Fethullah Gülen: a Dangerous Cult Leader
Edip Yuksel
2 March 2012
www.19.org
Fethullah Gülen has multiple personalities. The first personality, which is the most visible one, is a humble spiritual leader, like the good son of Ghandi and Mother Theresa. The other personality, however, is a calculated Machiavellian who secretly plans and establishes political alliances to pursue his long-term goal of grabbing power in Turkey so that to realize his longer-term dream of resurrecting a Sunni theocratic empire akin to Ottomans. He is a fan of Ottoman dictators, such as Fatih Sultan Mehmed, who killed their baby brothers to keep their throne! That aspiration alone should tell plenty about the real person behind his peaceful and humble facade.
His recent video statement regarding the Kurdish issue was one of the rare public expositions of his second personality, in which he prayed passionately for the destruction of the Kurdish rebels. This, of course would not be a sufficient reason for our inclusion him as an instigator. But in the same video he gave a number, 50 000, and asked the Turkish military ant its overt and covert allies, to destroy them all. Furthermore, in that public speech, he wished that their HOMES WOULD BE BURNED DOWN and uttered similar emotional condemnations that signalled for justification of a civilian massacre or controlled genocide.
Fethullah is more dangerous than Pat Robertson or similar power hungry evangelical charlatans, since he is master in tickling both religious and nationalistic hormones to attract and manipulate masses.
I know him personally since I was in my twenties, through my father who was a prominent religious scholar respected by him. In 1985-1986, I wrote a few articles at his first publication in Turkey, Sızıntı (the seepage, the trickle or the devious!), when I was a best-selling young author.
More than a year ago, I wrote a lengthy article questioning his intention, goals, theology, political standing and alliances. The title of the article was: “Fethullah Gülen’e 19 Soru” (19 Questions for Fethullah Gülen) which was widely circulated on Internet and Facebook. They were challenging questions, meant to expose him. I gave him a few months to respond.
As I expected, he did not, except he let his followers to respond without saying anything :). All those who defended (!) him focused on my mentioning his name as Fethullah, without fancy titles and praises that is aimed to create a holy shield around his persona, such as Efendi, Hoja, Hazretleri… 🙂 As one who appreciates the French thinker Bourdieu’s book “Language & Symbolic Power”, of course, I would not call him with the titles attributed to him by his cult. In fact, I ask my students not to call me with the title Professor, but by my first name so that we could have philosophical arguments free of hierarchical barriers.
Then, several months ago, I wrote the responses of each question that I thought he would or should have given… I am sure that after the publication of that article my name is on the list of wanted in Turkish courts and police records, which Fethullah Gülen’s cult have recently infiltrated.
I have not yet translated those 19 Questions. Perhaps, I should start doing that. Fethullah is a very dangerous men!
(See the other articles of this and other cults at the category titled Sects and Cults)