Fethullah Gülen’s Gandhi-Inspired Muslim Peace Movement

The Turkish Muslim scholar and preacher Fethullah Gülen was one of Time Magazine\u27s Top 100 People in the World in 2013, mostly for inspiring the global Hizmet (service) movement, through which Turks built schools (especially science academies) in 130 different countries, organized interreligious events, and sponsored a wide range of social enterprises such as newspapers, relief agencies, and think tanks. By 2016, however, Gülen was labeled a terrorist by the Turkish government. People close to him have since lost their jobs (and assets), been imprisoned, and/or had to flee the country in a purge that continues. In this lecture, historian Jon Pahl, who published the first critical biography of Gülen in English in 2019, will uncover the authentic Fethullah Gülen, in contrast to the big lie about him from the government. Dr. Pahl will document how Gülen \u27s interreligious initiatives foster what he calls deep peace, in a trajectory that links Gülen back to Gandhi, and down to the Liberian Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee, and beyond