AUGUSTA, N.J. (AP) – Family, friends and followers of Fethullah Gulen gathered Thursday to pay tribute to the influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-imposed exile in the United States. It shows respect.
Gulen, who sparked a global social movement while facing unproven allegations that he orchestrated an attempted military coup against Turkey’s president in 2016, died Sunday in a Pennsylvania hospital. He was in his 80s.
Thousands of people filled a small stadium in northern New Jersey to pray under heavy police security. Followers who served as pallbearers either learned directly from Gulen or attended schools inspired by his movement. They carried his coffin to the stadium. The coffin was covered with a green cover inscribed with verses from the Quran in yellow.
Organizers said brothers and sisters attended. Another brother is imprisoned in Türkiye.
Following the service, Gulen will be buried on the grounds of Chestnut Retreat Center in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. Chestnut Retreat Center is a large, gated property in the Pocono Mountains where he lived and worked for a quarter of a century. A much smaller crowd of family and close friends was expected to attend the burial.
“This is a solemn time of mourning, reflection and prayer,” the Alliance for Shared Values said in a statement. The New York-based group promotes Gulen’s work in the United States. Gülen’s legacy goes beyond the circumstances of his life. He was an outstanding religious and intellectual thinker whose influence will be felt for generations. ”
Gülen had long been one of Turkey’s most important academics, with millions of followers in his home country and around the world. He lived in the United States in 1999 to receive treatment.
His philosophy combined Sufism, a mystical form of Islam, with a staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science, and interreligious dialogue. His followers have built a loosely connected global network of philanthropic foundations, professional associations, businesses, and schools in more than 100 countries, including 150 taxpayer-funded charter schools across the United States. I did.
The religious leader was initially an ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but turned enemy. He called Erdogan an authoritarian bent on accumulating power and crushing opposition. President Erdoğan has labeled Gulen a terrorist and accused him of masterminding the July 15, 2016 coup attempt. In the coup attempt, factions within the military used tanks, fighter jets, and helicopters to overthrow the government.
A total of 251 people were killed and approximately 2,200 injured. Approximately 35 people suspected of being the masterminds of the coup were killed.
Immediately after the coup attempt, the normally reclusive cleric called reporters to his residence on his Pennsylvania compound and denied any knowledge or involvement in the coup plot. He said he would not have returned to Turkey even if the coup had been successful for fear of “persecution and harassment.”
“This is a quiet, clean place and I live freely here,” Gulen said of the secluded Islamic retreat founded by a Turkish-American. “A yearning for my homeland burns in my heart, but freedom is equally important.”
In Turkey, Gulen’s movement (also known as Hizmet, which means “service” in Turkish) has been subject to widespread repression. The government has arrested tens of thousands of people on suspicion of involvement in the coup plot, fired more than 130,000 suspected supporters from civil service jobs, more than 23,000 from the military, and fired many with ties to Gulen. Hundreds of businesses, schools, and media outlets were closed.
The Turkish government said this week it would continue to put pressure on the Gülen movement following his death. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Gulen had suffered a “disgraceful death” and likened him to “the devil in human form”. He vowed to “completely eliminate” the movement.
Gulen has never been charged with a crime in the United States, and Washington has rejected Turkey’s extradition request. The cleric consistently condemned not only the coup plotters but also terrorism.
