The Turkish Cultural Center of Westchester is making an effort to collect blankets and coats for refugees who have fled Syria for Turkey due to the violence in Syria. The effort is to help Syrian refugee families in need during the harsh winter weather that will soon be upon them.
A free global and interconnected citizenship might be the pathway to foster a non-violent and peaceful culture within societies. This is the main objective of a grassroots movement that advocates enhancing education, promoting universal values, interfaith dialogue and democracy.
Former Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay has condemned a recent decision made by the new trustees of Kaynak Holding to have all copies of books written by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen removed from the shelves of NT bookstores across the country, saying that the “indecent” act of censorship offends the public.
Gülen’s position on violent extremism is based on a comprehensive, thorough and robust understanding and reading of the spirit and teachings of Islam’s primary sources, the Qur’an and Sunna – the same foundations on which its core teachings are based.
Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has offered his condolences in the death of lawyer Tahir Elçi, who was the president of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, and the two police officers who were killed in a shootout in the southeastern province of Sur, which erupted as Elçi was making a statement to the press on Saturday.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, said on Tuesday during a visit to Johannesburg that volunteers working for the faith-based Gülen movement — inspired by the teachings of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen — should continue to build schools and other institutions in Africa.
Sir Graham Watson, the outgoing president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party, has said, while citing the consequences of a country’s deviation from liberal values, that the politically motivated moves targeting the followers of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen are the result of an illiberal state.
Amid ongoing efforts by the Turkish government to close down schools opened by Turkish entrepreneurs linked to the faith-based Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement, intellectuals and academics across Europe at a symposium in Germany agreed that thanks to its worldwide educational activities, the movement can serve as a bridge in promoting interreligious and interethnic dialogue between Islamic countries and secular ones.
The lawyer representing a number of schools that were raided in a government-initiated operation in Bilecik province on Saturday and Sunday based on their supposed affiliation with an alleged terrorist organization has said terrorist organizations do not open schools but instead raid them.