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Permalink Reply by Kirby Urner on 11th mo. 20, 2017 at 11:01pm

Few contemporaries simultaneously have the reputation for being great and wise religious leaders, and masterminds of terrorist organizations hell bent on overthrowing governments.

If you're interested in testing your skills, regarding what's "false news" and "what's real", I encourage diving in to the controversy swirling around Gulen and the Hizmet movement. Yes, it's safer on the sidelines, and letting history be the judge, but what if inaction (not just action) has an impact on the outcome?

For example, what if this really is an authentic face of "liberal Islam" i.e. the kind that advocates non-violence, co-existence, and democratic forms of government? 

If your agenda includes countering Islamophobia on any level, isn't finding its most compatible and congenial forms a priority?  Is AFSC missing a real opportunity for dialog here?  How about Quakers more generally? I think so.  We should at least be having the conversation.

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Permalink Reply by Kirby Urner on 11th mo. 20, 2017 at 11:33pm

Here's a Youtube to get the ball rolling:

https://youtu.be/4VJirp2TRZY

I see parallels with Falun Gong in China.  Once a religious group (e.g. Mormons, Jews, Quakers...) has many adherents, it's easy to stir up McCarthyite type fears based on their having exercised their democratic rights and become participants in government (e.g. Turkey's).  They're said to have "infiltrated" as if they're by definition outsiders with no intrinsic right to serve as insiders within the bureaucracy.

Are we saying Taliban have no right to be in Afghantistan's power structures?  Is Hamas by definition ineligible to participate in the political process?  Somehow I thought the whole point was to make politics inclusive enough to avoid marginalizing opposing groups as terrorists.  Yes politics can get ugly, but it's better than outward violence.

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Permalink Reply by Kirby Urner on 11th mo. 29, 2017 at 8:40pm

Hyperlinks to this thread are helping me introduce a wider circle of Friends to an ongoing discussion we're having in various social media. 

Few stories are so much in the headlines these days, as those involving Fethullah Gülen and his trackers, backers, and detractors.  I'm glad a few Friends are paying attention.  No need to post here.

https://medium.com/@kirbyurner/escaping-the-vortex-of-standardized-...

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Permalink Reply by Kirby Urner on 12th mo. 7, 2017 at 1:00am

For the most part, Quakers are not talking about this story:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Brunson

I am though. Holding a US citizen hostage on trumped up charges, in order to extort the extradition of Gulen, is another symptom of Turkey's dangerous psychosis.

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Permalink Reply by Kirby Urner on 8th mo. 18, 2018 at 1:54pm

https://medium.com/@kirbyurner/back-to-school-3d9fa8218b57

Easy to find this thread via Google:  quakerquaker gulen

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