Fethullah Gülen

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (27 April 1941 – 20 October 2024) was a Turkish Muslim scholar, preacher, and leader of the Gülen movement, who as of 2016 had millions of followers. Gülen was an influential neo-Ottomanist, Anatolian panethnicist, Islamic poet, writer, social critic, and activist–dissident developing a Nursian theological perspective that embraces democratic modernity. Gülen was a local state imam from 1959 to 1981 and he was a citizen of Turkey until his denaturalization by the Turkish government in 2017. Over the years, Gülen became a centrist political figure in Turkey prior to his being there as a fugitive. From 21 March 1999 until his death on 20 October 2024, Gülen lived in self-exile in the United States near Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. Gülen's body was buried in a plot of land near the Chestnut Retreat Center in Pennsylvania due to the political situation in Turkey.

Gülen said his social criticisms are focused upon individuals' faith and morality and a lesser extent toward political ends, and self described as rejecting an Islamist political philosophy, advocating instead for full participation within professions, society, and political life by religious and secular individuals who profess high moral or ethical principles and who wholly support secular rule, within Muslim-majority countries and elsewhere. Gülen was described in the English-language media as an imam "who promoted a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, hard work, and education" and as "one of the world's most important Muslim figures". He encouraged his followers to establish secular schools, charities, interest-free banks, and organizations across all areas of society. In 2016, when Erdoğan government began openly targeting the movement, they seized assets worth over $12 billion, including 1,043 private schools, 1,229 charities and foundations, 19 trade unions, 15 universities, and 35 medical institutions linked to the movement.

In 2003, a number of Gülen movement participants allied with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's right wing Justice and Development Party (AKP), providing the AKP political and sorely-needed administrative support. According to some research, the cooperation between AKP and the Gulen movement was a shallow, tactical alliance that got stronger in 2007 due to perceived threats of a coup, which both groups believed would harm their interests. This political alliance worked together to weaken left-of-center Kemalist factions, but fractured in 2011. Turkish prosecutors accused Gülen of attempts to overthrow the government by allegedly directing politically motivated corruption investigations by Gülen-linked investigators then in the judiciary, who wiretapped the executive office of the Turkish president , and Gülen's alleged instigations of the 2016 coup attempt. The leaked conversation between Erdogan and his son, which triggered a corruption scandal, and the eventual resignation of 4 ministers was viewed by 3 million people in 24 hours. Following the failed coup attempt, Gülen denied the accusations, and called for an international commission to investigate it, saying he’d accept its findings if found guilty.

A Turkish criminal court issued an arrest warrant for Gülen in 2016, and Turkey demanded his extradition from the United States. U.S. government officials did not believe he was associated with any terrorist activity, and requested evidence to be provided by the Turkish government to substantiate the allegations in the warrant requesting extradition, frequently rejecting Turkish calls for his extradition.

Gülen was designated as a terrorist leader in Turkey and Pakistan, and some politically aligned organisations like the OIC and GCC. However, neither Gulen nor the Gulen movement is recognized as a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand due to lack of credible evidence. Provided by Wikipedia