What is so special about the approach of the JWF Platforms, Fethullah Gülen and Hizmet Movement?

Among the collective actors that take on such problems, the Gülen Movement has a marked difference in style and strategy. As it is not a political party and is not trying to gain political power, it does not contaminate its cultural and educational purposes with political tactics or political ambitions. It gives appropriate expression to the issues that need to be addressed, and calls for change through taking responsibility and dealing with individuals and their needs, rather than with (or against) political and governmental positions. In this sense the Gülen Movement is able to be more disinterested than a political party or a political movement.

The JWF Platforms generate and disseminate ideas, information, and knowledge. These ideas have a different rationale and permit new words and ideas to be spoken and heard. They are different from the words and ideas that the dominant power groups in Turkey want to impose. This is not to naively ignore the tendency of those dominant groups to assert hegemonic control over political mechanisms and processes; rather, from within the Movement and outside, it is seen as teaching wisely and by example the proper role of social institutions, and as thereby helping to define what participatory democracy in the country could become.