Turkey's prominent Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gülen, has been voted the world's top intellectual in a poll to find the world's 100 leading thinkers.
Though the result was apparently brought about by a sustained effort from Fethullahçi (Gülen) supporters, surprising organisers, little about this Sufi cleric is known in the West.
Described as "an inspiration for Muslims who feel at home in the modern world" by the International Herald Tribune, Gülen advocates world peace through tolerance and international dialogue.
Adopting a more liberal stance on Islamic issues, he states that the necessity of the wearing of the headscarf of Muslim women is "not as important as the essentials of faith and the pillars of Islam. It's a matter of secondary importance." Commenting on political Islamism, he says:
"When we adopt it (political Islam) as an ideology rather than a religion, we are eager to quarrel about how Islam should be understood and lived. And so we are not open to dialogue."
Gülen has been living the United States since 1998 and has established a global network of schools preaching 'Islam in a spirit of tolerance.'
The poll was organised by Prospect, a British Magazine, and Foreign Policy, a US publication. It attracted over 500,000 votes. Amongst the top 10, who all came from a Muslim background, Muhammad Yunus was voted in at second, Shirin Ebadi tenth, and Yusuf al-Qaradawi (spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood), interestingly, was voted in at third.
