Turkish Islamic preacher - threat or benefactor?

ISTANBUL-Nine-year-old Burak says his favorite subject is maths, he loves studying and writing in English, and when he grows up he wants to be a policeman.Smiling 11-year olds Serra and Liyna, fellow pupils at the $10,000-a-year Fatih College primary school in Istanbul, chime in similarly confident English that their favorite subject is science and they want to be doctors.This is the 640-pupil school run by followers of Fethullah Gulen-a Turkish Muslim preacher who advocates a moderate Islam rooted in modern life, and whose teachings have inspired millions of Turks to forge a powerful socio-religious community active in publishing, charity and above all education.But if the Gulen movement is seen by outsiders as a moderating force in an increasingly fundamentalist Muslim world, it rings alarm bells for some Turks because it encapsulates the tensions between secular state and religious power.Gulen, 67, has a reputation abroad as a Muslim who preaches tolerance and engagement with other faiths.But many in Turkey's secularist establishment say he has a political agenda and wants to create a religious state and a cadre of people to run it, a charge his followers vigorously deny.Attitudes to the Gulen movement in Turkey are deeply entrenched and reflect a wider struggle for the country's identity and power base.The movement has built up a network of some 800 schools around the world, teaching a full curriculum focusing on science and technology, and encouraging pupils to aim high.In Turkey it follows the national curriculum and teaches only comparative religion according to strict outlines set by the state. However, most teachers adhere to Gulen's views.
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As in the days of Noah....