However, some people around the world wonder why many people consider Gülen the world's leading intellectual, as proved by the poll results. I must confess that I am neither a specialist on the Gülen movement nor a spokesperson for it. However, I want to share my opinions on what makes Mr. Gülen a world-class intellectual, as over 500,000 votes have confirmed he is.The ideas of Fethullah Gülen, Turkey's most discussed figure for decades now, have become one of the important topics of debate in world intellectual circles in recent years. With millions of followers worldwide in addition to those in his own country, Mr. Gülen has risen to prominence with his statements and actions that shatter into a thousand pieces the twisted perception of Islam shaped by Islamophobia.
Attracting worldwide attention with his arguments for inter-religious dialogue and tolerance at a time when Samuel Huntington's theory of the clash of civilizations is extensively used and spread, Mr. Gülen did not remain only at the level of creating ideas, but created a worldwide social movement to carry out these ideas. This quality of his makes him one of the leading intellectuals of the world as well as one of the greatest men of action.
He was not content with writing about his approaches, which can be roughly summarized as "living together in peace," "appreciation of differences," "accepting everybody as they are" and "inter-religious and intercultural dialogue and tolerance," which he developed to counter the theses of inter-religious and intercultural clashes continuously imposed on the masses. For the realization of his ideals, he has initiated a civil voluntary movement, which is probably the largest the world has ever seen. Today Mr. Gülen is able to easily mobilize his multinational followers, estimated to be in the millions, who are craving to accomplish his ideal of transforming the world into an oasis of peace.
Retaining a strong belief that creating a peaceful world is possible through education and having dedicated his life to this cause, Mr. Gülen advises all his followers to lend all their physical strength and spiritual energy toward promoting education all around the world. And in return, his followers, who have not come across in his thoughts and statements a single word that could be adverse to the good of humanity, are making efforts in this direction with might and main. As a result of these efforts, the young generation is learning the ways of living together in hundreds of schools opened by Turkish entrepreneurs in over 110 countries of the world dominated by different religions, languages and cultures. The children of Bosnians and Serbs, Kurds and Turkmens, Russians and Chechens, and Hindus and Muslims, who have fought one another, peacefully study in the same classrooms in these schools.
Mr. Gülen has proved through his thoughts, statements and actions that Islam is a religion of peace, even though it is almost associated with fundamentalism, extremism and violence in the West because of the evildoings of some radicals in the Islamic world. And he is famed for the very intimate ties he established with the late Pope John Paul II, Fener Greek Orthodox Church Patriarch Bartholomew, Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafyan and many other representatives of other religions.
Mr. Gülen's thoughts and actions have recently started attracting the attention of the international media. While one of the most influential US newspapers, The New York Times, dedicated its headline to a news story on the worldwide activities of the voluntary movement spiritually led by Mr. Gülen, The Economist allotted a large space for Mr. Gülen and the Gülen movement a couple of months ago. In addition, Reuters ran a sizable feature story on the Gülen movement in previous weeks.
It is possible to mention many other examples that prove the universal nature of Mr. Gülen's embracing thoughts. However to me, the biggest proof of this is that an important section of Mr. Gülen's followers comprises people from many different ethnicities, religions and cultures other than Turks and Muslims. Today, wherever in the world you travel to, from Siberia to Australia, from China to Canada and from Sweden to Brazil, you can find thousands of people who act upon the ideas Mr. Gülen developed for a peaceful world.
Asserting that terrorism cannot be attributed to any religion and completely rejecting violence, Mr. Gülen drew a powerfully distinctive line between terrorism and Islam by stating after the Sept. 11 attacks that "Muslims cannot be terrorists; if they are terrorists, they are not Muslims," and condemned all sorts of terrorism. And he has reiterated his condemnations numerous times by targeting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
In addition, many universities have held symposia and established chairs in the name of Mr. Gülen, who has attracted the attention of the academic world in many countries outside the United States and Europe. One of the most recent of such academic events was realized in 2007 in London under the auspices of the House of Lords and with the cooperation of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the London School of Economics; others followed in many other countries.
In light of the information I have briefly provided above, nobody should feel out of sorts about his selection as first in the "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" survey conducted by Foreign Policy and Prospect. Just the opposite, we should all be surprised if he doesn't receive the Nobel Peace Prize in the near future.
