What Hizmet also illustrates is the resilience of a truly paramodern spiritual movement. Despite sustained attacks over a number of decades the movement still exists. The Turkish government may be successful in closing down visible symbols of Hizmet like schools and media outlines, but as previous governments found with Nursi, destroying an idea and mindset is not so easy.…
The history of the Gülen Movement in the United Kingdom is fairly short compared to other Turkish faith-based communities or movements, such as Suleymanci, Sheikh Nazim and other Naqshibendiyya communities. Indeed, this fact could be deducted when the facilities and other services of respective communities are observed. …
The Gülen community, despite its relative youth, has developed a rich array of symbolic self-understandings and representations. This development of shared symbols and memories creates a sense of unity and collective identification beyond the interests and experiences of individual members.…
Taking the Gülen movement as a case study, this paper demonstrates how an Islamic movement engages with the West strategically and rationally, adopting a non-violent action repertoire, embracing modernity and operating predominantly within the cultural arena. Rather than adopting violence as a means to an end, the Gülen movement has turned its rejection of violence in all forms into a core feature of Gülen’s “Turkish Islam”, which is depicted as modern, peaceful, undogmatic and moderate.…
The development of the Gulen movement, or Hizmet (service), as its followers prefer to call it, in the Netherlands reflects the evolution of the Turkish community in general. Initially this largely consisted of single men who were recruited as workers in low-wage sectors of the Dutch economy.…
Doğu Ergil* Those who are within the Gülen Movement do not consider themselves the continuation or the extension of any other movement. At a certain time and under the perfect circumstances in Turkish History, the teachings of Gülen coincided with…
As the Gulen movement flourished in the 80s it is necessary to study the 1980 military coup in detail in order. The military coup of 1980 brought a military government first and called for elections in 1983. The Motherland Party (MP) under the leadership of Turgut Ozal who emphasized open market economy, democratic values, freedom of religious education and morality as a force against socialism. Ozal embraced Islam as a source of morality but rejected political Islam. …
Helen Rose Ebaugh Establishing the First Educational Projects Mr. Gülen, together with administrators of the Kestanepazari institution and with the support of local businessmen organized summer camps for middle and high school students, as well as university students. These camps…
Dr. Alp Aslandogan I would like to begin by thanking the Center for Strategic and International Studies for hosting this presentation and in particular Dr. Aliriza for his invitation and organizing this gathering. I also have a couple of disclaimers:…
Greg Barton Gülen is generally seen to draw directly on the intellectual heritage of the influential and greatly loved Sufi scholar and writer Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. And indeed, an examination of Gülen’s writing reveals it to be substantially built upon…