Augusta, N.J. (AP) — A crowd surged forward to Fethullah Gülen’s grave on Thursday, straining to get one more chance to pay their respects to the influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States.
After an outdoor service in New Jersey that drew thousands of people, Gülen was buried on the grounds of the Chestnut Retreat Center, a sprawling, gated compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains where he lived and worked for a quarter-century. Gülen, who inspired a global social movement while facing unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 military coup against Turkey's president, died Sunday at a Pennsylvania hospital. He was in his 80s.
He was remembered Thursday as a religious leader who encouraged his followers to devote themselves to God and to charitable good works. “We all feel like we’ve lost a father,” Usame Tunagar, a longtime associate, told mourners. “We all feel like as if we are orphaned.
There is right now a huge void in our lives.” But Tunagar said Gülen will live on through his books and sermons, and through the thousands of schools and other institutions worldwide started by his followers. “What is alive is his legacy,” he said.
Under a heavy police presence, family, friends and followers filled a small stadium in northern New Jersey for a prayer service, which was conducted largely in Turkish, with Islamic prayers and readings in Arabic from the Quran. Follow.