Little Known Facts about the EU: A new responsibility for the Gulen Movement

Hon. Paul Lych

While researching on the Internet with regard to violent extremism, I came across with an outstanding conference seminar of Hon. Paul Lych, Consul General of the UK, in the Gulen Institute, which is a well – known institute in Houston, TX promoting the ideas of Gulen movement. As a part of Gulen Movement the institute is based on the idea to develop interfaith and intercultural dialogue among communities and cultures. Currently, there is no doubt that the movement has gone beyond the borders of Turkey and transformed from a local movement to a global social movement over the course of the last two decades.

In his speech, basically, Lych talked about violent extremism in the UK and also aptly emphasized that the UK has significant amount of experience on violent extremism of various religions or religious groups. He said that at that time there were almost 2 million Muslims and half of them was born in the homeland according to 2001 Census. Lych also added that Muslims had 1,000 years history in the Britain mainland where the first mosque was built in 1889.

The above mentioned facts reveals that Muslims have been inseparable components of the Western World. If we consider the fact that half of the Muslim population are native British citizens, they are not supposed to return their parent's hometowns in future. Sooner or later, Western countries have understood the necessity to understand minority communities living in their homelands. At this point, Lych addressed the importance of developing religious programs to help Muslim communities to better understand the faith of Islam. The worst thing that can happen for a person is to be the enemy of the community that he or she has grown up. Unfortunately, this was the case in London bombings in 2005 or in Norway shootings last year. All the attackers have grown in their respective countries and have somehow developed violent extremist ideas and relations before the attacks.

Therefore, nowadays, according to Lych the UK government is supporting programs and intitutes, and developing partnerships with leading Islamic organizations to deliver the faith of Islam in a proper way in the late 2000s. That is the point where Gulen movement's responsibility starts. Because this is a clear goodwill on the side of the Western world; however, it is a clear responsibility on the side of Gulen movement in the context of Islam. It is more than a mission, because the goals are defined by the movement in a mission; however, since it is a responsibility, as to Lych's speech, it is time for Gulen Movement to fulfill the gap, take the responsibility and create collaborations with the UK or other demanding countries to deliver the faith of Islam to Islamic communities of Western countries.

Source: http://www.gulenmovement.com/op-ed/171-little-known-facts-about-the-eu-a-new-responsibility-for-the-gulen-movement

“Combating Extremism in the UK-Government and Communities Working Together”
Hon. Paul Lynch - Consul General of the United Kingdom