| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Jihad Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
Compare and contrast.
From "Turkey's Turning Point" by Michael Rubin in National Review, April 14 (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):
While Gülen supporters jealously guard his image in the West, he remains a controversial figure in Turkey. According to Cumhuriyet, a left-of-center establishment daily — Turkey's New York Times — in 1973, the Izmir State Security Court convicted Gülen of "attempting to destroy the state system and to establish a state system based on religion;" he received a pardon, though, and so never served time in prison. In 1986, the Turkish military — the constitutional guardians of the state's secularism — purged a Gülen cell from the military academy; the Turkish military has subsequently acted against a number of other alleged Gülen cells who they say infiltrated military ranks.In 1998, according to Turkish court transcripts cited in the Turkish Daily News, Gülen urged followers in the judiciary and state bureaucracy to "work patiently to take control of the state." The following year, the independent Turkish television station ATV broadcast a secretly taped Gülen telling supporters, "If they . . . come out early, the world will squash their heads. They will make Muslims relive events in Algeria," a reference to the Islamic Salvation Front's overwhelming 1991 election victory in the North African state. After party leaders spoke of voiding the constitution and implementing Islamic law, the Algerian military staged a coup leading to a civil conflict that killed tens of thousands.
Because of his statements and veiled threats, the judiciary in 1998 charged Gülen with trying to "undermine the secular system" while "camouflag[ing] his methods with a democratic and moderate image." Convicted in absentia, but free to run his organized from his U.S. exile, Gülen continues a rather inconsistent approach to tolerance and secularism. He often equates the separation of religion and state with atheism, an assertion many of Turkey's most secular officials find offensive: Believing that religion is best kept to the individual rather than state sphere does not equate with any lack of belief in God. In 2004, Gülen equated atheism with terrorism and said both atheists and murderers would spend eternity in Hell.
"Islamic scholar voted world's No 1 thinker," by Robert Tait in The Guardian, June 23 (thanks to High):
A hitherto largely unknown Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gülen, has been voted the world's top intellectual in a poll to find the leading 100 thinkers.Gülen, the author of more than 60 books, won a landslide triumph after the survey - which is organised by the British magazine, Prospect, and Foreign Policy, a US publication - attracted more than 500,000 votes.
The top 10 individuals were all Muslim and included two Nobel laureates, the novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is also Turkish, at No 4, and the Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, in 10th....
A Gülen supporter, Bulent Kenes, who is editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman newspaper, denied the poll had been hijacked. "There are many people who promote Gülen's ideas, which contribute to world peace by urging international dialogue and tolerance."
Gülen, 67, is known for a modernist brand of Islam. He was cleared of trying to topple the state in 2006 after being charged over footage in which he apparently urged civil service supporters to await his orders to overthrow the system. He said the film had been doctored.
Gülen, who has lived in the US since 1998, is credited with establishing a global network of schools which preach Islam in a spirit of tolerance. He has been praised in the west for promoting dialogue and condemned Osama bin Laden as a monster after September 11.
Posted by Robert at June 23, 2008 6:48 AM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
Ten Muslim scholars? Were they found just on this world or on a billion other worlds in the galaxy?
The world's top intellect identifies Osama bin Laden as a monster. Interesting achievement. Of course, I must point out that I was in a school on 9/11 and the entire kindergarten class told me that "Bad people flew planes into a building. Very bad people!"
With this much intellect, no wonder every Muslim country is a paradise on Earth.
Still my primitive Western mind is prompting me to ask: why does the learned professor live in an intellectual backwater like the USA?
![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 23, 2008 8:29 AM
The top 10 individuals were all Muslim and included two Nobel laureates, the novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is also Turkish, at No 4, and the Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, in 10th....
A Gülen supporter, Bulent Kenes, who is editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman newspaper, denied the poll had been hijacked.
Yeah, and the planes on 9/11 weren't hijacked either.
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi at June 23, 2008 8:36 AM
A hitherto largely unknown Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gülen, has been voted the world's top intellectual in a poll to find the leading 100 thinkers.
and
The top 10 individuals were all Muslim...
I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but now I know the world is well and truly f****d!
One can only assume that Prospect and Foreign Policy magazines are left-wing rags written for, and read by, the useful idiots and self-haters of the Western World.
The top ten thinkers of the world are all Muslim!? Wo do they think they're kidding?
Posted by: Tziona at June 23, 2008 8:37 AM
Fethullah Gulen = Stealth Jihad personified.
Osama bin Laden and others like him = Military Jihad.
Two faces of the same thing. Two arms of the same body.
Here, from the domestic front, as reported in Phyllis Chesler's review of two books - "Escape from an Arab Marriage. Horror Stories of Women Who Fled From Abusive Muslim Husbands" (2006) and "Thirty Three Secrets Arab Men Never Tell American Women" (2008) - of cautionary real-life tales, warning American women against marrying Muslim men,
http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/
is precisely the same paradigm:
"The stories {of these disastrous marriages} are gripping, terrifying, highly dramatic – and depressingly similar.
"At first, the men are utterly charming, generous, solicitous of their American girlfriend’s every need.
"After they are married to American citizens and can claim their own citizenship, they revert to form: Almost overnight, they become cruel, condescending, physically abusive, suspicious, insanely controlling, unfaithful, deceptive, and highly secretive."
I've linked this in a couple of threads, it is so arresting, in its account of the bizarre 'personality switch' that takes place the moment these men gain power.
A 'personality switch' that might be compared to what happens when Muslim populations, in a kafir environment, cease to be a very small minority, and become a bigger group with significant political clout.
I recall Mr Spencer saying in an interview once, that one of the things that fascinated him when he first encountered the Quran, was the juxtaposition of lyrical beauty and ferocious violence. (I hope I'm remembering correctly - right now I can't find the reference).
Same thing.
And let's remember that some of the most horrifying writing about the subjugation of the dhimmi - the intent of that subjugation being to extirpate the dhimmi's sense of self, of boundaries, so completely that they would become like a thing, no resistance left (a condition analogous to that which one sees in a child or woman who has been continuously and severely abused) - was written by the 'mystical', romantic, poetic Sufis.
The arrogance and open aggression of a bin Laden, an Ahmadinejad, a Hassan Nasrallah or Ismail Haniyeh, is one thing. But everything I read about Fethullah Gulen gives me the creeps.
at June 23, 2008 8:47 AM
Masses of idiots vote to declare the person who represents their views as officially the cleverest, and thereby think to justify their own idiocy.
It is interesting that Muslims, while they reject democracy as an un-Islamic form of government, flock to such "democratic" polls in order to advance the claim that somehow they possess the highest form of culture and civilisation.
Posted by: StrulZigelboim at June 23, 2008 8:50 AM
What is "world's best thinker" supposed to mean anyway? Is this something that merely has to be put to an audience vote, as in a cheesy talent contest?
Posted by: StrulZigelboim at June 23, 2008 8:53 AM
Fethullah Gülen? Jihad Dynamite!
Very dangerous. Calling this Ayatollah-headbanger a 'thinker' is an insult to anyone with a brain. It just shows how dumb these talking heads from the media are. But often you don't have to look further than Fareed Zakaria from Newsweep and the likes of him to see how the news are cooked. I covered this guy on several occasions, like here:
http://sheikyermami.com/2008/04/17/a-gulish-turkey/
at June 23, 2008 10:11 AM
The bolded portion is exactly what I've been thinking is Bush's legacy in one sentence:
Over the past seven years, the Bush administration has made many mistakes. Bush was correct to recognize the importance of democratization; bungled implementation has turned a noble ideal into a dirty word. By equating democracy only with elections, the State Department and National Security Council fumbled U.S. interests in Iraq, Gaza, and Lebanon. One man, one vote, once; parties that enforce discipline at the point of a gun; and politicians who seek to subvert the rule of law to an imam’s conception of God do little for U.S. national security. Never again should the United States abandon its ideological compatriots for the ephemeral promises of parties that use religion to subvert democracy and seek mob rather than constitutional rule.
Bush made democracy, freedom, and liberty dirty words. I'm not sure we can recover from that any time soon.
Posted by: Beagle at June 23, 2008 12:05 PM
The top 10 individuals were all Muslim
What a coincidence.
Proof anything can be bought (except perhaps the appearance of legitimacy during periods of excessive "purchases").
Posted by: Concerned Citizen at June 23, 2008 1:20 PM
It is a truly bizarre list: a more-or-less random selection of celebrity pundits, once you strip out the long catalogue of Islamists.
I would say, though, that it's a little unfair to merely characterise Orhan Pamuk as "a Muslim". He's a great writer, and secular to boot. Shirin Ebadi is a heroic campaigner for Iranian women's rights and deserves all our respect.
At no 2: Muhammad Yunus. At no 3 - it gets worse - Yusuf al Qaradawi. Ken will be pleased.
No 8: (Prepare to groan) Tariq Ramadan.
No 11: (I told you it was bad) the first American on the list: Noam Chomsky. Followed directly by... Al Gore!!!
Bernard Lewis is at no 13, and (things are looking up at last) in at 15... Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Garry Kasparov is no 18, one ahead of Richard Dawkins, who pips Mario Vargas Llosa. Also on the list: Christopher Hitchens, Salman Rusdie, the Pope, and Samantha Power; and some real oddities, like Anne Applebaum, who's just a run of the mill journo. Perhaps all her friends voted as a birthday present or something.
See it all:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/23/2
But don't take it seriously. At least the Islamists will never hijack a World's Sexiest Women poll.
at June 23, 2008 2:25 PM
Again, we, through the seditious left and the corporatist right, create what we hate. The top article say this manipulator is living in the US!!
"Convicted in absentia, but free to run his organized from his U.S. exile, Gülen continues a rather inconsistent approach to tolerance and secularism."
Aside from Resident Bush, who has clearly failed to grasp radical Islam, who directly gave him entry? How long has he been here? Is not the secular government of Turkey still an alia, yet we give asylum to it's convicts?
Ignorance of Islam veiled as tolerance is no excuse for committing cultural genocide upon one's own nation, by inviting this plague in unchecked. It's treason plain and simple.
http://www.bravenewsworld.blogspot.com
at June 23, 2008 5:27 PM
"A hitherto largely unknown Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gülen, has been voted the world's top intellectual in a poll to find the leading 100 thinkers."
I wonder how many mosques they had to poll before reaching the half-million vote mark.
I could find ten thinkers more thoughtful than either Chomsky or Gore just among the posters here at JW/DW.
at June 23, 2008 9:36 PM
Fethulleh Gulen is the world's tippety-top number-one supreme intellectual? Rated by other tip-top intellectuals higher than Tariq Ramadan, higher than Noam Chomsky, higher even than the incomparable Cornel West?
Posted by: Hugh at June 23, 2008 10:17 PM
That is the cwaziest list. Cheek-by-jowl with Yusuf al-Qaradawi, such intelligent men as Alain Finkielkraut. The lively Umberto Eco rowing in the same galere as the dead-eyed Tariq Ramadan. The excellent alliterative trio of Kahneman, Kasparov, and Krauze, but also people more famous for their self-promotion, their careerist elan, and often for the reflected glory of the institution with which they are currently associated (The Times, and Harvard are both heavily overrepresented) as for any intrinsic merit.
Extra-credit: on the list of the Great One Hundred, spot the man and woman, one of them celebrated for his "economics with a human face" and the other a professor of practically everything, who were once a kind of couple.
Posted by: Hugh at June 23, 2008 11:02 PM
from sweetness-light:
By the way, the aforementioned Foreign Policy magazine is published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Posted by: heroyalwhynessAn organization that is heavily funded and otherwise entwined with Mr. George Soros and his Open Society Institute.
at June 23, 2008 11:23 PM
I'd say that Jean Calvin probably towered head, shoulders, torso, legs, and feet above this guy Gulen. Then again, Maitre Jean has been dead since3 1569.
Posted by: Kepha at June 24, 2008 12:07 AM
Gülen promotes Islamic creationism, equate atheism with terrorism and say both atheists and murderers would spend eternity in Hell. Equates the separation of religion and state with atheism.
From fethullahgulen.org:
“So any scientific view, in order to be accepted, it should not contradict the Quran. Now the Quran clearly says that humanity was created from Adam - and Eve. So I think because of this clear Quranic verse, Gulen supports creationism, if we can use the term creationism - he never uses this term I think. I think he considers the idea of evolution as theory and theory means is not proven yet. It’s just a theory. Here we have a very strong statement of the Quran and we have a theory. So strong statement of the Quran would be accepted and preferred to a theory.”
“For example, many textbooks and encyclopedias continue to present humanity’s evolution from apes to human beings as fact instead of theory. In reality, a growing number of scientists, most particularly evolutionists, argue that Darwin’s theory of evolution is not a truly scientific theory at all. Many critics of the highest intellectual caliber admit that we still have no idea of how this “evolution” took place. While there is a great deal of divergent opinion among the experts about probable causes and the actual process, the general public and less-informed scientists continue to believe in it.Posted by: Engelbrekt
at June 24, 2008 9:57 AM
"The top 10 individuals were all Muslim and included two Nobel laureates, the novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is also Turkish, at No 4, and the Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, in 10th....
A Gülen supporter, Bulent Kenes, who is editor-in-chief of Today's Zaman newspaper, denied the poll had been hijacked."
From the story above.
Not highjacked? Yeah, right. There must be some Ron Paul supporters advising them on how to stack online polls such as this. These results mean exactly nothing, except maybe to those who live in the Islamic bubblesphere of self delusion. No one else can possibly take this seriously.
As for Today's Zaman http://www.todayszaman.com , it is clearly an organ devoted to slowly moving Turkey backward toward re-establishment of the Caliphate it lost in 1924.
Posted by: Eastview at June 24, 2008 6:57 PM
Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)