Fethullah Gülen

Some accounts, usually older ones, give it as 10 November 1938, while others give 27 April 1941.

Some commentators point to the 10 November 1938 date coinciding with the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded modern Turkey, and suggests that it was deliberately chosen for its political significance.

An alternative explanation for the discrepancy offered by one of Gülen's close students, and biographer, was that his parents waited 3 years to register his birth.

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (born 27 April 1941) is a Turkish Muslim scholar, preacher, and a one-time opinion leader, as de facto leader of the Gülen movement.

Gülen is designated an influential neo-Ottomanist, Anatolian panethnicist, Islamic poet, writer, social critic, and activist–dissident developing a Nursian theological perspective that embraces democratic modernity.

State documents support the 1941 date, and Gülen's English website now uses that; it is now the accepted date.

His father was an imam.

His mother taught the Qur'an in their village, despite such informal religious instruction being banned by the Kemalist government.

Gülen's secular formal education ended when his family moved to another village.

He took part in Islamic education in some Erzurum madrasas and he gave his first sermon as a licensed state preacher in 1958, when he was in his teens.

Gülen was influenced by the ideas of Kurdish scholar Said Nursî.

Gülen was a local state imam from 1959 to 1981, and he was a citizen of Turkey until his denaturalization by the Turkish government in 2017.

Over the years, Gülen became a centrist political figure in Turkey prior to his being there as a fugitive.

Gülen was in the Turkish civil service from his appointment as an assistant imam at Üç Şerefeli Mosque in Edirne, 6 August 1959, until he retired from formal preaching duties in 1981.

While Gülen was teaching at the Kestanepazari Qur'anic School in İzmir, the coup of 12 March 1971, occurred.

During its aftermath, Gülen was arrested for organizing a clandestine religious group based on his teachings and was imprisoned for seven months.

From 1988 to 1991 he gave a series of sermons in popular mosques of major cities.

In 1994, he participated in the founding of the Journalists and Writers Foundation and was given the title "honorary president" by the foundation.

He did not make any comment regarding the closures of the Welfare Party in 1998 or the Virtue Party in 2001.

He has met some politicians like Tansu Çiller and Bülent Ecevit, but he avoids meeting with the leaders of Islamic political parties.

Since 1999, Gülen has lived in self-exile in the United States near Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

Gülen says his social criticisms are focused upon individuals' faith and morality and a lesser extent toward political ends, and self describes as rejecting an Islamist political philosophy, advocating instead for full participation within professions, society, and political life by religious and secular individuals who profess high moral or ethical principles and who wholly support secular rule, within Muslim-majority countries and elsewhere.

In 1999, Gülen relocated to the United States for medical treatment.

According to the Kemalist Turkish law of the time, intending to ensure modernity and secularism, non-state sanctioned religious endeavors were outlawed and Gülen could have anticipated being tried especially over remarks (aired after he immigrated to U.S.) which seemed to favor an Islamic state.

In June 1999, after Gülen had left Turkey, videotapes were sent to some Turkish television stations with recordings of Gülen saying,

"The existing system is still in power. Our friends who have positions in legislative and administrative bodies should learn its details and be vigilant all the time so that they can transform it and be more fruitful on behalf of Islam in order to carry out a nationwide restoration. However, they should wait until the conditions become more favorable. In other words, they should not come out too early."

Gülen said his remarks were taken out of context, and his supporters raised questions about the authenticity of the tape, which he said had been "manipulated".

Gülen was tried in absentia in 2000, and acquitted in 2008 under the new Justice and Development Party (AKP) government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

After 11 September 2001, the U.S. increased its scrutiny of its domestic Islamic religious groups.

Objecting to Gulen's residency application were the FBI, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.

Gülen applied for a green card in 2002.

In 2003, a number of Gülen movement participants allied with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's centre-right Justice and Development Party (AKP), providing the AKP political and sorely-needed administrative support.

This political alliance worked together to weaken left-of-center Kemalist factions, but fractured in 2011.

Turkish prosecutors accuse Gülen of attempts to overthrow the government by allegedly directing politically motivated corruption investigations by Gülen-linked investigators then in the judiciary, who illegally wiretapped the executive office of the Turkish president, and Gülen's alleged instigations of the 2016 coup attempt.

Gülen has denied the accusations.

A Turkish criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for Gülen in 2016, and Turkey is demanding his extradition from the United States.

U.S. government officials do not believe he is associated with any terrorist activity, and have requested evidence to be provided by the Turkish government to substantiate the allegations in the warrant requesting extradition, frequently rejecting Turkish calls for his extradition.

Gülen has been described in the English-language media as an imam "who promotes a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, hard work, and education" and as "one of the world's most important Muslim figures."

Gülen is wanted as a terrorist leader in Turkey and Pakistan, as well as by the OIC and GCC.

Muhammed Fethullah Gülen was born in the village of Korucuk, near Erzurum, to Ramiz and Refia Gülen, There is some confusion over his birth date.