Everything you've ever wanted to know about Fethullah Gulen, Turkey's most controversial cleric

[Sally]

I always wondered about this man since there was many mentions of him in the on-line Turkish newspapers.

Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen sits at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, Sept. 26, 2013. (photo by REUTERS/Selahattin Sevi)

Everything you've ever wanted to know about Fethullah Gulen, Turkey's most controversial cleric
As 2015 came to a close, the Grand Ballroom of the Conrad Hotel in Manhattan presented a diverse tableau: Around the meticulously set tables sat Muslim women wearing colorful headscarves with oriental motifs, African-American clergymen from Queens, Jewish students from a Turkish charter school and veteran New York state politicians.

Summary⎙ Print Questions remain concerning the future of Fethullah Gulen, a minor preacher who quickly rose to become one of Erdogan's closest allies, only to fall out of favor and remain in self-imposed exile in the US.
Author Murat BilgincanPosted April 19, 2016
The lights dimmed. Murat Omur, president of a New York-based nonprofit called Peace Islands Institute, used two giant screens to present an overview of the past year’s highlights, which included setting up hospitals and orphanages in Haiti.

As the guests enjoyed their entrees, the institute silently auctioned a Barack Obama autograph and a pair of boxing gloves. By the end of the night, the Peace Islands Institute had raised half a million dollars, Omur said.

There were brief speeches. “I admire the vision set forth by honorable Fethullah Gulen,” said Leonard Petlakh, vice president of the American Zionist Movement. “Principles and teachings of Fethullah Gulen are the antidote of fundamentalism,” said Victor Hall, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Queens.

Gulen was nowhere in sight. He was at his Pennsylvania farmhouse, which he has seldom left since settling in the United States in 1999.

The Muslim religious scholar from Turkey preaches a moderate form of Islam — one that regards terrorism as blasphemy and a woman’s headscarf as secondary to education. In the United States, there are a handful of nonprofit organizations that list him as their honorary president.

Gulen is also a wanted man. He is accused in Turkey of leading a terrorist organization that has attempted to topple the government. A Turkish court has issued three arrest warrants for him. He is also being sued in the United States, in a civil case alleging human rights abuses. Gulen and his expansive following face an uncertain future.


Read more: Everything you've ever wanted to know about Fethullah Gulen, Turkey's most controversial cleric - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

 

[waltky]

Mebbe he could move to Sweden...

U.S. delegation in Turkey to discuss possible extradition of Fetullah Gulen
Aug. 23, 2016 -- Vice President Joe Biden is in Turkey along with several high-ranking government representatives to discuss the possible extradition of Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen.

Three officials from the U.S. Justice Department and another from the State Department arrived in the capital, Ankara, late Monday night, two sources confirmed to the Adadolu Agency. The planned talks also were confirmed by two senior Turkish officials to Al-Jazeera. The delegation spoke with officials from Turkey's Ministry of Justice for International Law and Ministry of Foreign Affairs early Tuesday morning, the sources told Adadolu Agency. And talks also are scheduled for Wednesday, according to the Al-Jazeera sources. Biden will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday.

Turkey's government has said the failed coup, which left 240 people dead and nearly 2,200 injured, was organized by followers of Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the Saylorsburg, Pa. since 1999, and by his social service organizations in Turkey, which the government of Turkey has together labeled the "Fetullah Terrorist Organization." Erdogan has appealed to the United States for the return of Gulen numerous times and has said the United States has to "choose between Turkey and Gulen." "It is bizarre for us that they [the U.S.] have not been convinced, considering the scope of evidence we presented to them," Yasin Aktay, the deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party, told Al-Jazeera. "Even this meeting should not have been necessary."

Biden will meet with Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to emphasize "ongoing strong support" for Turkey after the foiled coup, the White House said Monday. "That is a coup attempt that was roundly and publicly condemned by the United States government and we continue to strongly support the democratic government of our allies in Turkey," spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. The U.S. vice president will reiterate that efforts to extradite Gulen would be governed by "an extradition treaty that's been on the books between the United States and Turkey for more than 30 years," Earnest said. It's "not a presidential decision," said Earnest, but a decision for the Justice Department. Biden first traveled Monday to Riga, Latvia. After visiting Turkey, the vice president heads to Stockholm, Sweden.

U.S. delegation in Turkey to discuss possible extradition of Fetullah Gulen

See also:

US Rebuffs Turkish Demand for Immediate Return of Cleric Ankara Blames for Failed Coup
August 24, 2016 - The United States held firm Wednesday in rebuffing Turkey's demand that it immediately extradite Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen whom Ankara blames for last month's failed military coup, saying it has yet to receive any evidence linking him to the putsch.

On a one-day visit to Ankara, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told a news conference that the United States has "no interest in protecting anyone who has done harm to an ally." He said the U.S. is continuing to cooperate with Turkish officials in analyzing claims about Gulen's purported actions linked to the attempted coup that left 240 people dead. But in an article published in Turkey's Milliyet newspaper, Biden said that while Turkey has sent Washington information about the 75-year-old Gulen's "alleged activities predating the attempted coup, we have not yet received an extradition request or any evidence from Turkey relating to the attempted coup." Biden told the news conference he understood Turkey's anger at the U.S. delay in handling the extradition request, but said a U.S. court must consider whether there are legitimate legal grounds to arrest him and turn him over to Turkish authorities based on the extradition treaty between the two countries.

Journalists are seen gathered outside a court building to support a colleague who was detained in connection with the investigation launched into the recent failed coup attempt in Turkey, in Istanbul​

Gulen has lived in self-exile on a compound in the northeastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania since 1999 and has denied any involvement in the attempt to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey has arrested or fired 80,000 government workers, judges, academics and school teachers it believes were sympathetic to Gulen or somehow involved in the coup attempt launched by a group of renegade military officers. Erdogan, on vacation the night of the coup attempt, says he narrowly escaped being captured before government forces loyal to Ankara repelled dissidents looking to overthrow him. Biden sought to dispel any notion of U.S. complicity in the uprising, calling those who carried out the attack "cowardly, treasonous." "We did not have any fore-knowledge," he said. "The people of the United States abhor what happened. The people of Turkey have no greater friend than the United States of America."

Smoke billows on the Syrian side, pictured from Karkamis, Turkey​

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said any disputes with the U.S., a NATO ally, should not be allowed to harm their long-term friendship. But Yildirim said he wants the extradition proceedings to be conducted without delay. Biden's visit to the Turkish capital came as Ankara's military forces, working in tandem with U.S. jet fighters, launched their first offensive into Syria to target Islamic State militants and Kurdish fighters in the aftermath of last weekend's suicide bombing of Kurdish wedding in a nearby Turkish town that killed at least 54. Erdogan has blamed Islamic State for the attack.

US Rebuffs Turkish Demand for Immediate Return of Cleric Ankara Blames for Failed Coup