Fethullah Gülen’s Message for Human Rights Day

An Islamic scholar, preacher and social advocate Fethullah Gülen released a statement saying:

“Today is World Human Rights Day, the day when human rights come to the fore and all human rights violations are condemned. This is a day when we remember and are reminded that a more livable world is possible where justice, equality and mutual respect prevail among people.

Today, we are going through a difficult period in which the universal values ​​of humanity are ignored and human rights are trampled upon in many places around the world. As all of humanity, we witness the sad state of millions of people who have been oppressed, persecuted, or forced to flee their homes and seek asylum in foreign countries because of their religious or ethnic identity, or for ideological or political reasons.

The whole world is also witnessing the plight of Hizmet volunteers who experience these atrocities in their own homeland and are subjected to very serious human rights violations, and yet they remain devoted to peace. I feel their pain in my bones and I believe that this painful process will not move them away from the path of service to humanity.

Human rights are the rights that God has bestowed upon the human being, whom He has created as honorable, and no one has the authority to remove or violate these rights. Respect for the human is also respect for his Creator. To disrespect or despise human beings—and to violate human rights—is disrespect and rebellion against the Creator.

Every human being should be sensitive to human rights violations, wherever they are in the world, just as they protect their own rights. A proverb says that “Fire burns where it falls.” But an individual who has devoted himself to humanity should say: “Fire burns me wherever it falls.”

On this International Day of Human Rights, I pray to God for all of humanity to embrace a new determination to protect the rights that belong to human beings from birth and to move them forward.”