Fethullah Gulen in Australia - ABC radio

October 2007, Encounter, ABC Radio

I'm not sure if this program has been aired yet (it has a date of October 7th). But as you read/listen, keep this in mind:

Fethullah Gulen Indicted, Escapes To U.S.

In 1999, footage was aired on Turkish television of sermons delivered by Fethullah Gulen to a crowd of followers, in which he revealed his aspirations for an Islamist Turkey ruled by shari'a as well as the methods that should be used to attain that goal. In the sermons, he said:

You must move in the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centers… until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere, like in the tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria… like in the yearly disasters and tragedies in Egypt. The time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you are complete, and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it… You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey… Until that time, any step taken would be too early - like breaking an egg without waiting the full 40 days for it to hatch. It would be like killing the chick inside. The work to be done is [in] confronting the world. Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you all - in confidence… trusting your loyalty and sensitivity to secrecy. I know that when you leave here - [just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and feelings expressed here." ...

In yet another sermon, he said, "The philosophy of our service is that we open a house somewhere and, with the patience of a spider, we lay our web, to wait for people to get caught in the web; and we teach those who do. We don't lay the web to eat or consume them, but to show them the way to their resurrection, to blow life into their dead bodies and souls, to give them a life."

By the time this was aired, Gulen had already left the country for the U.S., supposedly for health reasons. A year later, in 2000, he was indicted in absentia for attempting to change Turkey's system of government and for "forming an illegal organization with the purpose of establishing an Islamist state." It was from there that he built his international Islamist community.

ABC Radio - Encounter - October, 2007

Policeman: Yeh I just feel strongly about issues with Muslim people. I believe they are sort of on the back foot in our country because of these stereotypes. There is nothing better than to connect with people over a plate of food I believe, yeh ...

Margaret Coffey: Along with their counterparts in NSW, and similar groups elsewhere, AIS is very much at the forefront of Muslim engagement in interfaith activities, quite often as the instigator. It's all inspired by a guiding genius - a United States based Turkish preacher by the name of Fethullah Gulen. If, for example, as a non-Muslim, you have visited the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque in Sydney, or been to a gathering of Jews, Christians and Muslims called an Abrahamic Conference, or shared an Iftar in a Muslim home, then you have seen some of the fruit of Gulen's inspiration.

Woman: He's the great mentor I guess, he's the leader, and it's a great movement for tolerance and understanding, for peace for the world.

Ibrahim Dellal: I'm one of his admirers. I was fortunate enough to meet him twice. He is a man of compassion, caring and sharing, he loves human beings and he loves to see all human beings unite and accept each other as equals ...

Margaret Coffey: Up to this point Fethullah Gulen's name has been invoked almost solely in Turkish circles. The organisations that act under his inspiration don't tend to declare this, at least up front. But Australians are about to become a little more familiar with Fethullah Gulen's name. The Australian Catholic University based across the eastern States has entered into an agreement with the AIS to establish the Fethullah Gulen Chair in Islamic Studies and Muslim-Catholic Relations, with funding support from Gulen admirers in Turkey. It's an extraordinary achievement for what is described as a community organisation only seven years old. The ACU has refused Encounter's request for comment on either the Chair or the appointment process - it won't be making a comment, I'm told, until the Chair's occupant is announced, and that announcement is expected within a week or two. The University's reticence is understandable: the funding of Islamic studies in Australian universities recently became a matter of controversy with the decision of Griffith University to accept up to $1 million from Saudi Arabia for its Islamic Research Unit ...

Back in the 1990s, when he was still based in Turkey, Gulen visited Australia to urge the Turkish community to educate their children - and today up to sixteen 'Turkish' schools throughout the country are the fruit of that visit ...

Margaret Coffey: ... People associated with Gulen routinely deny that he leads an organised movement with specific assets or that there is any hierarchical structure or system of accountability. Yet, a 2006 article posted on the Gulen website speaks of the Gulen movement's growth during the years since he left Turkey. Its worth, for want of a better description, is estimated at $25 billion American dollars. It runs Zaman, one of Turkey's major daily newspapers, and many other newspapers, magazines and journals in various languages, television stations, an important Turkish bank, unions, more than 600 schools, and six universities, including Virginia International University in Fairfax, Virginia ...

Zeki Saritoprak: ... But Gulen did not affiliate himself with any tariqa as well as any political party. And I think it comes from the teaching of Nursi when he said "I take refuge in God from Satan and politics." He would say it is very hard for a politician, even a Muslim politician to be a pious person.

It will be fair I think to say that Gulen's understanding of Islam is much more spiritual oriented rather than political oriented. He focuses on the personality of people, not on the systems. Individual is important for Gulen, individual because the Quran actually speaks of individuals as a universe: so important in the sight of God, every human being ...

Zeki Saritoprak: Islam is a way of life but it is not an ideology. It is your heart and your actions, not only your words. He always avoid slogans. Gulen would be against these slogans - or sloganic Islam, if we can use this term. Islam is a civilisation. It is not like a cheap issue. It is very strong, it's very powerful. It is really a very important large concept. The problem of today - Islamism is to put Islam only within the limit of a political order and that is actually not Islam. It is limiting Islam. Islam is a civilisation ...

Margaret Coffey: This Encounter began with a description of Fethullah Gulen's admirers as a neo-Sufi movement within Islam, focusing on the spiritual transformation of individuals as a way of transforming society. That is not to say it is not politically adept. It is clearly adept at inserting itself - and Gulen's ideas - in the contemporary discussion about Islam, and at creating important institutional partnerships. How it goes about this insertion points to significant questions - for the movement and its partners.

Yes, Margaret, it does raise significant questions about Fethullah Gulen inserting itself into the arteries of Australia. Nice start to the spiderweb with the police and ACU. Perhaps Dr Liza Hopkins can explain this apparent trojan horse? Let me guess, someone has misinterpreted Fethullah Gulen? I'll be here waiting for an explanation ...

See also: Democracy Frontline - Ongoing Infiltration