Martin Taylor In my previous blog, in an effort to understand and explain how the Gülen Movement (also called Hizmet) operates without a top-down organizational structure, I looked at Gore Inc, a privately owned high-tech company producing over a thousand products and an annual turnover of $2.5 billion with over 9,000 employees and factories in more […]
Martin Taylor The Gülen Movement, also known as Hizmet (service), is a social movement inspired by the Turkish Islamic scholar and peace activist Fethullah Gülen.[1] It began in Turkey in the 1970’s and operates principally in education, dialogue, media and relief work. It has founded over a thousand schools; even more dialogue organisations; clinics; media outlets; humanitarian aid […]
In all this Gülen remains rooted in tradition but offers a view of responsibility that goes beyond simple adherence to codes or ethical principles. The significant principles are universal and therefore need the exercise of agency, accountability, and limitless liability if they are to find meaning in practice. Hence, for Gülen responsibility finds its base in relationships, primarily with God.
The differences between Huntington and Gülen are stark. Where Huntington thinks in terms of polarities, Islam or the West in conflict with one another, Gülen opts for a more holistic view of global politics. Gülen sees Islam and the West working together in a harmonious fashion. In this connection the operative term for Gülen is dialogue.
In his writings and oral addresses, Gülen prefers the term hoshgoru (literally, “good view”) to “tolerance.” Elsewhere, Gülen finds even the concept of hoshgoru insufficient, and employs terms with more depth in interfaith relations, such as respect and an appreciation of the positions of your dialog partner.
The challenge today, as Gülen sees it, is to find a way in which these traditional pedagogical systems can overcome the tendency to regard each other as rivals or enemies, so that they can begin to work together and learn from one another. By integrating the insights and strengths found in the various educational currents, educators must seek to bring about a “marriage of mind and heart” if they hope to form individuals of “thought, action, and inspiration.”
The most populous Muslim presence in the UK has its roots in the Indian subcontinent, and the nature of Islam in Pakistan, especially, has coloured British understanding of and approaches to Islam. This is to ignore the diversity of Islam, not only theological, but also cultural and geographical. A very different model of Islam can […]
Recently, especially in the western media, Fethullah Gulen has been called an ‘imam’. Is Fethullah Gulen an ‘imam’ or is this a misleading title? The 60 minutes TV show described Gulen as an ‘imam’. However, 60 minutes is not the first media to use this label for Gulen. Time Magazine on April 26, 2010 called […]
As someone who has been working on the movement in my academic capacity for more than a decade, I feel responsible to try and set the record straight. The Hizmet is composed of many different individuals with all sorts of backgrounds, tastes, preferences, views and so on. Yet, there are not autonomous groups, classes or sects within the movement that differ from other groups.
Muhammed Cetin Participation in services takes relatively stable, enduring forms. Individuals come and go and replace one another but the projects remain and continue. Individual needs and collective goals are not mutually exclusive; they are one and the same thing, and in daily life coincide and interweave closely with the action of the Gülen Movement. […]