Gülen: I am Neither a Calvinist nor Reformist
Fethullah Gülen, living in the United States for the last six years for health reasons, made a statement upon Hurriyet Daily Editor-in-Chief Ertugrul Ozkok's accusatory article published yesterday.
Gülen said: "I am neither a Calvinist nor a reformist. I have never made such a statement or implication involving this in my whole life."
Ozkok, in his article titled "Who is Turkey's Calvin?" writes "The incident of women praying with no head scarf resumed the discussion of "Calvinist Muslims" or "Protestant Muslims" that started to develop in Turkey. And I will ask the most critical question. How many Protestant Muslims are there? Who is the father of such idea, who is their spiritual leader?" and at the end of his article he concludes, "If you take into consideration the economic prevalence and the traces he left in the world, the leader of the 'Calvinist Muslim' movement is Fethullah Gülen."
Gülen did not accept this labeling and expressed the following views in the statement he made:
"I am an ordinary Muslim faithful to all principles of the religion from the essentials detailed in the Book (Qur'an), the Prophet's Sunnah, ijma (consensus of opinions from among the Sahaaba and true Ulama) and qiyaas (analogy). Even the thought of changing any issue concerning even the customs of our religion is a heinous sin and wrongdoing to me. I would prefer to die rather than change a single matter accepted in customs, let alone the religion's essentials. I am neither a Calvinist nor a reformist. I have never made such a statement or implication meaning this in my whole life. I think what should be innovated today is not the religion but our piety. As I expressed several times for various reasons, I am a simple and modest Muslim in the way of the Prophet Mohammed. I am a Muslim closely faithful to the tradition."
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