Foreign Policy rankings and Fethullah Gulen

Muhammed Cetin

Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Islamic scholar, has come in first on a list of the top 100 living public intellectuals in a survey organized by the British magazine Prospect and Foreign Policy, a US publication.

The results apparently surprised the organizers: The top 10 individuals in the poll were all Muslim intellectuals, two of whom were Turkish citizens. The rankings are already generating discussion and their implications are relevant to many people from different backgrounds, cultures and societies, whether they are Muslim or not. Here we should acknowledge the editors of the journals and those who conducted the survey for permitting the selection of these nominees, for not interfering with the voting process and for sharing its results with the whole world.