International Conference Debates Fethullah Gulen's Vision for Islamic Reform

AMMAN, Jan 17 (NNN-KUNA) — An international conference, held here on Saturday under the title of “modern views on Islamic reform and their role in promotion of international peace,” urged for social, educational, media and cultural reforms in the Muslim nations.

The conference, co-organized by the Global Forum for Moderation in Islam and the Turkish Hira magazine, gathered notable intellectuals from several Muslim countries including Dr. Faisal Al-Ali – chief editor of Al-Wa’ei Al-Islami (Islamic enlightenment) magazine of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs – and Ebada Noah – an editor of the Arabic magazine.

The one-day event debated the vision of Fethullah Gulen, a prominent Turkish scholar and leader of a cultural movement named after him, for overall social reform and revival of the Muslim nation, the Al-Ali told KUNA.


The Gulen movement is a faith-based but not faith-limited movement that consists primarily of students, teachers, businessman, journalists and other educated professionals, arranged in a flexible organizational network.

It has founded schools, universities, and employers’ association, as well as charities, real estate trusts, lobby groups, student bodies, radio and television stations, and newspapers.

Besides Jordan and Kuwait, the conference gathered notable political figures and intellectuals from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen, Al-Ali pointed out.

Today’s gathering is the second in an annual chain the first of which took place in Turkey late last year with Al-Wa’ei Al-Islami participating, he noted.

“The Kuwaiti delegation to the gathering was able to learn more about the Turkish experiment in reforming the civil society,” Al-Ali added.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Global Forum for Moderation in Islam Al-Sadeq Al-Mahdi noted that the Turkish experiment expressed a profound understanding of the Islamic Faith and the advocacy for reform.

On his part, Mustafa Ozcan – Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Turkey’s Fatih University and chief of the Turkish delegation, highlighted the importance of turning the focus of the Islamic discourse to educational reforms as a means of achieving social development in the Muslim communities.

In his address to the opening session Ozcan briefed the conferees on Gulen’s methodology for Islamic revival in the educational, cultural, media, health and economic domains. — NNN-KUNA

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