Last Updated on Friday, 23 June 2006 13:39 by Cüneyt Ülsever Tuesday, 07 December 2004 05:00
Last weekend I participated in a conference held in Brussels. The conference concentrated on the issue of Turkey's possible membership of the European Union and was entitled, "In the Process of Turkey's EU Membership: Culture, Identity and Religion."
The organizers of the conference involved two universities each from Turkey and Belgium, as well the Turkish Writers and Journalists Association and the European Parliament.
The conference was, in fact, held in the very center of the European Parliament.
This is one of those rare events when the configuration is more important than the content.
The Turkish Writers and Journalists Association" is an association whose "honorable chairman" is Fethullah Gülen. And at this point we must stop and remember who Fethullah Gülen is.
He is the leader of the so-called "Fethullah Gülen Movement", an Islamic congregation whose number of followers is the greatest among various Islamic sects in the country.
As republican law forbids the very existence of Islamic sects and congregations, they practice, in reality, under disguised names and organizations.
One of the issues concerning the Gülen Movement is: They follow the teachings of the Grand Leader Bediüzzaman Said-i Nursi, and they have opened 200 secular schools in various countries of the world in order to catch up with the scientific advancements of the Christian world.
Gülen was identified by ex-Generals as one of the most "potentially dangerous people" in Turkey during the semi-coup of Feb.28, and had to flee from Turkey whereupon he ended up in the United States.
Recently he was very sick and could not return to Turkey, not only because of criminal charges, but also because he is well aware that his "return" will create a lot of political tension in the country as those who do not like him are as agitated as his followers.
Gülen has taken a very democratic approach to Islam in the last 10 years or so, and has openly condemned Islamic terrorism. People like me consider him as an "opening gate" for Islam to enter modernity and the contemporary world.
He represents what the "Greater Middle East Project" of the United States supposedly seeks for mild Islam.
People who do not know the history of Gülen's "intellectual journey to seeking the possible marriage of Islam and modernity" believe he was especially picked as a puppet by the United States in order to enforce its own policies in the Middle East under the democratization process."
Bluntly put, he is considered to be a "CIA agent" by some secularists within Turkey, including some prominent intellectuals, columnists and academics.
At the moment Fethullah Gülen cannot enter Turkey because of various reasons. But this past weekend he entered the EU Parliament that consists of 25 countries no less!
He also sent a message to the conference in which he praised the same Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) that had caused all his problems.
He also said the TSK, considered to be opponents of the democratization of Turkey by many members within the EU, is, in actual fact, a supporter of the EU and are following the target Atatürk gave to the Turkish people, namely, "We must do our best to reach the level of contemporary (Western) civilization!"
A man who is considered to be a "sheria-seeking Islamist" by the authorities of its own Islam-dominated country is welcomed by a West that has felt severely threatened by Islamists of late.
I feel that the world is changing these days quicker than the analytical capacity of mankind!
TURKISH DAILY NEWS
No comments:
Post a Comment