Hizmet's approach to politics and politicians

The Hizmet community is aware of the social and political aspects of the principle of “encouraging good and forbidding evil” (emr-i bil ma'ruf ve nehy-i anil munker) as being some of the most important requirements and promises carried out by Muslims.

As a civil society organization, it will never shirk from calling on everyone (including politicians) to behave within the parameters mentioned above and making criticisms when they do not -- within the framework of rights and democracy and without abandoning the principles that the movement is based on.

If one examines the legacies of figures like Imam-i Azam Ebu Hanife or Mevlana, one notes that they never hesitated to criticize political leaders, and instead encouraged and called on these leaders to act with justice, honesty, tolerance and the law. Many intellectuals and thinkers -- such as Imam-i Azam -- placed as much importance in their independence as they did their honor, in order to make sure these values could be maintained. It was for this reason that they rejected salaried state positions -- even at the cost of being tortured in prison.

If the greatest losses faced by the world of Islam are wisdom and reason, the second greatest loss is the fact that leaders and states -- and the communities that have followed them without objection -- have weakened the functioning of the structure Islam over hundreds of years.

Fethullah Hoca and his students -- as well as the intellectuals, academics, journalists and writers who come forward in this climate of reason -- are essentially keeping alive the same tradition of maintaining a critical distance from powerful leaders that previous figures like Imam-i Azam, Mevlana and Bediüzzaman once did. In this, they are espousing the concept of “emr-i bil ma'ruf, nehy-i anil munker” (as mentioned above, encouraging good and forbidding evil.)

This is also the approach that has been taken for decades by media organs close to the Hizmet movement. Over the years, these media organs have of course focused on more than just popular culture or sports news; and yet, the attention they are paying now to politics and criticism in this arena seems to present a problem. The same principles that have shaped the criticism these media organs have issued to various politicians and leaders over the years are in play today. Fethullah Gülen noted in 1994 that “we can no longer turn back from the direction democracy is taking us”; in 2010, he said, “let even those lying in graveyards rise and cast a vote in the referendum.” Today, he is making the same sort of criticism, in his own way, as he did in the past against those who supported coups and other anti-democratic practices. For the Hizmet movement is today directing strong criticism at a government that -- despite high-pitched objections from the EU, civil society organizations and intellectuals -- seems bent on eliminating both democracy and the Constitution (and in the process dragging the country into a “one man” regime), which is the duty of citizens who are reasonable, honorable and good believers...

http://hizmetmovement.blogspot.com/2014/03/hizmet-approach-politics-politicians.html#more