[51] “Fethullah Gülen: Understanding and Respect,” http://en.fGülen.com/fethullah-Gülen-life-chronology/1055-1941-1993 (accessed December 11, 2011). This engagement was shaped not only by the movement’s interest in utilizing the opportunities and openings created by economic and political liberalization, but also by an attempt to create a synthesis between Islam and liberalism (Kılınç, 2013). This first step towards liberal, democratic government opened the way for a re-emergence of opposition parties, one of which won the election. [174] Other quantifiable numbers might suggest lower numbers, with Gülen having just 310,647 on Facebook[175] and less than 4,500 total followers on Twitter. : Indiana University Press, 2004), 270-88. Many Turks believed that this deep state was behind clashes between leftists and nationalists in the 1970s, the rise of militant Kurdish separatist movement in the 1980s, the assassination of leftist journalists and intellectuals, and Islamist-secular tensions in the 1990s. The JWF organized a series of workshops under its Abant Platform to promote public engagement on divisive sociopolitical issues. Mesnevi-i nuriye.
In the Gülen movement, these two concepts occupy central roles, with activism focused on youth education but expanding across economic, political, and social sectors. He lives a secluded life at a retreat in Pennsylvania.
He would be the one who would be troubled the most if he hears that followers or inspirers see him kind of prophet. As times of crisis are also times of opportunity and renewal, the movement is likely to channel its grassroots energy toward more locally connected and sustained projects, moving away from its previous Turkey-centric stage of development.
These intellectuals offered an alternative form of modernity, one that blended Islamic and Turkish identity, against the Kemalist model that aimed to combine Western and Turkish identities. There is no doubt that Gülen’s charismatic and strong leadership has been appealing to the masses. A post-coup purge in Turkey is continuing to take a huge toll on human life, making no exceptions for children.
U.S. News awarded Harmony Science Academy–Euless bronze medal in its 2017 National Rankings of Best High Schools: “Harmony Science Academy–Euless,” Best High Schools, U.S. News, 2018. Combined with the “deterioration of Kemalism”[75] represented by Turgut Özal’s liberal economic and political policies of the 1980s, the religious opening created by Nursi’s death and the fracturing of his movement facilitated the emergence of the Gülen movement, which provided an “alternate source of ultimate authority and values in the absence of a hegemonic state ideology”[76] and religious leadership.
His charisma is derived from his super-spiritual personality – and this personality stems from the immense amount of knowledge he has acquired in the religious sciences, which he has combined with successful practice. In addition to his training in classical Islamic sciences, he is very much a product of his Turkish nationality and the political events that influenced his six or so decades as a Turkish citizen. Gülen sent a group of youth and businessmen to meet the state elite in the newly independent nations and to start schools. 127–132). [52] “Fethullah Gülen: Understanding and Respect.”, [53] “Fethullah Gülen: Understanding and Respect.”. Wood, Social Movements: 1768-2008, 2nd Edition (Paradigm Publishers, 2009), 7. SEVERSON: Professor Ebaugh says the movement could do better by placing women in leadership roles. His sermons attracted massive audience outpouring, from the mosques to the streets, and he led this growing number of dedicated followers including college students, small business owners, and workers to establish student apartments, dorms, tutoring centers, and later private schools as the locus of movement’s inception. During this period, the Istanbul-based Journalists and Writers Foundation (JWF) became the public face of the movement’s promotion of dialogue and reconciliation. SHARON QUINILTY (Teacher, Harmony School of Innovation): I have never worked harder. Today’s Zaman: “Author of book on Gulen movement receives much interest in Ankara,” January 18, 2011, Washington Post: "Islamic group is CIA front, ex-Turkish intel chief says," by Jeff Stein, January 5, 2011, Pittsburgh Tribune Review: "Imam who lives in rural Pennsylvania arouses praise, concerns" by Andrew Conte, November 28, 2010, The New Republic: "The global imam" by Suzy Hansen, Novemnber 10, 2010, Texas Monthly: "Head of the class" by William Martin, August 2010, USA Today: "Objectives of charter schools with Turkish ties questioned' by Greg Toppo, August 17, 2010, New York Times: "Turk who leads a movement has advocates and critics" by Brian Knowlton, June 11, 2010, Wall Street Journal: "Reclusive Turkish imam criticizes Gaza flotilla" by Joe Lauria, June 4, 2010, Foreign Policy: “Turkish cleric Gulen tops intellectuals list” by Joshua Keating, June 23, 2008, Time Magazine: "The Turkish imam and his global education mission" by Pelin Turgut Almaty, April 26, 2010, Pew Forum: "Muslim networks and movements in western Europe," September 15, 2010, THE GULEN MOVEMENT: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A CIVIC MOVEMENT ROOTED IN MODERATE ISLAM by Helen Rose Ebaugh, ISLAM AND PEACEBUILDING: GULEN MOVEMENT INITIATIVES by John Esposito and Ihsan Yilmaz. The first is the core circle around Gülen.
In Gülen, Pearls of Wisdom, 73, Gülen states that “[p]eople who don’t think like you might be very sincere and beneficial, so do not oppose every idea that seems contradictory and scare them off. “İçte ihsan olmali ki dışta ihsan olsun.” Fethullah Gülen, “İtkan ve İhsan Ufku,” May 13, 2006. Some groups of the former consider Ali, the cousin of Muhammad, to be the incarnation of the God, while the latter view him only as the third rightly guided Caliph and as totally human in nature. [98] Sharon-Krespin, “Fethullah Gülen’s Grand Ambition,” 4. First, the Gülen movement asserts popular sovereignty. [88] In doing so, he intends to “free Islam from the confines of the mosque and the private domain of individuals and to bring it to the public arena,”[89] where the Kemalist equation of modernization with Westernization can be rejected. Atatürk closed down dervish lodges, Westernized dress codes to remove religious attire from public view, and abolished both the Sultanate and the Caliphate in installing a Western-inspired secular system of government. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, Michel T (2005) Sufism and modernity in the thought of Fethullah Gülen. Neither Gülen or the movement that takes his name is overtly politicized, and in the absence of hard evidence to the contrary, the movement will seem benign to many—unless of course one is ideologically opposed to challenges to Turkey’s existing order, as many in Turkey are, or inherently uneasy about any faith-inspired movement.”[20], Gülen’s own guidance to his followers likely limits final definition of the movement’s goals and objectives. [72] Nursi died in 1960, and his movement fractured along “ethnic, class, educational, generational, and regional lines.”[73] In the two decades that followed his death, Gülen, a dedicated Nursi follower,[74] emerged as the most prestigious and powerful Nursi protégé. The movement’s informal networks and funds, as well as the ambiguity of its public representation, became a liability in its struggle against a populist government, leading to a major government crackdown against the movement, with little sympathy from the larger society (Kuru, 2017). The Gülen movement is a transnational social movement with presence in more than 120 countries.
[71] Yavuz, “Towards an Islamic Liberalism?” 590. The army’s recruitment, promotion, and retention system became more discriminatory in the 1980s and 1990s to counter the flow of Gülenists into their officer ranks. In this case, cultural forms present in Turkey facilitated the emergence and growth of the Gülen movement. Did America’s top spy release Russian disinformation to help Trump?
Unless a seed composed of religion, tradition, and historical consciousness is germinated throughout the country, new evil elements will appear and grow in the place of each eradicated bad one.”[120], A close reading of Gülen’s works reveals education as the primary field in which the Gülen movement would manifest itself, given the import Gülen gives to youth enrichment. Following the early model of the private high schools in Turkey, the schools abroad also invested in science, math, and technology. Because the parents are very involved, the kids really respond.
Allegedly mastering the Koran at age 5, Gülen developed his religious views under the mentorship of his father and local imams and by the age of 15 had begun delivering religious lectures in his home village.