Gülen Movement (Hizmet) has no trouble in embracing secularism as long as the state remains neutral towards legal religious activity and is not hostile to its activities as before. Hizmet members furthermore believe that a moral movement like their own should not depend upon or need the state and, indeed, might even be corrupted by the state through direct association with its power.”…
To accomplish the educational projects that Mr. Fethullah Gülen envisioned required human and financial resources. Teachers and principals were needed who were dedicated and committed to quality education and who were willing to make sacrifices to enhance the education of their students. Parents had to be willing to work with teachers and school administrators for common educational goals. And to achieve these goals philanthropic giving through the establishment of charitable trusts was necessary. …
The significance of the Gulen Movement that has attracted the most scholarly attention is its development of certain networks that transcend national boundaries. The Movement is not chary of expanding its societal basis. Rather, it sees enlargement as a major networking strategy. ‘Recruitment’ is not the adequate term for characterising the link between a social movement and people, for participation in such a movement takes place in various ways.…
A TV channel started a defamation of Fethullah Gulen in June 1999 in Turkey based on a montage videocassette. Below is an phone interview with Mr. Gulen by famous anchor Reha Muhtar of Show TV. Gulen in this interview answers all the accusations such as penetrating the state institutions, bringing Sharia to Turkiye and being against the Turkish army.…
Traditional Islamic values of piety, social commitment, tolerance, social justice and moderation in Islam find themselves overwhelmed in the current fray of international violence, war, injustice, fanaticism, and daily hardship in the Middle East – key source of anxiety to most Muslims today. This kind of toxic environment contributes to increased insecurity, desperation, intolerance and radicalism. It is precisely these dangerous trends that the Turkey-based faith movement of Fethullah Gülen today seeks to combat.…
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.…
Graham E. Fuller The Gülen movement shows great skills in the spread of its commercial and financial institutions and in the use of modern media to reach to an ever-broader audience. Its members are generally well-versed in technology, economics or…
Probably the lack of transparency theme is the one that might seem to garner most traction. However, given that prosecutors have twice attempted to shut down all Gülen-related entities and even seize their assets, the wisest course—for self-defense—is not to formalize an organizational structure in any sense. …
When his discourse and actions are observed over an extended time period, the obvious conclusion is that Gülen's aim is to reconcile tradition with modernity. According to him, a healthy modern society has three attributes: communal harmony, hard work, and productivity.…