Fethullah Gulen

Activist

1941-04-27

Quotes by Fethullah Gulen

• No citizen or social group can be completely isolated from politics, because policy decisions and actions affect their lives.

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• My message is, if someone beats you, act like you don't have hands. If someone slurs you, act like you don't have a tongue. Society is already polarized enough, don't make it worse.

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• I probably will not live to see Turkey become an exemplary democracy, but I pray that the downward authoritarian drift can be stopped before it is too late.

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• Turkey is a diverse country... I think that democracy is the ideal system for a country with a social foundation such as this. My view is based on my belief that everyone should be able to comfortably live what they believe, and this is only possible in a truly democratic environment. I am insistent in my views and I strongly believe in what I say.

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• We invite our friends who hold high positions in the legislative branch of government and state institutions to master the skills of administration, so they could, when the time comes, reform the Turkish state and make it more fruitful at all its levels in the name of Islam.

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• My message to the Turkish people is never to view any military intervention positively because through military intervention, democracy cannot be achieved.

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• Islam's basic principles of belief, worship, morality, and behavior are not affected by changing times. Islam does not propose a certain unchangeable form of government or attempt to shape it. Islam has never offered nor established a theocracy in its name.

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• My position on democracy is really clear. Any attempt to overthrow the country is a betrayal to our unity and is treason.

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• Even if, at the helm of the country there are people who would like to replace me and suppress me and oppress me at the level of blood-sucking vampires, then I do not want to remove them with anti-democratic means. This is my attitude toward any and even the idea of the consideration of a military coup.

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• Entrepreneurs and volunteers inspired by Hizmet's values have invested in modern education and community service in more than 150 countries.

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• I am neither a sociologist nor a psychologist, but you don't have to be one to see that Turkey is in a vortex of problems, isolated from the world.

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• I think the United States is mindful of its reputation for its democracy and rule of law, and if they are willing to risk that reputation by extraditing me based on the request and claims made by Turkey, I would never say no. I would go willingly.

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• I have never imagined being or wished to be chosen as something important in the world.

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