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: [email protected]
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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