Alliance for Shared Values
The Alliance for Shared Values is a New York-based 501 nonprofit umbrella organization and a major part of the Gülen movement, or Hizmet.
Goals and organization
The president of the organization is Alp Aslandogan.Member groups
According to the official website, the following groups are a part of the Alliance for Shared Values :- Atlantic Institute, formerly known as the Istanbul Cultural Center, a non-profit group from Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, Clemson South Carolina that "promotes dialogue between different faiths, cultures and religions." AI holds a free annual iftar, where non-Muslims can learn about the Muslim Ramadan traditions and have their questions answered by the institute. Similarly, it organizes cultural interfaith events in South Carolina. The institute also occasionally paid for trips to Turkey for legislators in South Carolina. Its president and director is Akif Aydin.
- Rumi Forum, formed in 1999 and based in Washington, D.C., exists to “foster interfaith and intercultural dialogue.” In April 2016, they hosted a religious extremism debate in Charlottesville, Virginia. In June 2016, they hosted an iftar similar to that of the Atlantic Institute in Albemarle County, Virginia.
- Pacifica Institute, a nationwide nonprofit organization which opened in the San Fernando Valley in California in 2003, but is now based in South Salt Lake, Utah. In February 2015, the institute sponsored and hosted a screening of "Love is a Verb", a documentary on Fethullah Gulen's life. The Pacifica Institute traditionally had annual trips to Turkey, but these stopped in early 2016 because of instability in the area and the increase in ISIS-fueled terrorist attacks. The institute, like the other member groups of the AFSV, also holds interfaith iftars.
- Institute for Interfaith Dialogue, based in Houston.
- Niagara Foundation. A non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of fostering civic conversations and sustained relationships between people of different cultures and faiths.
- Peace Islands Institute
Conflict with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
In 2016, Turkish President Erdoğan and other members of the Turkish government announced internationally that Fethullah Gülen and his FETÖ terrorist movement for the 2016 [Turkish coup d'état attempt|Turkish coup attempt]. The AFSV condemned both the coup and accusations of being involved in it, releasing a statement on the day of the attempt: