sociologist Necla Kelek is quoted as saying of Gulen that "inwardly, he preaches a power-conscious Islamic chauvinism."
Dec 29, 2009 France
Le Monde: A Turkish brotherhood opens a state college in France by Guillaume Perrier
Summary: France is one of the last countries in Europe that the Gulen Movement is settling in. The Gulen movement's first schools Educactive just opened in September. School tuition is 4500 Euros per year.
"Teachers visit parents and inspect the rooms, in order to better monitor the student in his "extracurricular" career. 'We have never seen such working conditions elsewhere,' says Walter Pacelat, the music teacher."
November 7, 2009 Belgium
De Standaard: Integration – or Ghetto School ? Behind the curtains of the Lucerna College by Pieter Lesaffer
Summary: There are concerns about the quality of academics at the Lucerna College (a high school) in Belgium, and also about whether this school hinders integration of immigrants into mainstream society. Some teachers say the students are not learning Dutch properly. There is a controversy regarding whether creationism is being taught in the school. The Belgian State Security Service's position is that Lucerna has links to the Gulen Movement, and that the Movement's main objectives are "the Islamization of Turkish nationalism, the development of a Turkish Islam that is superior to that of Arab Islam, and the Islamization of modern society." Critics of the Movement say it puts pressure on people, including businessmen and parents, and tries to recruit talented youth. Businessmen who decline to contribute to the Movement are usually boycotted by Gulenists in their area. Lucerna is insistent on denying any connection with the Gulen Movement, and claims its name comes from "enlightment," referring to the school's mission. However, it is clear that in actuality the name derives from "Nur" ("Nurcu" is another name used for the sect that Gulenists belong to) which means light in Turkish. The article also mentions study halls where students are tutored by other Turkish students, and dormitories where Turkish students live together. Turkish students are under pressure to sell subscriptions to the local edition of Zaman newspaper. The school director maintains that all criticism is baseless and the scrutiny is unfair.
Oct 29, 2009 Switzerland
Beobachter: Gulen Movement: A network of conservatives by Peter John Meier and Gian Signorell
Summary: The Gulen Movement is starting to establish itself in Switzerland, with the Dialog Institute and the Sera Foundation. The Movement also has study halls, and in August a secondary school opened. The Director of the Dialog Institute denies that the schools are religious.
"For the Berlin Gulen expert Claudia Dantschke, there is no doubt that such schools will be used to gain new adherents. "They are run on an informal level. Students are motivated, for example, to move into a Muslim apartment-sharing community. There, they are then encouraged to live in a strictly Islamic way.” Bekim Agai of the University of Halle, who has written his thesis on the Gulen movement, emphasizes the importance of this informal domain for recruiting leaders."
Aug 26, 2009 Belgium
Mondiaal Nieuws (English translation) The growing influence of a religious reform movement in Turkey by Tine Danckaers
This article is very insightful. It explains how the Gulen Movement recruits new followers, by offering them educational opportunities, and then applying psychological pressure.
Noteworthy lines:
"In the opinion of Etyen Mahcuypan, [it] is their system of favouritism which irritates and frightens people about this movement." ...
"I have big issues with the Gulen movement', says Dogan Bermek, the spokesman of the federation of Alevitic organisations. ‘I talked to them on one of their interreligious forums. But not one single idea arose from the discussion, not even an opposite opinion. There is no point talking with them. I'm convinced that the Fethullahci are influencing the political agenda and that they have strong ties to the highest state circles, even if I can't demonstrate this with concrete examples. Are they aiming to install a sharia state? Who knows. Nobody understands what this organisation wants exactly, as they never made any clear statement. It's a subjective community, which could either become a liberal and modern Islam movement or a fundamentalist conservative one. I don't know the Gulen group well enough, but what confuses me is the fact that they preach a liberal attitude and apply the Sunni dogmas at the same time. We shouldn't be naive about this. I am definitely concerned." ...
'The Gülen movement is a money generating network, influencing the whole society', says Turkish columnist Etyen Mahcupyan.
May 28, 2009 Germany
Der Tagesspiegel Modern Muslims: With Math on the Way to Allah by Claudia Keller and Thomas Seiber
A Gulen conference is taking place at the University of Potsdam in Germany, not far from Berlin. While the program states that the Gulen Movement will be studied scientifically, it appears that the conference is dominated by the Movement's supporters and sympathizers.
"Parents of Turkish origin send their children to what is by now 150 tutoring institutes and 12 schools run by the Gülen movement. Meanwhile, the tutoring facilities can be found in nearly every major city. In the Spandau borough of Berlin , schools run by the supporting organization TUDESB belong to the network. Up to now, these religiously-inspired educational institutions have sought to hide from the public the fact that they belong to the Gulen network."
Mar 11, 2007 Russia
Middle East Institute (Moscow) Activities of the Turkish “Nurcular” religious sect by M.N. Davidov
The article describes Gulenist activities and schools in Russia. The "home visit," one of the common characteristics of all Gulen charter schools in the United States, is practiced by these schools too.
"The idea of commitment to Islamic values and Turkish culture is actively inculcated into students, with consciousness of their Muslim unity. During the course of the educational process, the Turkish teachers purposefully engage in studying the moral and personal qualities of high school students and their close relatives, the practice of visiting their place of residence, the establishment of interpersonal relations. According to available information, a regularly updated file is put together for each student, which reflects information about the social status of his parents, his abilities, academic success, moral and psychological traits, and the evolution of his views on Islam and Turkey."