Some Fact-Checking about Fethullah Gulen: 2) Does Gulen Support AKP?

One of the most popular questions I have been lately posed is about Fethullah Gulen's alleged support toward AKP, the current government in Turkey. Does Gulen really support AKP and tell everyone around him to support this party? Let us find out.

First of all, those who claim that Gulen supports AKP were also voicing similar claims about Turgut Ozal's and Bulent Ecevit's parties in the past. In the 80s Gulen was accused of supporting Ozal's party (ANAP) and in the 90s he was also accused of backing up Ecevit's party (DSP). These two parties came to power in 80s and 90s respectively and both parties had different political ideology. ANAP was a liberal-conservative party, whereas DSP was defending leftist and nationalist ideas. Their worldview was different. Looks like whatever party comes to power, some people assume that those parties owe their electoral success to Gulen.

Norwegian Attacks Stem from a New Ideological Hate

I will continue to write about fact-checking about Fethullah Gulen, but I got this article and was planning to re-publish . Entitled "Norwegian Attacks Stem from a New Ideological Hate", it was written by Abraham Foxman, the National Director of ADL.

In his article, published on Washington Post, he talks about the recent terrorist attack in Norway and the Islamophobia that has become very popular these days. He reminds us that, the Norvegian terrorist, in his long manifesto draws his inspiration from famous Islamophobics such as Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller and Brigitte Gabriel. Foxman's description of this recent surge is very good:

Growing numbers of people in Europe and the United States subscribe to this belief system; in some instances it borders on hysteria. Adherents of this ideological Islamophobia view Islam as an existential threat to the world, especially to the “West.”

Moreover, they believe that leaders and governments in the Western world are consciously or unconsciously collaborating to allow Islam to “infiltrate” and eventually conquer democratic societies.