Latif Erdogan

November 29, 2016

Latif Erdogan has known Fethulla Gülen for 45 years. He helped build the community and was once an "elder brothers" and the No. 2 man in the organization. He has now broke away.

Many of our followers were no longer interested in spirituality," Erdogan says. "Only politics and money."

Latif Erdogan, who is in no way related to the Turkish president, sits in his office on the outskirts of Istanbul. His bookshelves are lined with literature about Islam. "Gülen could have gone down in history as a religious scholar and benefactor," he says. "But now his name will forever be associated with the shameful coup."

He is convinced that Gülen's supporters incited the uprising. He also thinks he knows why: "Power corrupted this community."
Gülen was born in 1941 in eastern Anatolia and began his career in the 1960s as an imam in the Turkish city of Edirne. "He was a fantastic orator," Latif Erdogan recalls. "People used to break out in tears during his sermons." (1)

Latif Erdogan talks about recruiting, structure, Gülen intentions, infiltration and about Gulen on the video: In their own words: Latif Erdogan on video about the Gulen movement

(1) http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/guelen-movement-accused-of-being-a-sect-a-848763-2.html - or as pdf.doc

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