The Rise of a New Ottoman Empire: The Trap of Interfaith Dialogue

Kurdishaspect.com - By Aland Mizell

Will Prime Minister Erdogan Give a Christmas Party with His Parliament?

After the collapse of the communism, Fethullah Gülen, the spiritual leader of the Nur movement in Turkey, ordered his group to immigrate to the newly independent Central Asian countries. Gülen compared his followers to being today’s “sahaba,” the term referring to the journey from Mecca to Medina called the Hegira in the year 622, a journey that also marked the foundation of the Islamic State. After that relocation, Muhammad set up an Islamic State and instated his rules, for example forbidding usury and gambling. He implemented his own legal rules and system of government after gaining economic and military power and then conquered his birth place, Mecca, the center of a new religion. Until then Muhammad ordered his follower to cooperate with the Jews, never confronting them because he knew that the Jews were more powerful than his followers at that time. During that time Muslims even faced Jerusalem for prayers; however, after Muhammad’s followers conquered Mecca, they began facing Mecca. For both Muhammad and Gülen building a new Muslim community was a precursor to the Islamic state, and both men merged their religious views with the political goal of following the law of the Qur’an and not “natural” or human law in the Islamic state.

In 1991, the collapse of the Soviet Union gave Gülen an opportunity to gain a base among the Turkic states that desperately needed social, economic, and religious help. Also, Gülen wanted to counter Iran’s Shia religion in Central Asia, to make an economic investment, and to build a bridge between the Turkic states and Turkey.

Hwever, after 9/11 Gülen saw another opportunity to expand his empire beyond the ocean to convert the infidels to Islam and to set up his dream Ottoman Empire, bringing it back again. Tauted for his claim to establish ecumentical peace, he sponsors Interfaith Dialogue, non-government organizations (NGO’s), schools, cultural centers, conferences, his own newspaper, civic and cultural events, among many other strategies, using them as a platform that promotes his ultraconservative Islmaic agenda in the U.S. However, 9/11 helped Gülen in a tremendous way to teach about Islam because suddenly the words “peace” and “tolerance” were in vogue and popular. Many Americans naively do not recognize the fact that as well as being a religion, Islam is a political, social, and economic system that rules all aspects of life. Today Gülen believes that since the Ottoman Empire ruled the world for many centuries with peace, he wants to bring it back again. By creating big lobbies, Gülen moves toward his ultimate goal of dictating American and Western social, political, and economic policies. He has recruited thousands of teachers and millions of students while raising billions of dollars in economic support.

Further, Gülen and his followers know how to manipulate the American democratic laws for their advantage. He believes that the best way to defeat the enemy is to use the enemy’s weapon against the enemy. Today the enemy’s weapon is democratic rule of law. They are taking advantage of it using it against America and foresee a time when, like many Muslims in Europe, they can demand Islamic laws and regulations be operative in the U.S. For example, already some communities in the America. have pressured cities to change their noise ordinances to allow for prayer calls. Interestingly, in his own country he was jailed for seven months and then banned from Turkey in the 1980’s for secretly teaching Islam to students. Then again in 1998 the Supreme Court charged him with undermining the secular Turkish state and seeking to establish an Islamic one. Consequently, he left Turkey for the United States supposedly for health care, but remains there today, operating his worldwide organization.
9-11 became a world-wide wake-up call. While the media focuses on Ahmedinejad or Osama Bin Ladin, and the radical Al Qaeda movement, a more deadly movement operates behind closed doors to secretly infiltrate the highest government positions in many countries, including the United States of America. The goal is to establish a single Islamic regime. As an example of this outward gesture with a secret agenda, Gülen gave an Iftar, the meal celebrating the culmination of the Ramadan season, on Capital Hill under the platform of tolerance and peace. Even they invited Hollywood actors and actresses to attend. Will Gülen or his follower Prime Minister Erdogan give a Christmas party at the parliament in Ankara or could he give an Easter dinner at the parliament with parliamentarians supporting this Christian celebration. The answer is a resounding, “No.”

Today many Turks are more anti-American than ever. A thinking person should ask that if Gülen-- an Islamic educator, writer, and founder of the worldwide Nur movement that began in Turkey-- does not have a political agenda, then why did he open so many schools in the world. Why are interfaith dialogues held in the West? Shouldn’t they be held where the root of troubles, oppression, and injustice are? One of the most important characteristics of the American society is to be tolerant toward others and to respect one another. The most crucial pillar of the American Constitution is individual rights, an inalienable right. Any one who has been to America knows that there are mosques, synagogues, temples, churches, and chapels, so every devotee is free to worship as they wish. America is not like Turkey where the individual has limited forums to express freely his true thoughts and concerns because of oppressive regimes and where the Turkish government imprisons the individual in his own conscience, rather than allowing open worship. It is a fact that a Christian, Armenian, Kurds or Jew in Turkey has never been a first class citizen; instead, they certainly suffer discrimination. Still many Christians cannot even build their own church to freely worship, and a few months ago three Christians were tortured and killed by the Turkish nationalists. Yet, Gülen use the Dialogues as a ploy to show the American people that Turks are reconciling with Christians, Jews, Armenians, or Kurds. Shouldn’t interfaith dialogues be held in Turkey, not in the U.S.? Today there are many Christians converting to Islam. How many of them are being killed by Christians because of their conversion? How many of them are being threatened or required to hide their faith to save their life or the lives of their families? However, many Muslims who convert to Christianity still can’t freely or publicly confess their faith because if they do, their lives are in danger. Therefore, interfaith dialogues are urgently needed where the injustice is rampant, not in the U.S. Yet, the American system not only allows these evangelical meetings but also embraces them in its political correctness as an open-minded, tolerant, and even intellectual act. Sadly, the eager American obliviously works with Gülen to accomplish his goal of eradicating openness and tolerance when he has a critical mass in the U.S. and establishes Sharia law.

Furthermore, when Pope Benedict visited Turkey, millions of the Turks did not want him to visit their country, and some 25,000 took to the streets because the Pope quoted Manuel II Paleologus, a Byzantine emperor, in his 1391 passage about the Ottoman Empire before the fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans, a statement that he later apologized profusely for quoting. “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached” (“Dialogue Held With A Certain Persian, the Worthy Mouterizes, in Anakara of Galatia). Giving Benedict a cold shoulder, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the foreign minister, Abdullah Gul—both Gulen’s students-- left to attend a NATO conference during the papal visit, but at the last minute greeted the Pope at the airport before leaving Turkey.
As another indication of it not being the West that needs tolerance and dialogues, last year when 41-year-old Abdul Rahman, a post-Taliban Afghan, converted to Christianity, he barely escaped the death penalty that traditionally Islamic law decrees for apostasy. In considering this penalty, any thinking inquirer must ask, “Is this kind of behavior or attitude an integral component of America or the West or only a historical behavior that goes back to Islam’s pre-modern era?” While it is true that much killing has been done in the name of Christianity, primarily during the Crusades, in modern America that same inquirer would find it difficult to find even one case today. Yet, Interfaith Dialogue has become an increasingly more practiced initiative within the American and Western society, especially after 9/11. Ironically, many Muslims have taken advantage of the tragedy and are being very active. Many will agree that interfaith dialogues have an important role in building peace within a society and in creating a window for everyone to exercise their right to express their faith without any threat. The interesting phenomenon, however, is that interfaith dialogues are happening in the U.S. and in the West but never in the Muslim nations. Again the intelligent inquirer must ask who needs toleration and then the real question of what is the underlying purpose of these initiatives in the U.S.

As mentioned, Gülen’s ultimate aim is to set up a theocratic new Ottoman Empire, as those researching his organization now demonstrate. He runs part of his activities in the open as legal companies, institutions and foundations but others clandestinely under cover. Gülen set up an organization or NGO as a tax free organization funded by the American tax payers to promote his ideology in America. He uses methods such as consultative committees composed of his followers, continent Imams (North America), country Imams (the U.S), state Imams (for example, Pennsylvania, the headquarters), and finally city imams (Washington, D.C.). Covering the country like a web with these companies, schools, cultural centers, interfaith institutions, public and private organizations, and universities, his organization is structured hierarchically like the armed forces. For his fundamental clandestine activity, Fethullah’s group picks the bright students from poor families, takes them into its isik eviler, meaning house of light, with 5-6 inmates and educates them as well as trains them as Nurcu militants. Each house and classroom comes under the regional imam, who supervises the work of the house imam, usually the oldest and most senior in maturity. Today Gülen sends thousands of Turkish students abroad, mostly to the U.S. and West for post graduate studies. Most of them have scholarships, and once they come to the U.S., he urges them to marry American citizens, so they can stay in the country. However, when you ask Gülen missionaries about this work, none of them will tell you the truth, or they will admit that they are spreading Islam, but Gülen has instructed them not to tell the truth as part of their training on secrecy. He teaches his followers to know the truth but not to tell the truth, having them memorize Said Nursi’s principle: “It is your obligation to know the truth, but it is not good for you to tell the truth every time, everywhere, or everything that you do.” As part of his secrecy and caution, Gülen teaches his students to lie because Islam legitimizes lying for certain reasons. If you are at war, Islam permits you to lie to defeat the enemy, so he believes that since they are at war with non-Muslims, until they defeat the enemies, they should not reveal their secrets and can even lie. If this clandestine global ideology for ruling the world became known, it would be alarming to all citizens, because infiltration becomes more dangerous than invasion since it goes undetected until it is too late.

Gülen’s movement began in a small Turkish town in the 1950’s with about a dozen students but has expanded into a present-day estimate of over 10 millions followers and in more than fifty-five countries, including the rapidly growing initiative in the United States. Gülen presents himself as a representative of peace through education, and yet under his modernist robe he is a devout Turkic Islamist. His charisma entices young intellectuals into his inner circle where they are indoctrinated with his philosophy in numerous countries with the purpose of advancing the goal of establishing a worldwide Islamic state and eradicating secular governance.

An abbreviated rubric indicates a few ways that Muslim missionaries are using NGOs as a platform as well as the American taxpayer’s money to convert people to Islam and secretly to gain the power bring the theocracy system of government.

Rubric for Interfaith Dialogue Trap in the U.S.
1999
Rumi Foundations Established to target academia
Working with many distinguished universities and professors all over North America like Seyyed H. Nasr of George Washington, Sydney Griffith of CAU, Esposito of Georgetown, Maria Dakake of GMU.” Gülen is the honorary president.
http://www.rumiforum.org/activities/activities.php
April 19-20, 2005
John Hopkins University: The School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Turkey's Journalists and Writers Foundation
"Islam, Secularism and Democracy: The Turkish Experience”. Guild establish by Gülen; Ongoing discussion
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/mediastream/videoOndemand/turkish_041904.html
November. 12-13, 2005
The Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious
Tolerance at Rice University and A. D. Bruce Religion Center University of Houston
Conference on “Islam in the Contemporary World: The Fethullah Gülen Movement in
Thought and Practice.”
http://www.fethullahgulenconference.org/
Niagara Foundation's International Symposium "The Chicago Interfaith Gathering
towards Interreligious Dialogue in the New Millennium: Finding Common
Ground.” This Foundation is a branch of Interfaith Dialogues and as such holds
regularly scheduled activities related to Gulen’s mission.
http://www.niagarafoundation.org/
October 3, 2005
Washington Post article “As the Holy Month Begins, Followers of a Turkish Leader Interpret Islam and Holiday for Themselves” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpyn/content/article/2005/10/03/
AR2005100301661.html
The Whirling Dervishes tour the US .
An event for his students to read from the Qur’an and to hand out copies of his books.
http://www.whirlingdervishes.org/
2000
Rain Drop Foundation A non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to presenting, perpetuating, transmitting and promoting Turkish and Turkish American arts and culture to diverse audiences and to providing a center to enhance community programs. They are financed by Gulen’s movement.
http://www.rdftx.org/
2001
“Light Millennium formally incorporated in 2001 in New York as a tax-deductible, not-for-profit organization. conferences Since January 2000, L.M. has been gathering the Turkish American culture together, as well as aiming to convince a global community via encouraging everyone to publish their ideas through website from ways of life including: reducing television programs, special screenings and organizing exhibitions, poetry events in general cultural events, and also conferences.
The organization is led by Bircan Ünver, who is against any kind of discrimination in religion, ideology, culture, and nationality; and puts all effort for embracing all ideas globally.” This is a publication company.
http://www.lightmillennium.org/2004_wpcomes/profile_event_april23_04.html
Zaman newspaper Gulen’s newspaper first published in Turkey, but now published in the US as well as in numerous other countries.
http://www.zaman.com/
The Fountain Magazine Gulen’s magazine
http://www.fountainmagazine.com/index.php
Herkul Organization his web page in audio; he is reaching through his voice to his followers.http://www.herkul.org/
Ant Stores, Inc. online, mail order bookstore Ant Stores operates as a division of The Light Inc located in New Jersey. The business sells “a variety of different languages of books, mainly focused on providing a platform for objective expressions of those belief systems, values, perspectives, practices and traditions that have shaped the lives of billions of people in the world for centuries.”
http://www.antstores.com/

Light Publishers, based Somerset, New Jersey The Light Publishers is designed to combat the picture of Islam as the religion of 9/11.
The Pearls of Wisdom site Proposes to answer the basic questions of humanity. “This site has been prepared mainly based on the works of Bediuzzaman, Said Nursi and Mr. Fethullah Gülen.
http://www.pearls.org/
Elite Media A 24-hour online magazine service. It provides a list of all of Gulen’s magazines.
http://www.mybestmagazines.com
Fethullah Gülen Website combines comprehensive information about his life, his writings, and his activities.
http://en.fgulen.com/
This Way to Truth website Offers the viewer the opportunity to “Discover Islam,” discussing theological issues and topics.
http://www.thewaytotruth.org/
Intercultural Dialogue Platform “an initiative from Turkey to build a peaceful world through interfaith cooperation.”
http://www.cul-dialogue.org
Journalist and Writers Foundation Related to FG but under a different name, so the purpose is the same in advancing his activities.
http://www.gyv.org.tr
Abant Platform Organized by FG for writers and journalists. The recently went to The Hague to petition the EU to accept Turkey as a member. They use their voices to affect policy.
http://www.abantplatform.com/
Dialog with Central Asia
http://da.com.tr/
The Intercultural Dialog Platform “steps in the media” To show that love and tolerance bring peace. This forum offers quotations from FG about how the meetings will bring harmony.
http://www.dialogplatform.com
April 29-30. 2005
The International Conference of Islam. University of West Madison “Islam and Dialogue.” Gulen’s speech to the US based conference is included on the site.
http://www.islamconf.org/2005/conference/papers/Other/MFGulens-message-english.pdf

Blackwell Synergy Synergy publishes journals and articles devoted to the study of Islam.
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com
2005
“Bridges for Peace –Turkish Schools Opening to the World". Explains the role of Gulen’s schools around the world. Turkish Schools Pioneering Turkey
http://en.fgulen.com/a.page/press/news/2005/a2122.html
Turkish immigrants to the U.S. 30,000 including many master and doctoral level students and PhDs. (probably impossible to have a count on the actual number of Gulen’s followers).
Ulker, Turka Cola Turkish businesses in America, among others Houses or dormitories Gulen’s operations to teach his theology
March 21, 2004
“A Small School Run by Turks Takes the Stage” New York Times article
2006, 2007
Iftar dinners with Congressmen to celebrate Ramadan Co-Sponsored by Senators and Representatives and The Rumi Foundation
Since 1991
Charter Schools Unknown number of Turkish schools out of the 2,700 in the U.S. since 1991 with 700,000 in 36 states and the District of Columbia
Only a few examples: Arkansas’s Maumelle's Academics Plus fired the non-Muslim staff and teachers for some grades; Fulton Science Academy in Alpharetta, Georgia; Friendship Edison Public Charter School, Champaign Campus, Washington D.C, pairs with Turkish schools in Istanbul and the principle received an expense paid trip to Istanbul; Turkey-Run Elementary School in Marshall, Indiana; Charter schools are supported in part by taxes but have no accountability except to their own board
Hollywood Icons Chevy-Chase used to market Turco-Cola, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt attended to Iftar at Capitol Hill in DC, following the pattern in Turkey to use celebrities to promote their agenda
You Tube via
Video Arsivi
http://klip.wordpress.com/category/fetullah-gulen/
Mary Project
Dinners in homes to attract candidates for Islam with the lure that Mary is mentioned in the Qur’an numerous times and thus Gulen’s followers have a commonality with Catholics.