Aydin Inal

Sadly Hizmet Movement and Gulen has always been drawn into contemporary current and political discourses in Turkey. In the past it has been accusations of turning Turkey into an Islamic (Sharia) state and now ruling party and President are accusing them of infiltrating the state for sectarian interests.   We are yet to see whether or not the latest claims will stand the test of time and historical and logical scrutiny. But one thing is clear that such times deprive one of the most significant and unique movements in Islamic world of the attention it deserves.  Scholar of the field would agree that Hizmet bears unique characteristics compared to other modern Islamic movements. It is definitely different to contentious or advocacy movements of the West. Firstly its founder, on the one hand, engages in profound expositions of some of the deepest spiritual traits of Islamic thought and on the other hand he engages in and offers striking discourses on contemporary issues. ...

This story has nothing to do with July 15 coup attempt in Turkey. Don’t get ideas!   Under normal circumstances the state would speedily investigate, identify individuals responsible and establish the link that brings them together and declare the guilty. However this time it went somewhat differently thank to the extreme skills of the leaders. The coup attempt was leaked by a Major of the army (who have just been dismissed form the army as his reward) to the intelligence. Then the Intelligence informs the Chief of Staff of the Army say around 16:00-17:00. Since the attempt has been leaked, the plotters decide to move around 9pm instead waiting until around 3 am the next morning. It is Friday night by the way and it is in Istanbul. For those familiar with Istanbul traffic, you don’t want to be out at that time.  The coup plotters decide that  they should block the bridge (only one direction by the way) connecting two continents as a first step of the coup by...