Gülen movement

{{Sources needed}}

{{cquote|Give us your blessings, we've been fooled!|||[[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]], right after the failed coup attempt in 2016<ref>[http://m.bianet.org/bianet/bianet/177419-kandirildik Kandırıldık - Bianet.com]'s news (Turkish)</ref>}}

[[File:Fethullah Gülen 2016.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Fethullah Gülen in 2016]]
{{Cults}}{{Islam}}
'''The Gülen movement''', also referred to in Turkish as '''''Hizmet''''' (the Ministry) by its adherents or as '''''Cemaat''''' (the Community) by its opponents, is a conservative [[Islamic]] 
movement
 [[cult]] led by '''Fethullah Gülen''' {{lived|
[[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk|1938]]
<ref>[https://www.munferit.net/2024/10/after-fethullah-gulen.html After Fethullah Gülen - Munferit.net]'s news: "According to some of his followers, Fethullah Gülen was born on November 11, 1938 (the day after Kemal Atatürk died,) though his ID card lists April 27, 1941, as his birth date."</ref><ref>[https://herkul.org/hakkinda/fethullah-gulen/ Fethullah Gülen - Herkul.org]</ref> 1941|2024}}, a [[Turkish]] cleric who created a [[personality cult]] around himself.

The cult used to be a close political ally of [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]] and AKP, his party until a power conflict between them in 2013. Erdoğan and AKP started to call them as '''''the Parallel State''''' (as a reference to the "[[deep state]]").

They're usually accused of being behind the coup attempt of July 15, 2016 in [[Turkey]]. After the failed coup attempt, their name changed again, this time to '''FETÖ'''.{{efn|FETÖ is an abbreviation of Fethullahçı Terör Örgütü, or Fethullahist Terrorist Organization in English.}} This name is used by both the Turkish government and its opponents.

The cult has opened branches over much of the world, including schools (read: [[Missionary|missions]]) in Central Asia, [[Africa]], [[Europe]], and the [[United States]]. The cult is widely known for heavily meddling with the military, government, media, education, the police and the legal system of Turkey and for their heavy discrimination against non-Gülenists. They are strongly opposed to [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk|Kemalism]] and [[secularism]].

==Terrible planning and terrible execution==
The government of Turkey, which survived through four [[coup]]s and numerous coup attempts, saw yet another coup attempt at the early midnight of July 15, 2016.

The coup was very poorly planned and executed and only a small faction of the army joined it. The coup plotters could only seize the Bosphorus bridge, TRT (Turkish national TV channel) and some neutral and Kemalist TV channels (which is even more curious considering the fact that they made the speaker at TRT read some Kemalist sounding [[propaganda]]). They couldn't cut the electricity or TV lines.

All the political parties, both the ruling party and the opposition, opposed the coup attempt. [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan|Erdoğan]] accused Gülen and his cult of orchestrating it. He told the people to get out on the streets. This unorthodox strategy (they have tanks and machine guns, [[goat]]damnit!) unexpectedly worked.

The parliament was bombed by planes. The coup was easily defeated the same day and the soldiers surrendered immediately after they found out it was a coup attempt. Really wonderful planning!

Such awful planning and execution, the fact that Erdoğan wasn't even at Ankara during the coup attempt, his former alliance to the cult itself and the fact that Turkish intelligence knew of the coup attempt even though not telling it (guess what happened to its head) led to lots of [[conspiracy theories]] that the coup was a show, even while there's no evidence about that.

After the failed [[coup]] attempt, Erdoğan, who used to be in very close terms with the cult until a power conflict began, started targeting people who are are even loosely tied to or are sympathetic to the cult ([[hypocrisy|except the politicians in his own party]]) in a massive nationwide purge. Yet even this purge was a mess, because everybody was accusing everybody they didn't like.

Erdoğan has behaved as if this failed coup attempt was as important as the defeat of [[Hitler]], and blows it out of proportion just to show himself as the "good cop".

==Eeey, Pennsylvania!==
In March 2017, the Turkish government requested that the [[United States]] deport Gülen back to Turkey to face charges.<ref>http://thenationonlineng.net/turkeys-coup-death-extradition-request/</ref> However, because Gülen was a permanent resident of the US, extradition was required, and this did not appear to be forthcoming due to insufficient evidence. Also in March 2017, James Woolsey, a former-[[CIA]] director and [[Donald Trump|Trump]] campaign advisor, stated that Trump National Security Adviser [[Michael Flynn]] had met with the Turkish government in September 2016 and plotted how to extrajudicially deport Gülen to Turkey, tantamount to plotting a kidnapping.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/25/politics/james-woolsey-mike-flynn-cnntv/index.html Woolsey: Flynn discussed sending Erdogan foe back to Turkey] by Leigh Munsil (Updated 9:01 AM ET, Sat March 25, 2017) ''CNN''.</ref>

And so, Gülen stayed at his home in [[Pennsylvania]]. This is why Erdoğan sometimes also calls the Gülen movement '''Pennsylvania'''.

A large number of charter schools in the United States that are run by Turkish and Turkish-American staff have been linked to Gülen.<ref>[http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com/the-map-of-gulen.html And like a festering boil — they continue to spread] ''Charter School Watchdog''.</ref> These schools have become controversial, especially in the aftermath of the coup attempt, with the Turkish government getting involved.<ref>[http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2016/09/gulen_charter_schools.html U.S. charter schools with Turkish ties affected by crackdown] by Bradley Saacks (Updated September 2, 2016 at 10:47 AM; Posted September 2, 2016 at 10:46 AM) ''NOLA''.</ref> Some of the schools have been involved in fraudulent activity.<ref>[https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/baytech-charter-school-under-investigation-for-financial-mismanagement/Content?oid=18890699 BayTech Charter School Under Investigation: The principal suddenly resigned after the school's board accused him of fraud, but the controversy raises questions about the school's links to the Gülen movement.] by Darwin BondGraham (August 08, 2018) ''East Bay Express''.</ref><ref>[https://guleninvestigation.com/tag/charter-school-fraud/ Charter School Fraud] ''Gülen Investigation''.</ref>

==Attempts at taking over the world==
This cult is ''[[Bullshit|pro-science, wanting to reconcile their religion with it]]'', in Gülen's English writings at least, despite himself being a [[Creationism|creationist]]. Nevertheless, in the 1990s Gülen did go off on an [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitic]] rant blaming the [[Evil Jew|Jews]] for [[communism]] in Turkish, even though he was supposed to be against anti-Semitism and conciliatory toward [[Israel]] in English.<ref>http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/turkeys-thirty-year-coup</ref>

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Islam]]
[[Category:Muslims]]
[[Category:Turkey]]
[[Category:Turkish politics]]

{{expand|Islam}}

Categories: Islam, Muslims, Turkey, Turkish politics