The Gulen movement and its

contributions: New social

movements perspective

Liu, Yu-cheng, PhD

Assistant Master, Residential College of International Development, National Chengchi University, Taiwan

Assistant Professor, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

E-mail: ycliu15@gmail.com

The 2013 CESNUR conference

Changing Religious Movements in a Changing World

Dalarna University, Falun (Sweden), 21-24, June, 2013

• The Gulen community, some say, ‘one of

the most influential revivalist movements

in modern turkey,’ founded by Fethullah

Gulen, makes the silent reformation

possible (Özdalga, 2005, p. 430).

Fethullah Gulen paid

a visit to the late

John Paul II

in Rome in 1998

several characteristics of the Gulen

community and the movement

• The founder of the Gulen movement is

Fethullah Gulen, who was born in a

traditional Muslim family and was

educated as a thinker and preacher.

• His thoughts was colored heavily with the

teachings of Sufi orders, particularly those

of Said Nursi, Gulen’s teacher.

some characteristics-2

• among all fields, education was the most important section emphasized and developed by Mr. Gulen

• other sections the Gulen community developed: economic enterprises, publications and broadcasting, and religious gatherings

• there is no strict organization governing the activities of the Gulen community

some characteristics-3

• faith-based, apolitical movement:

– the Gulen movement is faith-based but

not religion-based in the sense that

those universal values supported by the

movement have their origin in Islam,

pursuing them is exactly on the right

way to the faith

some characteristics-4

• The Gulen movement gains its support from businessmen, intellectuals, educators, workers, and students, but not from militaries and politicians (however changed recently).

• it is identity-oriented in that it combines three elements as the identity of the movement: Ottoman legacy, secular Turkey, and Islam

• the Gulen movement is secular: it appropriates liberal market economy to gain material supports and to make sure its connection to the secular world

some characteristics-sum

• Advocating liberal market economy, close

to Sufi teachings and orders, reconciling

Islam with science, are characteristics of

the Gulen movement and of the teachings

of Mr. Gulen

regarding its aspects of social

movement

• the people, including Fethullah Gulen

himself, who participate in this movement,

are rational in that the movement

advocates liberal market economy and the

use of modern media technology

• the movement is purposeful, aiming at

world peace and intercultural dialogue

difference between social and NEW

social movements

• ‘a critical ideology in relation to modernism

and progress, decentralized and

participatory organizational structures,

defense of interpersonal solidarity against

the great bureaucracies, and the

reclamation of autonomous spaces, rather

than material advantages’ (Porta and Diani)

the Gulen movement as NEW

social movement

• The ‘newness’ lies in the fact that it is

largely an identity seeking and rebuilding

movement, and it concerns not just faith,

but also people’s life, starting from

educational reformation

• paradoxically, the aims of the Gulen

community are to some extent contradict

with liberal market economy through which

the Gulen community gains its power and

development

• first of all, the Gulen movement to some respect advocates liberal market economy, and regards it as a way for Turkey to develop its identity combining Ottoman, Turkish, and Islam.

• however, the Gulen movement does not oppose the intervention of the state into people’s life, which is not supported by liberal market economy.

• The legitimacy of the Gulen movement is

generated through advocating liberal market

economy and democracy, and admitting that

Islam and science are not incompatible via

promoting education reforms.

• It was so in the society of Turkey by the

1980s that give legitimacy to various new

social movements and social groups,

including the Gulen community

the contributions-1

• The failing of Kemalism by the 1980s

created a kind of vernacularization in

political dimension and leaded to the

transmission of Islam from private to public

sphere, and that transformed the society

of Turkey, the Gulen community plays an

important role in this ‘deprivatization’ of

Islam.

the contributions-2

• the Gulen community plays the role of

mediator between the individual and the

state, for it ‘helps to formulate solutions at

the level of individual autonomy that

prepare the way for the development and

integration of the individual into the

modern nation state’

the contributions-3

• the Gulen movement voices for human rights, justice, world peace, intercultural and interfaith dialogue, environmental issues, educational problems, and so on

• instead of liberal market economy, cultural factors are important in supporting the movement: society-centric, identity-oriented, faith-based instead of religion-based, and secular

four elements corresponding to four

cultural and social factors

society-centric ordinary people

identity-oriented Ottoman-Turkish-Islam

faith-based universal values originated in Islam

secular liberal market economy

the contributions-4

• when globalization leads to a homogeneous world and a westernized society, the particularity of the Gulen movement lies in its delimitation to globalization and liberal market economy

• the faith-based ideals and actions make the participants of the Gulen movement to rethink the role of capitalism and liberal market played in their life, as a tool for supporting the movement, it is possible for them not to be influenced by some negative aspects of both of them

the contributions-5

• the faith-based character ‘pulls them out of’

the secular way, advocating capitalism and

liberal market economy, they are using to

achieve their goals.

• This is similar to what Heidegger talked

about: the ‘authenticity’ of life

the contributions-6

• It is also possible for those people who

participating in the Gulen movement

avoiding from the crisis of identity, which is

also one of the consequences of

capitalism and neo-/liberal economy

conclusion-1

• the Gulen movement as NEW social movement, not exactly NEW religious movement

• its NEWNESS lies in its legitimacy in pursuing identity and universal values when considering the formation of nation state or modernity

• the Gulen movement should be reconsidered in the sense of ‘the social’

conclusion-2

• four elements corresponding to four social

facts:

– they constitute its legitimacy not only in

Turkish society, but also in the world

– they may contribute and complement to

the world where the faith and values

have been lost while pursuing blindly

material achievements

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