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canada goose An aerial view of the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center in rural Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, where Fethullah Gulen, http://www.canadagoosecanadaoutlet.com an influential islamist cleric has lived for more than a decade. (Reuters) canada goose

canada goose clearance Those in the compound canada goose outlet were just concluding the Friday midday prayer on a hot Pennsylvania afternoon when one of Fethullah Gulen’s followers trotted quietly into the room and whispered urgently that canada goose outlet online uk something bad was going down in Turkey. canada goose clearance

Canada Goose Parka Gulen, the 77 year old Turkish cleric who has lived in Pennsylvania for nearly 20 years and who has, since that Friday, become a locus of international controversy headed for his private salon with several of his students, where canada goose outlet real they gathered on plush beige sofas beneath framed works of Arabic calligraphy. Canada Goose Parka

cheap Canada Goose “At first we didn’t think it was that serious, but in the canada goose womens outlet middle of it, someone said there were soldiers involved and people had been killed,” said Osman Simsek, one of Gulen’s canada goose outlet woodbury closest aides. cheap Canada Goose

It was July 15. And what was happening, they soon learned, was a military coup. Gulen, who suffers from diabetes and heart disease, was distraught, canada goose victoria parka outlet Simsek said.

Canada Goose online Realizing “we couldn’t really do anything,” Simsek said, the group began canada goose outlet toronto location to pray, loudly and together. Several wept. They didn’t stop praying until early the next morning. Canada Goose online

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Simsek’s wife served Turkish coffee and sweets, and Simsek showed me the binders that he had collected of Gulen’s writings over the years, as well as the books of Gulen’s sermons that he had helped publish.

canada goose store Gulen, who preaches a Sufi inspired vision of Islam that emphasizes education and peaceful canada goose outlet toronto factory coexistence, has a global following in the millions, helped in large part by the video sermons that Simsek helps circulate to the world. canada goose store

Fethullah Gulen speaks to members of the media at his canada goose coats uk compound on July 16. He has denied Turkey’s accusation that he was involved in that country’s coup attempt. (AP Photo/Chris Post)

When I visited Gulen’s enclave in the Poconos, less than a week after the failed Turkish coup, his followers were at pains to cast him as a gentle scholar full of love just as the Turkish government and its emissaries in Washington canada goose outlet in chicago were at pains to cast Gulen as anything but.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has canada goose outlet vancouver blamed Gulen and his movement, known as Hizmet Turkish for “service” for the coup attempt, allegations that Gulen denies. In the weeks since,Erdogan’sgovernment has arrested more than ten thousand of Gulen’s alleged followers and has called for Gulen’s extradition.

At canada goose outlet belgium the secluded compound in the Poconos, the developments have caused a lot of stress although Gulen’s followers say the anxiety results more from concern for their fellow Turks back home than it does from a concern that Gulen will ever be extradited.

canada goose coats For nearly twenty years, Gulen has lived on the 25 acre grounds of a former Turkish American summer canada goose parka outlet uk camp. There are canada goose outlet uk several large houses, a fragrant garden, a pond, soccer field and volleyball court. canada goose coats

canada goose black friday sale The main house, or community center, contains the compound’s mosque, a Turkish stylesalon furnished with sofas, canada goose outlet in toronto framed Sufi poetry and a massage chair, and Gulen’s spare private apartment, which contains a bed, desk and treadmill. canada goose black friday sale

Canada Goose Jackets Gulen has never married, has no children, and prefers a modest lifestyle, according to his followers; Simsek canada goose outlet uk fake showed me pieces of recycled cardboard and tissue paper, upon which Gulen had written sermons and poems because “he doesn’t canada goose discount uk like to waste any material.” Canada Goose Jackets

Canada Goose sale His followerscall Gulen ‘Hocaefendi,’ which in Turkish translates roughly as “master teacher,” and he is famous for praying in the middle of the night canada goose sale uk an extra sign of devotion on top of Islam’s usual tenets and for his prayers sometimes having the appearance of being answered, Simsek said.”Last year, it was snow season and it was supposed to snow, but it hadn’t yet, so Hocaefendi asked everyone to pray for snow,” he said. “The next day it snowed.” Canada Goose sale

buy canada goose jacket A known recluse, Gulenhas only given two media interviews since the attempted coup; one to a group of reporters who showed up at the compound’s gates immediately canada goose outlet store montreal afterward, and one to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday. buy canada goose jacket

Fethullah Gulen is an Islamic scholar and cleric from Turkey. He left Turkey in 1999, and is now living in self imposed exile in Pennsylvania. (Claritza Jimenez,Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)

A Wall Street Journal reporter and I were allowed to take a chaperoned visit to Gulen’ssalon, where an aide presented the man himself, seated silently on a sofa, looking canada goose outlet winnipeg tired. Above him, there wasa framed picture of the words “muhabet dugam” Turkish for “continuation of love” written in Arabic script.

The aide, canada goose outlet black friday sale Alp Aslandogan, who heads the Alliance of Shared Values, a New York based umbrella organization for various Gulen aligned American non profits, mumbled to Gulen in Turkish, and along with another aide, helped lift the the 77 year oldinto a standing posture. Aslandogan told the other reporter and Ithatwe could take Gulen’s picture.

canadian goose jacket Their stays are entirely paid for by “friends and businessmen,” Simsek said, and like Gulen, these students rarely leave the compound. canadian goose jacket

Canada Goose Outlet “Hocaefendi has come to this house many times, so many of the things are gifts from him,” Simsek told me as we sat in his living room. “He had the cupboards done,” he said, canada goose outlet montreal gesturing to a wall of light wooden cupboards. Canada Goose Outlet

Marsha Beers, an area resident whose ex husband, Howard Beers Jr.,is a local official and contractor who helped build and refurbish the compound, said her home, too,is full of gifts from Gulen and his followers.

One year, she said, the Gulenists took Beers and her then husband to Turkey “to meet their counterparts over there.”.