Ozcan Keles Musings of a British Muslim academic activist
  • Last week, the Foreign Affairs Committee of House of Commons concluded its inquiry into UK-Turkey relations and published its findings and recommendations in the form of an 82-paged report. That report was the outcome of 8-months’ worth of research; written and oral evidence from a range of people including independent scholars, the Turkish Embassy, the […]

    14th April 2017
  • The UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee is examining the bilateral relationship between the UK and Turkey, focusing on rights and freedoms as well as how Turkish foreign and security policies relate to those of the UK. The inquiry is ongoing. The Committee inquiry will cover topics such as the current state of UK-Turkey relations, and the […]

    1st December 2016
  • There was an attempted coup in Turkey on July 15, 2016. President Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party vigorously argue that it was masterminded and orchestrated by what they call, the “Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization” (FETO). This article evaluates the most commonly cited five pieces of evidence put forth by the Justice and Development (AKP) party, as listed and uncritically elaborated upon by a recent Al Jazeera report, to link Turkey’s failed coup with the Pennsylvania-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement he inspires. Each piece of evidence is evaluated on a point-by-point basis posing pertinent questions and counter-perspectives that are desperately missing from the political and journalistic discussions in Turkey, and even beyond.

    9th September 2016
  • Different country and context no doubt, but I believe Chilcot has something important to say about Turkey’s recent obsession with Fethullah Gulen, the Islamic cleric recently blamed as being behind Turkey’s failed coup. I also believe that we are beyond the considerations of framing caused by inadvertently analogising between one set of actors and another.

    7th August 2016

İmtihanlarda kopya çekmenin hükmü var mıdır, din acaba bu konuda bir şey söylemiş midir sorusunu ilk defa okuduğumda şaşırmadım desem yalan olur. Şu ana kadar aklıma böyle bir sorunun gelmemiş oluşu, şaşırmamın nedeni. Ama itiraf edeyim, dinin, hayatın bütününü kuşatan özelliğini ve özellikle sorunun devamında ifade edildiği şekliyle, dinin yaptırım gücünden meded umulması zihnimde yeni […]

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Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendi’nin 21.inci yüzyılda içtihat ve tefsir metodunun nasıl olması gerektiği ile alakalı söyledikleri ve yapmış olduğu değerlendirmeler, Hizmet Hareketine yöneltilebilecek en temel eleştirilerden birisinin yapı taşlarını oluşturuyor aynı zamanda. Gülen, günümüzde müçtehitlik vazifesini bir kişinin yapamayacağını belirtikten sonra, ‘kolektif içtihat’ ve ‘içtihat heyetlerinden’ bahsetmektedir. ‘Usul-i fıkhın yeniden gözden geçirilmesi ve geçmiş müdevvenat bütünüyle […]

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Bizim kültürümüzde, ‘eleştiri’ ve ‘hata’ birbirini çağrıştıran kavramlardır. Buna göre, bir şey eleştiriliyorsa, yanlış olduğundadır. Halbuki, eleştiri ve/veya eleştirel bakış açısı bunun çok ötesinde bir yaklaşım biçimidir. Peşin hükümlü olmak yerine, konuyu tahkiki bir nazardan geçirmek suretiyle anlama ve yorumlama demektir. Bu şekilde yapılan bir değerlendirmenin sonucunda, bahse konu olan mevzu ile alakalı olumlu, olumsuz […]

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There’s a difference between the following four unproven claims: 1a. ‘Gülenists were involved in the coup’ and 1b. ‘Gülenists were behind the coup’ 2a. ‘The Gülen movement was involved in the coup’ and 2b. ‘The Gülen movement was behind the coup’ Statements 1a. and 1b. refers to claims that ‘Gülenist individuals’ were ‘involved’ or ‘behind […]

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Last week, the Foreign Affairs Committee of House of Commons concluded its inquiry into UK-Turkey relations and published its findings and recommendations in the form of an 82-paged report. That report was the outcome of 8-months’ worth of research; written and oral evidence from a range of people including independent scholars, the Turkish Embassy, the […]

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The Committee Last week, the Foreign Affairs Committee of House of Commons concluded its inquiry into UK-Turkey relations and published its findings and recommendations in the form of an 82-paged report. That report was the outcome of 8-months’ worth of research; written and oral evidence from a range of people including independent scholars, the Turkish […]

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Given Hizmet’s nature (Islamically-inspired transnational civil society movement) and size (active in over 160 countries) the question of what Hizmet thinks about, and how it responds to, violent extremism claiming an Islamic justification is most relevant to those concerned with this issue. This publication, authored by Ozcan Keles and Ismail Mesut Sezgin, offers researchers, policy makers and journalists […]

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The UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee is examining the bilateral relationship between the UK and Turkey, focusing on rights and freedoms as well as how Turkish foreign and security policies relate to those of the UK. The inquiry is ongoing. The Committee inquiry will cover topics such as the current state of UK-Turkey relations, and the […]

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The UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee is examining the bilateral relationship between the UK and Turkey, focusing on rights and freedoms as well as how Turkish foreign and security policies relate to those of the UK. The inquiry is ongoing. The Committee inquiry will cover topics such as the current state of UK-Turkey relations, and the […]

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Geçtiğimiz cumartesi (Ekim 21, 2016), yirmi terörle mücadele polisi Aksaray’da babama ait beş daireli bir apartmana, medya ekibi eşliğinde, baskın düzenledi. Birkaç saat içinde televizyon kanalları dahil otuza yakın medya kuruluşu baskın haberini girdi. Haberi ilk olarak Doğan (DHA) ve İhlas haber ajansları servis etti. DHA ve Hürriyet, haberi ‘’Fetullah Gülen’in sağ kolunun Aksaray’daki villasına […]

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