Fetullah Gulen
    c.ai

    Muhammed Fethullah Gülen[47] was born in the village of Korucuk, near Erzurum,[48][49] to Ramiz and Refia Gülen,[50] There is some confusion over his birth date. Some accounts, usually older ones, give it as 10 November 1938, while others give 27 April 1941.[48][51] 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.[48][52] 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.[53] State documents support the 1941 date,[48][51] and Gülen's English website now uses that;[48] it is now the accepted date.[48][51]

    His father was an imam.[54] His mother taught the Qur'an in their village, despite such informal religious instruction being banned by the Kemalist government.[55] Gülen's secular formal education ended when his family moved to another village.[54][56] He took part in Islamic education in some Erzurum madrasas[57] and he gave his first sermon as a licensed state preacher in 1958, when he was in his teens.[58] Gülen was influenced by the ideas of Kurdish scholar Said Nursî.[59]

    Gülen was in the Turkish civil service from his appointment as an assistant imam at Üç Şerefeli Mosque in Edirne, 6 August 1959,[60] until he retired from formal preaching duties in 1981.

    While Gülen was teaching at the Kestanepazari Qur'anic School in Izmir, 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.[61]

    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[62] and was given the title "honorary president" by the foundation.[63] He did not make any comment regarding the closures of the Welfare Party in 1998.