The Gülen Movement arose among pious men and women who wanted a modern interpretation of religion. In the dynamics of the transformation of the movement, the social milieu also played an important role. The movement became a spiritual refuge for those who searched for an interpretation where Islam was in harmony with modernity. The followers of the Gülen Movement do not describe themselves as a political movement.…
The Gülen movement has been given a positive coverage by the media like The Economist, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Le Monde and Forbes and by University presses such as Syracuse University Press, SUNY Press, Leeds Metropolitan University Press, and Stanford University Press. How ironic it is that Gülen, who had been and still is accused by radical secularists of clandestinely working to build an Islamic state, was at the time also accused of being one of the Pope’s “secret cardinals.” …
Helen Rose Ebaugh & Dogan Koc Questions regarding the financing of numerous and expensive projects of the Gülen movement are periodically raised by both critics of the movement and newcomers to the movement who are invited to Gülen related events.…
Doğu Ergil Can the Gülen Movement be characterized as a Sufi order? Is it possible to call it a Sufi order considering the teachings regarding the spiritual realm and practices of daily life? Although the basic dynamics of the Gülen…
The place where Gülen lives has been a heated topic among the Turkish public given recurrent news reports that appear in dailies in an attempt to cast doubt on where the Islamic scholar, who left Turkey in 1999, resides. While…
Hizmet is a faith-inspired civil society movement that seeks to create a culture of coexistence within universal, humanist values and is comprised of volunteers. The essence of volunteerism is to make a contribution without the expectation of anything in return.…
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…
Graham E. Fuller One of the Gülen movement’s greatest accomplishments—and a demonstration of its search for greater universalism—has come through a remarkable process of intellectual outreach, a series of annual roundtables called the Abant Forum. These roundtables have brought together Turks of…
How does Gulen manage to oversee a network of schools, media companies and other for-profit or non-profit organizations that are run based on his teachings? First of all, the word “oversee” means, “supervising (a person or work), especially in official…
Enes Ergene Even though the essential dynamics of the Gülen movement look similar to those of the classical Islamic tradition of spiritual orders in certain aspects, its organization is different with regard to producing civil initiatives and its way of…