mapping the gülen movement: a multidimensional approach

International Conference

Mapping the Gülen MovementA Multidimensional Approach

Conference Papers

October 7, 2010Felix Meritis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Introductory SpeechAnatomy of the Gülen philisophy and movement ProfDrDoğuErgil,AnkaraUniversity,Turkey

1. The Intellectual Dimension of the Hizmet Movement: A Discourse Analysis

DrPimValkenberg,LoyolaUniversityMaryland

2. The Theological Dimension of the Thought of M. Fethullah Gülen

ProfDrThomasMichel,GeorgetownUniversity,Washington,D.C.

3. Socialcultural Dimension The Flexible and Multilayered Character of ‘Hizmet’ (Social Service)

Movement in Immigration: A Case Study from Belgium ProfDrJohanLeman,CatholicUniversityofLeuven,Belgium

4. Financial Dimension Financing the Gulen-inspired projects ProfDrHelenRoseEbaugh,UniversityofHouston,Texas

5. Structural Dimension Mobilization, Institutionalization

and Organization in the Gülen Movement DrMuhammedÇetin,EastStroudsburgUniversity,PA,USA

6. Political Dimension of the Gülen Movement

DrIhsanYilmaz,FatihUniversity,Turkey

7. Gender Dimension Reflections on Women in the Gülen Movement:

Muslim Women’s Public Spheres Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow DrMariaCurtis,UniversityofHouston-ClearLake,Texas

Preface

iConference Program

iiiBiographies

TABle OF CONTeNTS

On behalf of the organizers, Dialogue Academy, and VISOR (Institute for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society of the VU University in Amsterdam), it is our pleasure to present you the papers of the International Conference entitled “Mapping the Gülen Movement: A Multidimensional Approach”. This conference will take place on the 7th of October 2010 in the Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

This one-day conference stimulates the academic analysis by reflecting different dimensions of the Gülen Movement, which originated in Turkey and then expanded throughout the world. The movement is now socially active in more than a 110 countries. International experts will discuss this transnational movement from the following viewpoints: theological, intellectual, financial, structural, political, gender, and sociocultural. This multidimensional approach will provide useful pointers about this loosely organized “glocal” movement, which is rooted in the teachings of Islamic scholar M. Fethullah Gülen (b.1941). Gülen is regarded as the founder and inspirer of this global social movement known as the Hizmet (Service) Movement or the Volunteers Movement, more popularly known as the Gülen Movement. This conference will discuss and evaluate the movement’s message and praxis, and will analyze its organization and accomplishments, including its resonance. By focusing on its seven dimensions, this interdisciplinary conference will contribute to a comprehensive view of one of the most widely discussed societal programs in the contemporary world.

PReFACe

Participants should keep in mind that our goal is clearly and vigorously to discuss ideas and methods. We criticize ideas, not people, and participate in the conference with that goal in mind. A conference is successful, even “fun”, to the extent that presentations and comments are clear, constructive, and contribute to the exploration of current issues and significant issues regarding the conference theme and approach.

Please note that the papers collected here are only draft and unedited versions, and are not intended to be used a reference in this form. They are provided in advance circulation of the conference as draft copies to facilitate meaningful discussions in the conference. So for future reference it is recommended to contact the conference coordinator for a fully edited version. We are most grateful to the dedication, expertise and professionalism of the authors and referees.

To conclude, we would like to thank all authors for submitting their work, keynote speakers, panelists, session moderators, and Dr. Kate Kirk, people who have helped to make this conference happen. We are very grateful to them for their commitment to put together what will surely prove to be a most worthwhile and stimulating academic enterprise.

September 2010, Rotterdam & Amsterdam.

Dr. Gürkan Çelik Prof.Dr. Martien Brinkman Director Dialogue Academy Director VISOR Institute

www.dialoogacademie.nl www.visor.vu.nl

TheconferencewillbepresentedbyDrKateKirk

Welcome speech

ByProfDrMartienBrinkman,directorVISORInstitute,TheNetherlands

Introductory Speech

Anatomy of the Gülen philosophy and movementByProfDrDoğuErgil,AnkaraUniversity,Turkey

PANEL I: Prof Dr Thijl Sunier, moderator, VU University Amsterdam

1. The Intellectual Dimension

What are Fethullah Gülen’s intellectual achievements and how has his message and philosophy been developed and practiced by members of the movement? What does his teaching include, and what is his background and message on Islamic theology and spirituality?ByDrPimValkenberg,LoyolaUniversity,Maryland

2. Theological Dimension

What part of Islam does the movement follow? What are the movement’s theological roots and spiritual interest? What does the concept of ikhlas include? How does the movement view creationism?ByProfDrThomasMichel,GeorgetownUniversity,Washington,DC

CONFeReNCe PROGRAM

3. Socialcultural Dimension

What is the contribution of the movement to social integration and participation in the society? Is the movement a source of ethnic division in the host societies?ByProfDrJohanLeman,CatholicUniversityofLeuven,Belgium

Afternoon Speech

Organization and discipline: putting hizmet to workByProfDrMartinvanBruinessen,UtrechtUniversity,TheNetherlands

PANEL II: Prof Dr Gerard Wiegers, moderator, University of Amsterdam

4. Financial Dimension

What keeps the wheels turning? What is the source of all the money behind the Gülen-inspired projects? ByProfDrHelenRoseEbaugh,UniversityofHouston,Texas

5. Structural DimensionHow is the movement organized? How does the movement mobilize movement participants? How will the 7-S management model be applied to the Gülen Movement? ByDrMuhammedCetin,EastStroudsburgUniversity,PA,USA

6. Political Dimension

Is there a necessity for political involvement when participating in the movement? What is the movement’s position on politics, and the nature of its political activism?ByDrIhsanYilmaz&DrŞammasSalur,FatihUniversity,Turkey

7. Gender Dimension

Where in the movement are the women? How do the participants in the movement view females and their role both in the movement and in the society? ByProfDrMariaCurtis,UniversityofHouston-ClearLake,Texas

Closing Speech: Reflection on the Presentations

ByProfDrPaulWeller,UniversityofDerby,UnitedKingdom

Moderators

Thijl Sunier

Professor Sunier, anthropologist, holds the VISOR chair of Islam in european Societies at the VU University Amsterdam. He conducted research on inter-ethnic relations, Turkish youth and Turkish Islamic organisations in the Netherlands, comparative research among Turkish youth in France, Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands, and international comparative research on nation building and multiculturalism in France and The Netherlands. Presently he is preparing research on styles of popular religiosity among young Muslims in europe, religious leadership, and nation-building and Islam in europe. He is member of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR), chairman of the board of the Inter-academic School for Islam Studies in the Netherlands (ISIS). He is editor of the anthropological journal Etnofoor, and chairman of the board of the Dutch Anthropological Association (ABV).

• Sunier, T. (2009). Beyond the Domstication of Islam.A Reflection on Research on Islam in European Societies(inaugural lecture 27th of November 2009)

• Sunier, T. (2009).Are Muslim women in europe threatening the secular public sphere? (Debate with Heiko Henkel) SocialAnthropologyVol 17/4: 471-479

• Sunier, T. (2010). Styles of religious practice: Muslim youth cultures in europe in M. Bailey, A.

• McNicholas & G. Redden (eds.) MediatingFaithAldershot: Ashgate.

BIOGRAPHIeS

Gerard Wiegers

Professor Wiegers (Ph.D. leiden University, 1991, cum laude) was from 1992 until 1997 Research Fellow of the Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), associate professor of Islamic Studies at leiden University from 1997-2003 and from 2004 until September 2009, Professor of Comparative Religion and Islamic Studies at Radboud University Nijmegen. Since September 2009 he has been professor of Religious Studies at the University of Amsterdam and chair of Religious Studies. His fields of interest are: the relations between Islam and other religions; Islamic ethics; History of Islam on the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa and europe; ritual studies, and theory and method in the study of religions.

Present editorial Activities and Administrative Responsibilities:• Member of the editorial boards of the NumenBookSeries

(NUS, Brill), NewReligiousIdentitiesintheWesternWorld (Peeters, leuven), The Medieval and Early Modern IberianWorld (MeMI, Brill) and the journal Al-Qantara (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cient í ficas, Madrid).

• Member of the Advisory Board of estudios Arabes e Islamicos, Monografias, published by the Department of Arabic Studies of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (National Centre for Scientific Research, CSIC), Madrid.

• Member NWO ‘thema-commissie” Conflict and Security

• Member Advisory Board Babylon (Tilburg University)

Speakers

Doğu Ergil

Professor ergil completed his dissertation “From empire to Dependence: The evolution of Turkish Underdevelopment”in the inter-disciplinary Ph. D. Program composed of the “Development Studies Program” of State University of New York, Binghamton in 1975. In the following years dr. ergil became an Associate Professor of Political Science at Ankara University (1980) and a Professor of Social Science (1989) at the same University. Now he is the chair-person of the PoliticalBehaviourDepartment.Prof. ergil wrote 25 books and dozens of scholarly articles and scientific research papers in many renowned journals of the world. Two of his books are Conflict Resolution in Theory and in theTurkishContext,Turkey:ACountryinSearchofHerPolitics(a book comprising of monographs and articles on contemporary social, political and cultural problems/issues of Turkey); The EasternQuestion (An Analysis of the Kurdish Problem). Most recent he published a book as result of his research on the Gülen movement.

• ergil, Doğu (2010). 100sorudaFethullahGülenenHareketi (Fethullah Gülen and his movement in 100 questions). Timas: Istanbul Zie voor meer informatie over dit boek: http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-211501-8-dogu-ergil-answers-100-questions-about-fethullah-gulen-and-his-movement.html

• ergil, Doğu. Kürt Raporu: Güvenlik PolitikalarındanKimlikSiyasetine (Kurdish Report: From Security Politics to Identity Politics). Timas: Istanbul

Pim Valkenberg

He was born in 1954 in the Netherlands where he studied theology at the Utrecht State University and the Catholic Theological University of Utrecht. He was assistant and associate professor of dogmatic theology and the theology of religions at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (1987-2007), where he studied Arabic and Islam as well. He was a visiting fellow or professor in leuven (Belgium), Johannesburg (South Africa), Notre Dame (Indiana) and Baltimore (Maryland). Since September 2007, he works as a theologian with special interest in Christian-Muslim dialogue at loyola University Maryland. His publications include a dissertation on St. Thomas Aquinas (WordsoftheLivingGod, leuven 2000), and books on Abrahamic dialogue in the Middle Ages (TheThreeRings, leuven 2005), and in past and present (SharingLightsontheWayto God: Muslim-Christian Dialogue and Theology in the Context ofAbrahamic Partnership, Amsterdam / New York 2006). Together with G. Celik, he published “Gülen’s Approach to Dialogue and Peace: its theoretical Background and Some Practical Perspectives” in InternationalJournalofDiversity 7 (2007)/1:29-37, and recently they edited Fethullah Gülen & de Vrijwilligersbeweging (Budel 2010). Dr. Valkenberg served at the editorial board of the conference PeacefulCoexistence:FethullahGülen’sInitiativesintheContemporaryWorld (erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Nov. 22-23, 2007).

Thomas Michel, S.J.

He is professor at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. In 1969 professor Michel entered the Society of Jesus ( Jesuits) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. After studying Arabic and Islamic studies in egypt and lebanon, he completed his studies and received a doctorate in

Islamic theology at the University of Chicago in the U.S.A. Between 1994-2008 Fr. Michel served as executive Secretary for the Office of Interreligious and ecumenical Affairs, based in Bangkok, Thailand, and as Secretary for Interreligious Dialogue for the Jesuits, based in Rome. In 2008 he became a Visiting Fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center in Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He continues to teach in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. He is now living in Ankara, Turkey and has published extensively on modern Muslim thinkers such as Said Nursi and Fethullah Gülen.■ Michel, T (2009). What are the paths to interreligious and

intercultural dialogue? The Gülen movement in the interreligious context

■ Michel, T (2009). Sufism and modernity in the thought of Fethullah Gülen

■ Michel, T (2009). The Wing of the Bird: Gülen on Sincerity

Johan Leman

He is professor in social and cultural anthropology at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Katholieke Universiteit leuven; Interculturalism, Migration and Minorities Research Center (immrc.be). He is president of Regional integration center Foyer at Brussels. (foyer.be). He is former chief of cabinet of the Royal Commissioner for Migrant Policy in Belgium (1989-93) and former director of the federal Center for equal opportunities and fight against racism (1993-2003). His important field of research is religion in migration. He teaches about several subjects, including ‘interethnic majority-minority relations in europe’, ‘anthropology and religion’, and ‘migration and minority policies and its anthropological implications’. MA in philosophy, MA in eastern philology and history and MA in theology.■ leman, J., De Pooter, P., Rath, J. (2006). Stedelijk beleid en

levensbeschouwelijkediversiteitinVlaanderenenNederland.

■ Okechukwu Onah, S. and J. leman (2005). ‘Cosmological and Religious Fundamentals among Igbo Immigrants in Belgium: the Way Out of Segregation’, Social Compass, vol. 52, nr. 4, 513-527.

■ leman, J. (2006). Cultural identities and european citizenship. Cultureandculturalheritage:cultural identities, commonvaluesandEuropeancitizenship..Strasbourg, Palais de l’europe, 21-22 March 2006 Strasbourg: expert group of Council of europe DGIV.

■ leman, J., guest editor (2002) ‘Citizenship education, multilingual, intercultural and peace education: Possibilities for mutual fertilization’, Kolor, Journal on Moving Communities, Antwerp, vol. 1, nr 1.

■ leman, J. (2002). ‘Belgium: the triangle of peace-education, legislation, mediation’, in Salomon, G. and N. Baruch, eds., Peace education. The Concept, Principles, and Practices around the World. Mahwah, New Jersey, lawrence erlbaum Associates, 165-176.

Martin van Bruinessen

Professor Van Bruinessen studied theoretical physics and mathematics at Utrecht University, graduating ‘cum laude’ in 1971. He later switched to social anthropology, which he had studied as a hobby on the side. In 1978 he completed his Ph.D.thisis Agha,ShaikhandState: On the Social and Political Organization of Kurdistan at the same university. Van Bruinessen has travelled extensively in Turkey, Iran (on which he published a number of articles), Afghanistan (where he worked in a village development project) and Indonesia (conducting research). His most recent research focuses on shifting ethnic and religious identities in Turkey and on developments in the Kurdish movement.Since 1994 van Bruinessen has taught Kurdish and Turkish studies at the Department of Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages and Cultures of Utrecht University. In 1999 he was appointed to the

chair of comparative studies of modern Muslim societies at Utrecht University and the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM).■ Muhammad Khalid Masud, Armando Salvatore, and Martin van

Bruinessen (eds), Islam and modernity: key issues and debates, edinburg University Press and American University in Cairo Press, 2009. 296 pp.

■ Martin van Bruinessen, ‘Sufism, “popular” Islam, and the encounter with modernity’, in: Muhammad Khalid Masud, Armando Salvatore, and Martin van Bruinessen (eds), Islamandmodernity:keyissuesanddebates, edinburg University Press, 2009, pp. 125-157.

■ “The Kurdish question: whose question, whose answers? The Kurdish movement seen by the Kurds and by their neighbours”, Jwaideh Memorial lecture series, Publication No. 3. Department of Near eastern languages and Cultures, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2008.

Helen Rose Ebaugh

Professor ebaugh received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University in 1975 with specialties in organizational Sociology and the Sociology of Religion. She is professor in Sociology at the University of Houston. She served as president of the national Association for the Sociology of Religion, helped organize and served as the first chair of the American Sociological Association’s Section on the Sociology of Religion and is past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. ebaugh received two consecutive research grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts to study religion and the new immigrants in the United States. In addition to five books, she has published numerous articles in scholarly journals, including TheAmericanSociologicalReview,SocialForces,theJournalofNonprofitandVoluntarySectorQuarterly,SociologicalAnalysisandTheJournalForTheScientificStudyofReligion.

■ ebaugh, H. R. 2009. The Gulen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam. Springer Press.

■ ebaugh, H.R., J.S. Chafetz and P.F. Pipes. 2005. “Funding Good Works: Funding Sources of Faith-Based Social Service Coalitions.” NonprofitandVoluntarySectorQuarterly. 34: 448-472.

■ ebaugh, H.R., J.S. Chafetz and P.F. Pipes. 2006. “Where’s the Faith in Faith-Based Organizations? Measures and Correlates of Religiosity in Faith-Based Social Service Coalitions.” SocialForces84:2259-2272.

Muhammed Çetin

He received his master’s degree from the University of leicester and his PhD in Sociology from the University of Derby, UK. He has worked as lecturer, Vice Rector and Ministerial Adviser in Turkmenistan. He was a Visiting Scholar in the Sociology Department of UT-Austin and also in the Religious Studies Department of the University of Houston from 2003–2008. He worked in a voluntary capacity as the President of the Institute of Interfaith Dialog, USA from 2002–2008 and has served as organizer and speaker for a number of Interfaith Conferences and cultural activities. He is currently the publications coordinator of the Institute of Interfaith Dialog, USA and a columnist for the international daily Today’sZaman in Turkey, and an Adjunct Professor of Sociology in the east Stroudsburg University, PA, USA. Cetin is the author and producer of the DVD documentaries ‘Rumi and Universal love and Dialogue’ and ‘Call to prayer’. His latest book is TheGülenMovement:Civicservicewithoutborders (2010), Blue Dome, New York.

Ihsan Yilmaz

Associate Professor of Political Science at Fatih University, Istanbul as well as the Director of the PhD Program in Political Science and International Relations at the Institute of Social Sciences of Fatih University. He received his BA in Political Science and International Relations from the Bosporus University in 1994 and completed his PhD at the Faculty of law and Social Sciences, SOAS, University of london in 1999. He then worked at the University of Oxford as a fellow between 1999 and 2001 and taught Turkish government and politics, legal sociology, comparative law and Islamic law at SOAS, University of london between 2001 and 2008. He was also the Deputy Chair of the Centre for ethnic Minority Studies at SOAS (2003–2008) and the director of the london Centre for Social Studies (2003–2008). He is the author of Muslim Laws, Politicsand Society in Modern Nation States: Dynamic Legal PluralismsinEngland,Turkeyand Pakistan (2005), co-editor (with John l. esposito) of Islam and Peacebuilding: Gülen Movement Initiatives (2010) and co-editor (with Paul Weller) of a forthcoming book European Muslims, Civility and Public Life: Perspectives On andFromtheGülenMovement (2011). He is a co-editor of the european Journal of economic and Political Studies (eJePS). He has published his work in international scholarly journals such asBritishJournalofMiddleEasternStudies,MiddleEastJournal,JournalofEthnicandMigration Studies, Muslim World, International Journal of TurkishStudies, Journal for Islamic Studies, Journal of Muslim MinorityAffairs,JournalofCaucasianandCentralAsianStudies,JournalofEconomicandSocialResearch,InternationalLawandPoliticsJournal,EJEPS,andInsightTurkey. Dr. Yilmaz is frequently interviewed by nationwide TV channels; regular participant of the Abant Platform and a regular columnist of Today’s Zaman, an english language daily published in Turkey.

Maria Curtis

Maria Curtis is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Studies at the University of Houston-Clear lake teaching courses in Cultural Anthropology, Middle eastern studies, women and gender studies, and cultural diversity. She has spent time with members of the Gülen community since 1998 when she met them as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. She has conducted research on women, spirituality and globalization in Morocco and is interested in contemporary social movements in the Muslim world that attempt to take basic Islamic principles and apply them in a number of ways for service to humanity. Her dissertation research examined the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music which was founded as a project to bring together musicians from various world traditions in the wake of the first Gulf War as a means of cultivating interreligious awareness and peace building networks. Her current research is focused on the transnational participation of women adherents of the Gülen movement as they move between Turkey and the U.S. She is currently working on a book length project on this topic that also focuses on women in the Gülen movement who work in the Turkish media, as well as an edited volume on case studies examining the impact of Gülen women living in different areas of the world.

Paul WellerProfessor Weller is professor of Inter-religious Relations at the University of Derby and Head of Research and Commercial Development in its Faculty of education, Health and Sciences; Visiting Fellow in the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford; and a Trustee of the Multi-Faith Centre at the University of Derby. Current interests: issues in the relationships between religion, state and society. He is editor of Religions in the UK: Directory, 2007–2010 (Derby: University of Derby and Multi-Faith Centre at the University of Derby, 2007).■ Weller, P., Yilmaz, I. (eds.)(2011, forthcoming). European

Muslims, Civility and Public Life: Perspectives on and From theGulenMovement.LondonandNewYork:Continuum.

■ Weller,P.(2009).AMirrorforourTimes:“TheRushdieAffair”and the Future of Multiculturalism. London and New York,Continuum.

■ Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World: Contributions of theGülenMovement

■ Weller,P.(2006).‘FethullahGülen,Religions,GlobalizationandDialogue’,inR.HuntandY.Aslandoğan(eds.),MuslimCitizensoftheGlobalizedWorld:ContributionsoftheGülenMovement.Somerset,NJ:TheLightInc.andIIDPress.

Anatomy of the Gülen philisophyand movement

Prof.Dr.DoğuErgil,AnkaraUniversity,Turkey

Abstract

Fethullah Gülen (FG) is known worldwide due to his contemporary interpretation of Islam, exhortation for schools, pioneering for interfaith dialogue as well as motivating a group of volunteers to initiate different projects in almost all walks of life. That is why more scholars have been assessing the philosophy of FG and the movement he has inspired through a growing number of volunteers. It is extraordinary that an imam from rural Anatolia has emerged to become a renowned opinion and social leader who has influenced large social groups in their transition from tradition to modernity and from a rural life to an urban one. The transformation he has contributed is not a “change and secularization from above” as the founders of the Turkish Republic tried to implement but change and secularization from below. In this process the main actor of change is not the state but the people themselves. They are no more the objects of change and secularization but the subjects of these processes.

According to FG, religion is not only a belief system but also a holistic system of moral and behavioral principles that guide human beings in the complicated maze ways of life to goodness (as God wants them to be) and justice. He has the

INTRODUCTORY SPeeCH

conviction that religion and science are not contradictory but complimentary ways to seek the truth. Together they empower the individual and humanity.

For FG, knowledge is a potent instrument of change. If people need to be in command of their life and future, they have to manage change and increase the quality of their living standards. It is with this contention that FG has emphasized the role of education and inspired his followers to invest in educational activities and institutions at all levels. Furthermore, FG sees ignorance as a form of evil, preventing understanding of the self and the society and inhibiting reconciliation of cultural differences. For him education also builds bridges between inner life and social life, and helps us to understand the variety of facts and possibilities. This paper is a reflection on the Gülen philosophy and the movement he has inspired by highlighting key issues such as his views of religion in the contemporary world, inter-faith dialogue, politics; women, education as an instrument of individual and collective aggrandizement, ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis and possibility of universal reconciliation based on common religious and human principles.

This paper is based upon research and a recent book, entiteld: 100Soruda Fethullah Gülen ve Hareketi [Fethullah Gülen and His Movement in 100 Questions] by the author. Timaş Publishing House: Istanbul, 2010.

Introduction

I am here neither to praise nor to defame a man, group or movement. I am here to assess them for they have reached the point of international acknowledgement and to be reckoned with as a potent reality. There are two reasons why Fethullah Gülen (FG) as a person begs attention:

1) A village boy from a remote border town in eastern Turkey (erzurum) has emerged as a national opinion leader, inspiring the thoughts and actions of millions. Any such evolution deserves curiosity. He has later grown into an international figure in many respects that concern international relations.

2) A group of listeners that have become followers have transformed into being a local congregation; a congregation growing into a national community; a community expanding to be a comprehensive international organization of volunteers and stakeholders that can neither be defined as a religious sect or denomination, although it is religiously inspired. This phenomenon definitely begs examination and comprehension.

The Gülen movement (GM) is driven by the exigencies of life. It is voluntary, civic and independent. Its spirit is inspired by a modern understanding of reality. Reality is both the institutional and cultural set up that we find ourselves in and the belief system that the movement has emerged out of. Simply it is Islam, with all of its shades, as it exists and is practiced in Turkey. However for FG, a belief system, to be adaptive and readily accepted by different people, it must be stripped of legend, particular historical experiences of different Islamic states, epochs, geographies and cultures. Only then the spirit of religion travels over time and space and finds meaning in particular settings. Of course its basic principles must be well formulated according to the present needs and future expectations of communities. That is what Mr. Fethullah Gülen or Hocaefendi (Master Instructor), as he is commonly referred to, has tried to do: to carry the original messages of Islam to contemporary times and societies before they were thwarted by political or local cultural interpretations or the spirit of different times.

What is FG’s relevancy for Turkey and our time?

In a vivid medium of social transformation that involves urbanization and class differentiation he has proven to be a keen observer of the direction of change and the needs of emerging social cohorts. Indeed Turkey has been undergoing massive urbanization since the 1950s that has been enhanced in recent decades due to internal strife. Once a peasant society, two thirds of her population resides in urban centers of varying size and density. Uprooted from a self-sustaining communal and agricultural life and ill prepared to adapt to an anonymous life where secondary relations necessitate a degree of economic innovativeness, professionalism, adherence to laws rather than tradition, a large number of people started look for alternative frames of reference. No more supported but also uninhibited by rural communal ties ex peasants and small town folks took their place in the cities to become the new traditional but ambitious strata for upward mobility. However, they felt culturally “hung” between the modern life style of the cities to which they aspired and the traditional values of a passing world they were socialized in.

They wanted a place in the modern society but were either distant to or reluctant to acquire the values and behavioral patterns to be culturally modern. They needed a sustainable economic life but had insufficient capital and professionalism to make big moves. They lacked the social network and institutional back-up mechanisms of urban life to hang on. They needed the confidence and self-sustenance to survive in an ‘alien’ socio-cultural milieu that is not their making.

They would either remain a ‘stranger’ to this milieu or be ‘second-class’ or generate the adaptive capacity to fit into the modern society. In order to do this they needed a novel interpretation of their values that would read new meanings into their new relations and the institutions they began to relate with. This is no easy task. They needed a mediator or an ‘interpreter’ to translate traditional values

and behavioral patterns into modern life styles without traumatic ruptures that would cause cultural and psychological discontinuities.

Fethullah Gülen acted as this expected interpreter. He gave hints as to how traditional people would understand certain values in their new social setting. He built bridges between established mores brought from the countryside like solidarity, joining forces and means to act together or to help the needy. He transformed the meaning of ethical behavior to fit urban life when moral values were lost to material lust. He advocated that wealth was the reward of hard and morally correct endeavor while other Muslim movements looked at wealth as a contaminating factor. While competition ruled the day, Gülen advocated sharing not only of material wealth but also the joy of entrepreneurship and productive zeal. He encouraged joint ventures, thus cultivating the culture of partnership. Most importantly he persuaded those who believed him to give a hand to needy boys and girls to rise in the ranks of society through education. His appeal went far and created hundreds of schools and nearly a dozen universities. last but not least, he encouraged people to move, to invest, to think and act beyond borders; borders of their country and borders of their thinking shaped by parochial and national(ist) education.

In this role of social mentor he made life easy for ambitious and upwardly mobile people who could not have made it alone in one generation. He became a community leader not by personal choice but by the choice of the people who began to see him as their mentor or in today’s popular jargon as a “life coach”.

His followers extended their efforts in several directions as Gülen encouraged them to be more enterprising in business and courageous in their relations with more modern cohorts in society. The schools that he inspired acted as the bridge to educate the children of the traditional and partly rural families to take their place among the elite of tomorrow. These graduates are now are all over the world as well

as in the echelons of officialdom. As the group of F. Gülen’s followers benefited from both his moral guidance and practical advices that made them a partner to a solidarity group that grew in size, affluence, knowledge and effectiveness, their satisfaction created a snow-ball effect to attract others.

The community of followers initially did not make much sense why F. Gülen put so much emphasis on knowledge and learning. Gülen formally only a primary school graduate is a self learned man. He knew the hardships of navigating through a rough and demanding social milieu and to carve out a respectful life for himself. He was confident that education was the most genuine instrument of accomplishment and a dependable vehicle to make journeys into one’s inner life (worldofmeanings) and in social life (worldofmeans).

Place of Religion and Science in Gülen’s Philosophy

As a man of religion he concentrated on his discipline to the degree of reinterpreting texts that carry the burden/baggage of time and place as generations have learned them. He has followed them through to their most pristine form, as they have been presented by the Prophet (Quran) and the deeds that exemplified his philosophy (hadith). Through his arduous and systematic learning he had developed a distilled knowledge of religion and how that could guide people in their worldly life as moral agents and enterprising rational individuals.

Gülen believes in the functionality of what religion offers not only as a belief system but as a moral recipe for good behavior and understanding the ‘other’ as a fellow creature of (the same) God. Religion, as he advocates, has to be brought out of the historical dogma stuck on it throughout history and has to be realigned with the spirit of the time as its general humanitarian principles avail. Religion is for people and it is directly related to their needs as they strive to be worthy creatures of God. They do not only deserve this but they owe it to each other and to their creator.

The ideal synthesis that gives meaning to life is faith, knowledge and truth. Faith keeps the individual clean and accountable to his/her creator. Knowledge empowers the human being to understand and to do things. Truth keeps the individual at the right place: in equidistance to different realities; between good and evil; between right and wrong; between justice and injustice. Thus he/she can choose the right place his/her quest to be a good and worthy individual. That is why for Gülen, religion is not just a belief but a way to reach to truth, benevolence and justice. This requires hard work and sacrifice. One has to discipline himself/herself not in the sense of asceticism but sharing the knowledge and wealth created in order to diffuse and to reproduce them. This activity is in line with divine expectation and is equal to worship.

This line of thinking that does not drive a wedge between belief and material life but rather see them as a continuum has gone a long way in the acceptance of Gülen’s philosophy. His understanding that making life worthwhile in the direction of religious principles that advocate industriousness, altruism, sharing knowledge and resources and leading a moral life is expected to reunite the spiritual and the worldly. In this suitable atmosphere faith and science will not reject each other but rather empower the individual and the community. If this happens, F. Gülen expects that the Muslim Renaissance that has been so far delayed may burgeon. He finds Turkey closest to this possibility.

F. Gülen provides convincing examples how Islamic countries swayed away from reason and scientific thinking that also drove faith into dogmatism. Dogmatism for him is not a quality of religion but of the mind. A dogmatic mind (bigotry) can ossify religion and distance it from life and human exigencies as it happened. Now this trend has to be reversed. If accomplished, a Renaissance, this time in the realm of Islam, may become a reality. Gülen believes that if science and faith is

brought together –not to replace or to dominate one another- both the spiritual and the rational needs of the mankind will be satisfied.

Hence the starting point may be demystifying religion by cleansing it from the stains of history and culture. When this is done he advocates that what will remain behind will be the Quran and hadith and they are quite sufficient to rewrite a new epoch where faith and science will reign together. After all nature is also God’s creation and we as his creatures try to understand God’s work (nature) by scientific methods. But we can only come to a certain point. From then on we need the internal understanding to supplement our objective findings. If we can develop this capacity (understanding from within) we can reunite faith and science and rediscover the “lost world”.

Schools founded by the volunteers of the Gülen Movement and their multi-functional role

While Gülen tried to develop and diffuse the knowledge of internal learning (through religious studies), his community of followers created a mighty educational chain starting from elementary schools up to the university; supplemented by prep courses to enter the middle and higher level educational institutions and hostels for the needy rural boys and girls. education became a major enterprise of the Gülen movement. The community views this both as a public service and a hub to coordinate other activities, especially in foreign countries.After trial runs and upgrading the educational capacity of the schools totally created by donations collected from followers in Turkey, the community took these schools (especially High Schools) abroad. They aimed at three things:

1- To convey the spirit of Turkish Islam and the humanitarian character it has acquired as it has blended in with Turkish

social culture. For Gülen, Turkish social culture is more human oriented and tolerant to other creeds.

2- To limit the influence of Iranian Shia and Saudi Arabian Wahhabism that are both radical and prone to violence in mainly Sunni Islamic countries of Asia and elsewhere.

3- To establish outposts in foreign countries with the dual purpose of, a) producing a friendly group of graduates who would establish a permanent link between Turkey and their home countries with their knowledge of Turkish and affinity to Turkish culture. b) Schools would be –as they have been- centers of contact between local people, authorities and businessmen and incoming Turkish businessmen and investors. School teachers and administrative staff soon became consultants for Turks coming afar in search of lucrative business opportunities, expanding the horizon of Turkish economy that is the 17th biggest economy of the world. It is no wonder that Turkey is among the G-20 countries that give direction to world economy and the Gülen movement must have a pinch of salt in this achievement.

In political science terminology this is “second track diplomacy” plus a civil society outreach with multiple purposes. With these exclusive qualities, the Gülen movement is the most important export item of Turkey unmatched by anything that the state has or does in projecting its influence abroad.

The movement’s power comes from two sources:- It is voluntary, hence is a civic phenomenon. That is why its

innovativeness and enterprising character is not inhibited by the officialdom or statist policies. The movement is itself is an example of empowerment of the civil society; participating in the social and economic processes by people heretofore kept out of the main stream.

- Those involved in the movement believe in what they do because they view what they do as serving GOD by way of serving the people. Helping other people (giving a hand to others) is a divine act for they empower their fellow human beings with their labor and resources that are in fact rewards of their previous efforts.

Politics and Governance for the Gülen Movement

The Gülen movement so far remained distant to politics and to political authority. It has neither challenged it nor openly supported it. This goes for political parties as well as the central authority. F. Gülen himself believed that politics would contaminate the purity of the intentions of the community of followers as much as it would drive a wedge between them when preferences will weigh heavy than the basic principles adopted by the followers.Although the movement is an open society, and no one is denied to go into politics, open preferences at the collective level is shunned. However, this does not mean that followers of Gülen have no political opinion. They do but such preferences are not allowed to affect the community or the movement.

This gives leverage to the group to act independently and to be respected by diverse social and political circles. Having created its manpower and economic resources, the Gülen movement has acquired an independent character that generates its own decisions, actions and future plans. Since the group authority is based on spiritual leadership, a hierarchical leadership is not visible. However, there is a division of labor that brings about functional leadership at every sphere of activity shouldered by different people at different times. It seems that this structure prohibits ossification and institutionalization of leadership. Instead, a form of fluid meritocracy allows “circulation of the able” to run the educational, financial-economic and media organs of the movement.

This structure resembles the leadership of the communal period of Islam when the leader of the community of believers was the Prophet himself. He inspired the people to do the right things and the needs of the community were met by able man that were both commissioned and empowered by the community to do the job and blessed by the Prophet. Formal institutions increasingly estranged from the people were absent and decisions were taken collectively and carried through. Hence changes in policies and implementation could be made rapidly as circumstances changed.

Whether this format is ephemeral and particular to a period when F. Gülen is the center of inspiration and moral leadership is something to be seen as the community evolves and becomes too big to be managed communally and congenially.

Dialogue as opposed to ‘Clash of Civilizations’

The most important aspect of the Gülen movement and philosophy at the international level is the perception of faith in general, Islam in particular and the peaceful interpretation of communal relations. For F. Gülen all creeds are acknowledgement of the existence and power of God as the creator of the universe. So, different beliefs are merely different interpretation of this reality. As creatures of the same God, we share the same aims of being good examples of God’s will and serve him as he has asked us in the holy books, the basic principles of which are quite similar. Differences that have turned into intractable conflicts do not emanate from divine edicts but our worldly interests. So we have to reconcile our differences if we really want to become the creatures God wants us to be.

How can we do it? Through a process of dialogue and understanding that would eliminate the assiduous differences fabricated in time and to reach to the common values and principles that unite us. Gülen has been a long time advocate of inter-faith dialogue and reconciliation. He is quite aware that if one believes in something that really does not

exist, it has material consequences in peoples’ lives. So he has inspired his followers to contact people of all creeds to find commonalities and eliminate stereotypes and prejudices that lead to distrust and animosity. Otherwise, he was quite aware that these would either lead to conflict or estrangement, denying cohabitation.

F. Gülen believes that the world is the common home of humanity. It is created for this purpose. So as much as we make it the home of different creeds and races we help unfolding of the divine plan. We also serve God in the realization of his existential design that is a way of uniting with him.

Gülen inspired the founding of institutions, academic departments and had many talented young man and women trained to carry on the task of inter-faith dialogue and reconciliation. He believes that while some fringe radical Islamic factions disseminate hatred and advocate violence against other creeds, the true believers who are pacifists and believers of a holistic understanding of faith, as he does, must raise the banner of peace and reconciliation. This is a new breath in Islam. But because it bears the Turkish brand it is not yet supported wholeheartedly in Arabic countries that own Islam. Needless to say the Iranian brand of Islam (Shia) does not even allow the mentioning of the Gülen philosophy in the public sphere.

This analysis brings us to the roots of the pacific nature of the Gülen philosophy. If there is a Muslim Gandhi it must be Fethullah Gülen. He absolutely rejects the Huntingtonian thesis of “clash of civilizations”. He believes that this thesis is a fabrication to fill the void in the western defense system lacking a clear enemy definition. Ideological conflicts after the collapse of Communism has ended only to be replaced by the idea of clash of cultures and creeds because these belong to different and irreconcilable civilizations. This thesis that is dated 1993 has influenced the western thought until this day.

Prof. Samuel Huntington does not believe in the transfer of culture. He believes that certain values, especially pertaining to human rights and democracy are not universal. So they can not be transferred and take root in other cultural environments. Illiberal and authoritarian cultures (non-Western) will thread their own course and will not change their fundamental characteristics. So their economic ascendance may be quite threatening for the West as they grow in strength and reach the level of projecting their power.

Huntington is on record saying that Islam has bloody boundaries. He bases this assumption on the facts of population explosion, poverty (especially of the young generation) and the authoritarian character of the administration. Together they produce a proclivity to armament and war-like psychology. He believes that a final showdown between Islam and the Western civilization is inevitable because both Islam and Christianity are missionary religions. They tend to spread and convert people wherever they establish their domination. Furthermore both of them are teleological in that their particular values and beliefs are the fundamental reason of human and universal existence.

Fethullah Gülen does not adhere to this analysis because he believes that conflict may take place between singular identities as individuals define themselves with their religion only. But each individual has multiple identities and these may match up with individuals in other religions. Hence, multiple identities mitigate misunderstandings and act as buffers that may emanate from differences.

Furthermore F. Gülen says that culture is diffusive and different cultures intermingle to create more universal blends rather than clash and remain apart. He refers to an interesting definition of culture. For F. Gülen a particular social-historical culture is never the same with another. For example the Danish culture does not at all resemble the Spanish culture or for that matter the Finnish culture

does not resemble the Bulgarian culture. Yet they are members of the same economic-political entity, namely the european Union. Why, because they share the same political culture. This happened voluntarily and they have adapted their laws and political institutions to the same model to be members of the same community. Hence cultures may be quite different but at the same time they may develop similar principles and institutions that facilitate cohabitation and cooperation. Hence an Islamic country or community can very well live with others provided that the political and legal infrastructure of cohabitation and non-interference is laid out.

It is with this thought that F. Gülen has initiated the process of dialogue among faiths and reconciliation between cultures. He believes that this is the only way to understand each other, to reconcile differences and to build peace within and without.

Approach to Women and Universal Reconciliation

As regards the place of women in the society, F. Gülen believes that Muslim women should take place in any social and professional sphere of activity without the inhibition of the family and the community. Yet if women want to choose domestic and motherly functions they must not be forced to do otherwise. If their head gear or the way they dress denies them access to higher educational institutions and entry into the job market, this is a major mischief. For Gülen if avoiding a major mischief with a minor one is possible, Muslims could make sacrifices if they would benefit the consequence of their deed. So they can take off their head gear in order to go the University or to work in order to lead a decent life and to become better people. These practical solutions for the believers who are appalled by the injustices brought upon to them by official authorities that have cost them missing many opportunities have won F. Gülen respect as a religious scholar and opinioned moral leader.

Finally F. Gülen does not believe that there is an Islamic world sharing the same culture and feeling of solidarity. Besides these, the Islamic countries do not have a common agenda to build a future together. Hence more than a “world” that is shared, there are individual Islamic countries that are mainly run by authoritarian and arbitrary rulers. This has denied these societies the democracy and progress they deserve as well as the scientific orientation in their daily life. It is because of these factors that Islamic countries have lagged behind and have failed to be part of the contemporary world. This must be amended and amended fast. Otherwise the reaction of Muslim population to arbitrary rule in their country and the callousness of the rest of the world that does heed their plight may cause violent outbursts that may destabilize the world.

Material greed, bigotry and moral attrition have driven a wedge between the spirit and the mind. This malady is relevant in many countries of the world including Christianity and Islam. The world needs a cleansing of the soul and enlightenment of the mind. A new interpretation of Islam that would reconcile unmitigated belief with scientific rationality can offer the panacea to our world that has lost its conscience in the West and mind in the east. All nations and all creeds can contribute to this Renaissance where common values and principles will bring people together rather than distance them from each other with emphasis on differences and particulars. Gülen advocates neither privilege nor discrimination but equality and cohabitation of cultures and beliefs as the key to a peaceful world and progress, the boons of which will be shared in a just way. He invites representatives of every creed and race to negotiate the terms of such grand scale reconciliation. This is a universal and humanitarian call that must be taken into consideration.

The Intellectual Dimension

The Intellectual Dimension of the Hizmet Movement: A Discourse Analysis

DrPimValkenberg,LoyolaUniversityMaryland

Abstract

This paper gives a survey of the intellectual dimension of the hizmet movement by analyzing the discourse of the person who inspired this movement: Fethullah Gülen. After having distinguished between an esoteric and an exoteric strand in Gülen’s discourse, the paper concentrates on three types of intellectual inspiration that members of the hizmet find in Gülen’s discourse. First, the oral tradition of the sermons and the religious conversations that originate in the first years of the movement; second, Gülen’s contributions to journals such as Sızıntıand TheFountain, and finally Gülen’s published books. An analysis of the most important books translated into english shows different strands of discourse in a different use of sources and a different public addressed. Finally, some of the different types of discourse in Turkish books not translated into english are considered.

My contribution to the map of the Gülen Movement, or – as I prefer to say – the hizmet(service) movement will relate to the intellectual dimension of the movement. So my main question will be: what is the type of discourse that motivates members of the movement to do what they do? Obviously, I will have to talk about Fethullah Gülen’s discourse, since he is the person who still inspires the people in the hizmet or the volunteers movement. So I begin with a discourse analysis in which I want to distinguish between what I will call and esoteric and an exoteric strand of discourse in Gülen’s works. I will then specify this analysis by giving a characteristic in terms of this discourse analysis of the most important intellectual output by Fethullah Gülen, namely his sermons, his contributions to magazines, and his books.

1. A Discourse Analysis

In his book on the educational network inspired by Fethullah Gülen, Bekim Agai shows how this network extends to four different groups of people that coincide with some levels of Gülen’s discourse and activities. If one depicts this network as a series of concentric circles, one may represent the different partial networks within this major network by ellipses with different ranges (Agai 2004: 361). The central circle represents the person of Fethullah Gülen who took the initiative for a number of different activities that aim at different levels in the community of his followers. The first level (smallest circle around Gülen) is what Agai calls the cemaat, a specific network that is ruled by a specific discourse determined by its founder (Agai 2004: 53; Bulaç 2007). The cemaatoriginated when Gülen in Izmir in 1966 started his teaching activities with forms such as sohbet (a group discussion on a religious subject) and new forms of education in dormitories (called lighthouses or ιşιk evleri), summer camps and later schools. The language of these discussions and lessons are typical of a cemaat: the network of Gülen’s closest supporters and his first students.

The second level of the network around Gülen consists of members of the movement who are religiously inspired and who can therefore be addressed by using specific religious language, although this discourse is broader than the discourse that is typical for the cemaat. Agai mentions the readers of the theological magazine YeniÜmit as an example. To this level of the network belong those whose religious motivations are in line with Fethullah Gülen, but they are not in the cemaat or community in the strict sense of the word.

The third level of the network functions mainly in Turkey since it appeals to the larger Turkish public by using positive references to national (Ottoman or Turkish) history and culture. There seems to be no religious motivation for the activities of the hizmet network at this level because of the laicist groups in Turkey. At this level, many students and teachers may want to enroll in the schools founded by the service communities, simply because they are among the best schools in Turkey, and they form a bridge between traditional society and modern sciences. If they know about Gülen, their knowledge might include a presumed notion of him serving the country as much as serving God.

Finally, the fourth and widest form of network is the global network that has begun to develop during the last fifteen years. Agai mentions examples of teachers who may often teach at schools in Central Asia founded by the service network without knowing about Gülen at all. For them, good education is simply the motivation to teach, but they have no idea where the inspiration came from (Agai 2004: 363).

Being a theologian, I am mainly interested in the theological sources of Gülen’s thought, and these can be found easier in works that use Islam as common ground, in other words: in the first and the second of the four forms of discourse that have been distinguished in the previous paragraphs. For some time I have thought that it would be possible – following Agai – to talk about a development

in Gülen’s thought from the smallest to the widest concentric circle. According to this hypothesis, Gülen’s discourse would have started as an explicitly Islamic discourse aimed at the members of the cemaat or the wider community of Muslims, but would gradually have widened to include the entire Turkish community in the 1980s, and the whole of humankind in the 1990s. While much of this analysis is true, it suggests a development that does not do justice to the complexity of Gülen’s discourse. On the one hand, interviews that I conducted in Izmir clearly suggest that the wellbeing of the whole of humankind – and not only of the members of the cemaat or the Muslims – has been one of the distinguishing characteristics from the very beginning. On the other hand, an analysis of Gülen’s most recent writings shows that some of these writings still presuppose an explicit knowledge of and engagement with the Islamic tradition. So I do not think that we can distinguish an older, more explicitly religious, form of discourse from a younger, less religious discourse. Yet I think that it is important to pay attention to the form of discourse that was predominant during the origins of the hizmetmovement in order to do justice to the full range of Gülen’s intellectual inspiration.

2. The oral tradition: sermons and religious conversations

I have often noticed how my Muslim friends who may be considered as the members of the inner circle, the cemaat, read Gülen’s texts, but they often find more nourishment in his sermons. This oral rather than written discourse is typical for the Gülen movement between 1970 and 1983 (Çelik 2008: 14). In his book TraditionWitnessingtheModernAge, Mehmet enes ergene remarks: “Gülen first attracted the attention of the public with his oratory power, which contributed greatly to shaping the movement. His speeches activated mechanisms of knowledge as much as they stimulated people’s emotions. That is to say, he was an orator who spoke not just from the intellect, but also from the heart. For this reason, Gülen has to be considered

within the legacy of oratory tradition, in addition to his writings and social activities.” (ergene 2008: x). Gülen continues this oratory tradition in three forms. First, the vaaz (“admonition”) which is a “free” sermon that is often preached before the Friday afternoon prayer; next the hutbewhich is more ceremonial and prayerful and is more strongly connected to the Friday afternoon prayer. Third the sohbetor a religious conversation in the form of questions-and-answers. These three forms go back to the beginnings of Gülen’s intellectual career, and they represent an esoteric form of discourse in which the traditional language of Islam is presupposed as a means of communication between speaker and listeners; sometimes this is made explicit in quotations from Qur’ān, hadith or fiqh, or Sufi poems, but it is even there when no explicit references are given, since the speaker assumes that the average listener is able to grasp the basic references to the Muslim tradition. I think that it is useful to give a list of the most important of these oral sources in order to show how they are still part of the written sources attributed to Gülen. Moreover, a list of the books published by Gülen in Turkish will show that many of them find their origin in these oral sources, and that only a minority of them has been translated into english. In other words: even though I do not know sufficient Turkish to prove my case convincingly, I am quite sure that the person who only reads Gülen’s books in english will not get an adequate picture of the nature of his discourse.

The coherence between books and audio cassettes – or CD’s and DVD’s as contemporary equivalents –appears from the fact that in Turkish there is a close connection between NilYayιnlarι, the firm that publishes Gülen’s books in Turkish, and Nil Production that publishes his audiovisual materials.1

1 I consulted 2009 – 2010 Yayιn Kataloğu, the catalogue with works by Gülen that I received from Hüseyin Bingül when I interviewed him at Kaynak Kültür Yayιn Grubu (Kaynak Cultural Publishing Group) in Üsküdar/İstanbul on August 11, 2009.

For someone who wants to know more about Gülen’s sermons, the edition of the collected sermons (VaazKülliyatι) is probably the most important source. This collection contains a set of 11 DVD’s and two sets of 11 CD’s each with sermons by Gülen. An analysis of the table of contents of this collection shows that Gülen often preaches in a very systematic way, and that he often discusses a specific theme in a long series of sermons. Gürkan Çelik (2008: 14) affirms the importance of the sermons – and the same holds true for the sohbetler that are included in the VaazKülliyatιas well – as basis of many books: “Most of his series of sermons, talks, conversations, and public speeches were recorded and transliterated into text format and, with minor revisions, published as books.” We will see some examples beneath, but first I want to give an impression of the titles and the subjects of some of the sermons represented in this VaazKülliyatιcollection.2 Some of these titles are fairly poetical (just like the Turkish titles of Gülen’s books) such as “The rising voice from the pulpit”, or “From the world of our heart”.

Others have more clearly doctrinal subject matters, such as sermons on life after death, Pilgrimage, Fasting, Prophethood, Destiny, Angels, Prayer. Almost all sermons and a lesser number of religious conversations on the CDs date from the years between 1975 and 1980, most in the Bornova mosque in Izmir, but a few from the years before in edremit and Manisa. The set of 11 DVDs mainly contains sermons preached by Gülen on Prophet Muhammad and his companions during his last tour of the most important mosques in Turkey on behalf of the government between 1989 and 1991. Some of the titles of these series of sermons are: “Compositions from the heart”, “holy persons on their ways of life”; “the enlightened climate of the future”, “waiting in hope”, “endless light” and “engagement for renewal”. Some DVD’s contain sohbetler as well, for instance sohbet-i

2 Translations of the Turkish titles are based on my conversations with Alper Alasağ in İzmir between August 4 and August 10, 2009. Once again, the titles in Turkish are often very poetic and my attempt at translating cannot do them justice.

Canan (“Conversation on the Beloved”) that contains materials from 1992-1994. A series on “the last bringer of news concerning the unknown” even contains older materials (for instance Berlin 1977) and newer materials (from YeniÜmitmagazine, 2003).

While the CDs in the Vaaz Külliyatι collection give a decent impression of the oral tradition of Gülen’s works, they are probably far from exhaustive. The collection contains no sermons from his first years in edirne (1964-66) and İzmir (1966-70). There must be many audio cassettes with older recordings but these have not been published professionally.3

The DVD’s in the VaazKülliyatιcollection give a fair impression of a second important period in Gülen’s preaching, namely the years between 1989 and 1991 when he was approached by Diyanet to resume preaching after eight years of silence because of the political situation. “His license was reinstated to enable him to serve as an emeritus Preacher with the right to preach in any mosque in Turkey. Between 1989 and 1991 he preached in Istanbul on Fridays and on alternate Sundays in Istanbul and Izmir in the largest mosques in the cities. His sermons drew crowds in the tens of thousands, numbers unprecedented in Turkish history. These sermons were videotaped and also broadcast.” (Çetin 2009: 43).

According to Mustafa Gokcek, Gülen’s sermons in this period used more Sufi concepts than in his previous sermons. “In these sermons which lasted until 1992, rather than the basic concepts of faith, Gülen focused on the spiritual characteristics that an ideal Muslim community should carry. Beside portraying the heroic instances from the lives of Prophet Muhammad and his companions, he presented even more examples from the lives of early Sufis. The themes were more spiritual…” (Gokcek 2009: 308).

3 Çetin (2009: 71) refers to “thousands of audio and video cassettes”.

While Gülen, to my knowledge, did not preach anymore after 1991, he still gives sohbetler that are recorded on DVD’s and CD’s. For instance, the Nil catalogue contains a number of cassettes entitled Gurbet Soluklarι (“Breathings from a foreign place”) or Bamteli (“Keynotes”) with the subtitle Amerika Notlarι. They have been recorded at Gülen’s present residence in Pennsylvania, and some are as recent as 2006.4This shows that the oral transmission of Gülen’s conversations is not only limited to the formative period of the hizmet movement, but that it is a type of source that still has its significance for supporters of this movement. As some of Gülen’s supporters in İzmir indicated, they liked to listen to newer conversations by Gülen that are transmitted through www.herkul.org, a site based in the US that still updates people in the hizmet movement about Gülen’s newest audio recordings.

3. Between the oral tradition and the books: periodicals

Before we discuss the books written by Gülen, we do best to look first at some of the journals published by the hizmet movement, since they form, together with the vaazlar and sohbetler, the main sources of Gülen’s books (Çelik 2008: 15). Most of Gülen’s books have not been written directly as books, but have been edited by some of the older members of the hizmetmovement at Gülen’s suggestion. Again, no scholarly study of this aspect of Gülen’s work has been made as of yet, so much of what I write here is based on impressions and a number of interviews that would require a lot of deeper research. This research is especially needed since the several editions of Gülen’s works usually do not include a preface in which the editors explain the method they followed in compiling the materials, nor do they give the date of the first edition.5 Therefore, it is almost impossible to establish when

4 See the Nil catalogue, pages 47-50.

5 A recent entry on Gülen’s works on the website of the Gülen Institute, however, gives a chronological list for some of the english books:

exactly a certain text published by Gülen has been written. One can be quite sure, though, that many of these texts go back either to oral materials such as the sermons and conversations that we discussed above, or to written materials such as Gülen’s columns and essays in the journals that we will discuss now.

The oldest and the most popular of these magazines is Sιzιntι.This Turkish title literally means “Seepage” or “Trickling down”, which relates to the purpose of the magazine: to let knowledge concerning the relation between religion and culture on the one hand and the natural sciences on the other hand trickle down on a wider public. Therefore, the subtitle in Turkish is: Aylιk İlim – Kültür Dergisi (Monthly Scientific-Cultural Magazine). Although this subtitle suggests a secular approach with culture and science as its main foci, the theologian in me also associates the notion of “trickling down” with the tradition of revelation. The word that is used in the Qur’ān to describe the process of revelation, nazala, means “to send down”, and the same word is used for rain. So while God sends down His revelation like rain, human beings try to pass on some of it to others, which is the basic meaning of the word “tradition”.6

While the majority of the contributions to Sιzιntι discuss matters of science, education, and culture, Gülen’s regular contributions include the notion of religion as well. In each issue, two or three contributions that usually do not bear an author’s name, have been written by Gülen. Usually it is a meditation that functions as the lead article, and an article in the series “emerald Hills of the Heart” about Sufi concepts.

http://www.guleninstitute.org/index.php/Fethullah-Gulen-s-Works.html (accessed on August 31, 2010).

6 My inspiration here is Thomas Aquinas and his idea of revelata aliis tradere, to hand down what is revealed to others as basic task of the Master of theology, but also of the Dominican friar. I will come back to this aspect in the last chapter.

Sιzιntιwas first published in 1979 as a popular magazine for students interested in the relation between religion and science; it was followed a little later by a few other, more specialized magazines, such as YeniÜmit(“New Hope”) on religious sciences and culture, Yağmur (“Rain”) for language, culture and literature, and Gonca, a children’s magazine.7 Sιzιntι, though, is the only magazine that is translated into other languages, such as english (The Fountain), German (die Fontäne), Russian (NoviyeGrani) and Arabic (Hira). The english magazine, TheFountain, was first published in 1993, and its articles form a fair reflection of its Turkish older sister. It is not a literal translation of the Turkish magazine, but it has a similar lay-out and it serves a similar purpose for members of the hizmet movement outside of Turkey. Again, Gülen usually contributes the lead article and an article on Sufi concepts.

Very often, these contributions are published in book form as well. This process can be followed the best in the series of key concepts of Sufism. Yet, as far as I can see, and contrary to what I would expect, the articles collected in book form usually precede the publication of these articles in the magazine. The reason for this is probably that EmeraldHillsoftheHeartis a carefully planned long-term project. Gürkan Çelik writes that Gülen in 1990 started a project to “simplify” Said Nursi’s texts in order to make them accessible for the younger generation.8 “Periodically, the simplified text would be published in the Sιzιntι and Yeni Ümit magazines, aiming thereby to eventually complete the whole Risale-iNur collection. However, this initiative attracted much criticism from the Nurcugroups in Turkey. They held that simplifying the text would result in losing its inner meaning

7 See the Turkish website of Kaynak publishers: http://www.kitapkaynagi.com/yayinevleri (accessed August 31, 2010).

8 This goes back to Gülen’s interview with Nuriye Akman that can be found on Gülen’s website. See “Necip Fazil wanted to simplify the Risale-i Nur Collection”, at: http://www.fethullahgulen.org/press-room/nuriye-akmans-interview/ (accessed on August 28, 2010).

and spirit. Whilst disagreeing with them on this point, but seeking to avoid discord, Gülen abandoned this project. Thereafter, Gülen decided on a different intellectual project, tracing the methodology of the concepts of Sufism (tasawwuf) and proving its place within the foundations of Islam.” (Çelik 2008: 17). This might explain why the entries on Sufi terminology are often published in book form before they are printed in the magazines. In the case of most other recent writings by Gülen, the situation is the other way around: some of his lead articles for Sιzιntι are translated into english for TheFountain, and later published in book form as well.9Hüseyin Bingül, one of the translators and editors for Tughra books, one of the english imprints of Kaynak publishers, told me that the lead articles of Sιzιntι and The Fountain are often reprinted as book publications in series such as FasιldanFasιla (“From episode to episode”, 5 volumes) and ÇağveNesil(“era and Generation”, 8 volumes). He explained that Fethullah Gülen in some cases takes the initiative to publish a book, for instance the books on Sufism. In other cases, some of the people who know his works very well compile a number of chapters and edit the materials into a book which is then presented to hocaefendi. If he agrees, it is usually published under a somewhat poetic title suggested by Gülen himself, while the more prosaic subtitles are given by the editors. Sometimes Gülen wants to see and approve the final product, sometimes not. The english books generally go back to Turkish books that go back to either articles in one of the magazines, or conversations with questions and answers (sohbetler), or sermons. Sometimes Gülen makes the selection himself because he thinks that this is what people need, sometimes it is suggested by editors who are among the older students of hocaefendi, for instance Reşit Haylamaz who is the editor-in-chief of Kaynak publishing company. Publishing Gülen’s books started with Nil Publishing in İzmir between twenty and ten years ago; since that time many books have been published,

9 Many of these articles can be found on Gülen’s website in english under “recent articles”: http://www.fethullahgulen.org/gulens-works/recent-articles.html (last accessed August 13, 2010).

also in english. The first publishing company was Fountain, later it changed to light, and now we have Tughra and Blue Dome books.10

4. Gülen’s Books: the most important English translations

This brings us to the book publications as the most important form in which the works of M. Fethullah Gülen become accessible to the larger public. I will first discuss the books that have been translated into english, since the editors and translators consider them to be the most important works that have to be made accessible for the general public that is not able to read Turkish. After that, I will discuss some of the non-translated works in Turkish very briefly. If possible, I will indicate the source of these books.

The International Edition of the Publication Catalogue 2009-10by Kaynak Publishing Group gives a fair idea of the numbers of translations of Gülen’s works in other languages.11 In its english section, under the imprint Tughrabooks, the catalogue mentions two forthcoming books by Gülen (Speech and Power of Expression: OnLanguage, Esthetics, and Belief – this book has been published in 2010 – and the fourth volume of EmeraldHillsoftheHeart) and one recently released book (the third volume of EmeraldHillsoftheHeart). The backlist mentions ten more books and two booklets by Gülen. This brings the number of books written by Gülen and translated into english to 13, but this does not include books published by others, for instance the Journalists and Writers Foundation (Gülen

10 Interview with Hüseyin Bingül, Akademi, Üsküdar/İstanbul, August 11, 2009.

11 My source is Kaynak Publication Group, Publication Catalogue 09-10 which I obtained during my interview with Hüseyin Bingül in İstanbul, August 11, 2009. This interview took place in a room in which all international editions of Gülen’s work were collected, including a number of editions that were published by others, so that the total number of translations will be higher than the translations mentioned in this catalogue.

2004) or older books that are no longer in the list of available books (Gülen 1998; Gülen 2000). So it is safe to assume that about one quarter to one third (namely 15 to 20) of Gülen’s books in Turkish (which can be estimated at 50 to 70) has been translated into english in recent years.

In order to get a sense of the international distribution of Gülen’s books, it may be useful to mention that Kaynak’s catalogue has separate sections for its Spanish, French, German, Russian and Arabic imprints. These lists contain 12 books by or about Gülen in Spanish, the same number in French, 16 in German, 8 in Russian, and 10 in Arabic (here with the author’s full name: Muhammad Fathullah Gülen). Finally, the catalogue mentions works in 29 other european, Asian and African languages. Again, as an indication that this is not the full list of translations, the catalogue does not mention any Dutch translations, while I know of at least two translations published by the IslamenDialoog foundation in the Netherlands.12

The most important of Gülen’s books in english are the following: • The three volumes on Sufismpublished in english (Gülen

2004b orig. 1998; 2004c; 2008) under the title EmeraldHillsoftheHeart:KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism, are translated from the Turkish KalbinZümrütTepeleri. The fourth volume in english will be published soon.13 This book in four volumes is probably the most elaborate scholarly work by Gülen. According to Çelik (2008: 15), it is “the only book he systematically authored, though the writing expanded to years and it was fragmentally published in the Turkish magazine, Sιzιntι,and its english

12 M. Fethullah Gülen, De smaragden van het hart: basisconcepten van het Sufisme, Rotterdam 2002; Profeet Mohammed: Aspecten uit zijn leven, Rotterdam 2004. These are partial translations of Gülen’s books on Sufism and Prophet Muhammad.

13 See the website of Tughra Books: http://www.tughrabooks.com/ (accessed on August 16, 2010).

version, TheFountain”.The book contains a large number of references and footnotes, mainly to the Qur’ān and the authoritative collections of hadiths. The books try to explain the basic concepts of the Sufi way in such a way that the average reader with some knowledge of Islam and some experience in mysticism may apply them with some fruit in her or his daily life. Gokcek (2009: 307-08) says that Gülen began to write about these themes in 1990, which would coincide with the period in which Sufism was most important in his sermons.

• The volume on Prophet Muhammad was first published in Turkish as Sonsuz Nur: İnsanlιğın İftihar Tablosu in 1993; it was translated into english (by Ali Ünal who translated most of Gülen’s works) as ProphetMuhammad:AspectsofHisLife in two volumes and later in a revised version (Gülen 2005). The book contains a large number of references to Muslim sources. It finds its origin in what Agai calls the cemaat discourse of Gülen: it has been transcribed from a number of sermons and conversations on Prophet Muhammad (Çelik 2008: 15).

• Gülen has published a number of books in which he discusses the basic tenets of Islam. The book Essentialsof the Islamic Faith (Gülen 2000a) was translated from the Turkish İnancınGölgesinde.It is a book in the style of Said Nursi, trying to demonstrate the existence of God from nature, and referring to a number of scientific observations. Gülen refers to the Qur’ān and sometimes to the hadiths, but to a number of Western scientists and philosophers as well. The two volumes of Questionsandanswers about Islam were translated from the Turkish (Asrιn Getirdiği Teredütler) by Muhammad Çetin and published in 2000 (revised ed. Gülen 2005a; 2006). The Turkish editions of these books, in 1983 and 1989/90, are among Gülen’s oldest publications. The questions-

and-answers style seems to suggest that these books find their origin in the sohbet discourses of Gülen and his students. Again, the style is reminiscent of Said Nursi, and there are quite a few references to Muslim sources. If Gokcek’s theory is correct that Gülen first concentrated on the essentials of faith in his sermons and religious conversations and only later included more Sufi materials in his sermons, the books about the essentials of Islamic faith would have their origins in the period 1982-1990, before the books on Sufism that began to be published from 1990 onwards.

The book about Prophet Muhammad and the books about Islam seem to be directed primarily to Gülen’s students who are well-acquainted with the Muslim tradition. The titles and the styles employed clearly fit in with traditional Islamic discourses. This type of discourse clearly focuses on the members of the hizmetmovement and presupposes an Islamic worldview. One of the consequences is that Islam is clearly brought forward as the best religion in these books. Agai (2004: 257) explains that there is a clear difference between books written with a view to an Islamic audience in which traditional religious arguments are used, and books written with a view to a larger audience in which this type of argumentation is lacking. One of the consequences is that outsiders, for instance Christians, might be offended by some of the portrayals of Christianity and Jesus Christ that Gülen would certainly not have repeated in later texts.14 For instance, twice Gülen

14 Some examples: the remarks on the distorted nature of Thora and Gospels in Gülen 2000a: 191; 2006: 66. 81; 2005: 14.350; the negative remarks about Christians in Gülen 2005: 70-71 and 193; the defense of the Qur’ānic view of Jesus in Gülen 2000a: 215; 2006: 120; 2005: 128; the defense of the Qur’ānic view on Job (Gülen 2005: 155); his apologetic remarks about the marriages of the Prophet (Gülen 2000a: 246; 2006: 130); his idea about Judaim and Christianity as non-natural religions (Gülen 2006: 47-48); the idea that “most of humanity will embrace Islam soon” (Gülen 2005: 186); his observation that only Muslims know real tolerance (Gülen 2006: 242); that every religion except Islam has suffered distortions (Gülen 2006: 246) and the identification of Jews and

seems to suggest that we can only have a right opinion about Jesus thanks to the Qur’ān; an observation that is in line with the Islamic tradition but deeply offensive to Christians (Gülen 2005: 128; 2006: 120). I do not hold this against Gülen; quite the contrary, I think that it is a normal phenomenon in what I describe as “esoteric discourse”, a form of discourse that is mainly directed to insiders and that does not reckon with the possibility that outsiders will read these books as well.15

The form of discourse is different in most of the other books that have recently been published in english translations since their style is more general, and references to Muslim sources are less frequent. These other books belong to what I describe as “exoteric discourse”, in which Gülen aims at a broader public, without using the specific references to sources and terminology that are characteristic of the “esoteric discourse” of the cemaat.Sometimes, these books have been translated directly from the Turkish originals, but often they are compiled by editors using Gülen’s columns and articles in periodicals such as Sιzιntι.As we described before, the stage between the Turkish column and the english book is the english column in TheFountain.

• One of the oldest books in english is Towards the LostParadise (Gülen 1998; original edition 1996).16 In their foreword “about the author”, the anonymous editors say that “[t]he present book is composed of Fethullah Gülen’s selected articles which have so far been published in different

Christians as the people referred to in surahal-fātiha 1:7 (Gülen 2005: 320-21). Furthermore, Gülen 2000a:194 states that Christians identify the Holy Spirit with Archangel Gabriel, while this is part of the Islamic – not the Christian – tradition.

15 According to Agai, the transition from a discourse with sometimes negative implications for non-Muslim religions to a discourse without these implications, forms the transition between the second and the third concentrical circles.

16 For the first editions of Gülen’s Turkish books and some of his english books, see the list under “Fethullah Gülen in Short”: http://www.fgulen.org/about-fethullah-gulen/fethullah-gulen-in-short.html last updated on September 30, 2009 and accessed on August 22, 2010.

magazines.” (Gülen 1998: iv) The articles in this book often concentrate on the ideals of a “new generation” and on the harmony of faith and sciences. There are no explicit references to Muslim sources in this volume. This english book has been published by Kaynak publishers in İzmir, but it is not included in the actual publisher’s list.

• Pearlsofwisdom is among Gülen’s most often quoted books because it contains a number of short essays and aphorisms. Some of these aphorisms or wise suggestions are often quoted by members of the hizmet movement and their institutions. These aphorisms often contain references to the Qur’ān, Prophet Muhammad, or Sufi spirituality, but these references are of a general nature, and no specific sources are quoted. The essays compiled in this book, together with TowardstheLostParadise, seem to represent a kind of discourse that lies between the “esoteric discourse” of the sermons and the religious conversations and the “exoteric discourse” of the essays for a more general public, since quite a few of these essays have a nationalist tone.17 Just like in Said Nursi’s works, the West is mainly seen as in opposition to the Muslim world, and western philosophy and forms of scholarship are often sketched in a negative light. In contrast, the values of the Turkish nation are seen in a positive light. For instance, “Journalists and writers who do not write according to national sentiment and though represent Babylonian enslavement.” (Gülen 2000b: 60). This observation should be seen in its context: I do not mean to suggest that Gülen is a chauvinist, but I try to distinguish shades of differences in his discourse that go together with the changing political context. Texts such as these would fit very well in the period between 1986 and 1996 when Gülen became a nationally acclaimed spiritual leader. Because of its

17 In his early works about Fethullah Gülen, M. Hakan Yavuz stresses the fact that Gülen is first of all a nationalist.

popularity, PearlsofWisdom, originally published in 1997,is still available with the publisher.

• The exoteric discourse that is aimed at humanity in general, and that is characteristic of Gülen’s discourse from the second half of the 1990s onwards, is clear in titles of books such as FethullahGülen:AdvocateofDialogue (Gülen 2000), LoveandtheEssenceofBeingHuman (Gülen 2004) and TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLoveandTolerance (Gülen 2004a). The first of these three books has been compiled by Ali Ünal and Alphonse Williams, and it contains a broad selection of contributions from different sources, not only by Gülen but also including introductions and reactions to his work. The Turkish sources in this book have been indicated in footnotes, and Ali Ünal has translated most of the sources directly for this book. The second book has been published by the Journalists and Writers Foundation, and prepared for publication by Faruk Tuncer. The “Author’s Biography” at the front of the book ends with a paragraph that says: “Some of Fethullah Gülen’s books have been compiled from his articles, sermons, and the answers to the questions he has been asked over the years. The one in your hand is one of these.” (Gülen 2004: 12). M. enes ergene, the editor of the third volume, TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLoveandTolerance, gives a similar general indication of the sources in his introduction: “The articles in this book are a collection from various writings of Gülen and speeches he has given at different times and on different occasions. Nevertheless, all the articles give a general picture of the world of his thought.”(Gülen 2004a: x). As far as I can see, this is the only of the three books that is still in print.

• Although it has a much more general title, the book Essays,Perspectives,Opinions (Gülen 2002) has a similar structure. It is a compilation of articles from different sources, some in Turkish, some in english. This time, the sources are indicated

in footnotes at the beginning of the articles themselves. It is a somewhat older book and no longer in print.

• The final book with general essays by Gülen is, as far as I can see, the only book of this kind that has been translated directly from the Turkish: TheStatueofourSouls (Gülen 2005b) is a direct translation by Muhammed Çetin of RuhumuzunHeykeliniDikerken published in 1998. The central theme of the book echoes one of the central themes in Towards theLost Paradise: the necessity for the younger generation to improve themselves and to become a “generation of hope”. At the same time, it seems to be more optimistic of the chances for renewal than Gülen’s earlier writings. The book contains a limited number of footnotes with references to Qur’ān and hadīth collections, but also explanatory footnotes for persons who do not know the meaning of some of the Arabic terms used in the book. In this respect, the book contains a mixed discourse since it is addressed to younger people in hopes of their renewing their souls. In principle it addresses those who are sufficiently acquainted with the Islamic tradition to understand the notions discussed in the book: in this respect, it is not far away from the books on Sufi terminology – but at the same time it tries to attract younger people without such a religious background, but willing to renew their souls for the service of humankind.

These are the most important of Gülen’s books translated or compiled in english. They give a fairly good impression of the two strands of his discourse: on the one hand, it is directed to insiders and presupposes a basic knowledge of the Islamic tradition; on the other, it is aimed at a wider public and tries to get them along in the movement for a renewal of faith-based service initiatives. The last book mentioned, TheStatueofOurSouls, might be the book in which the transitions between the two strands of discourse are most clearly visible.

5. A final note on what has not been translated into English

One final remark: this survey of Gülen’s books in english gives a reasonable perspective on his writing and thus on the intellectual inspiration that he gives to the hizmetmovement, but it cannot be comprehensive, since Gülen has written at least fifty books in Turkish, and only one quarter to one third of them have been translated into english. The first, “esoteric” or insider-oriented type of books on Sufi terminology, on Prophet Muhammad, and on Islam is fairly well represented by direct translations. The second, “exoteric” or outsider-oriented type of books with more general encouragements to renew oneself and to become a part of a future generation of service-oriented faithful and moral “golden generation” is much less represented in direct translations; but many of Gülen’s columns and articles in Sιzιntιand other periodicals have been compiled in anthologies, either directly translated from the Turkish, or through publications in TheFountain.Nevertheless, some of Gülen’s books in Turkish are not represented in the english translations. let me give a few examples to conclude this contribution on the intellectual dimension of the hizmetmovement.

• Gülen has written a few books with detailed commentaries on surat from the Qur’ān, for instance a book on the first chapter, Fatiha Üzerine Mülâhazalar (Gülen 2007) or a book on places in the Qur’ān that frequently give occasion for questions (Gülen 2009a) that clearly goes back to some of his sohbetler.

• He also has written more specialized books of a theological nature, for instance a book about the intricate problem of God’s power and human destiny, Kitap ve SünnetPerspektifinde Kader (Gülen 2009). The first part of this book has its origin in sermons, the second part in religious conversations.

• Gülen has preached on a number of different subjects, for instance on economics. A number of these sermons from the 1970s has recently been published as EnginliğiyleBizimDünyamız (Gülen 2009c).

• KιrιkTesti(“Cracked Pitcher”) is a series of books published not by Nil publishers, but by the Journalists and Writers Foundation. The metaphor behind the title is the idea that knowledge is transmitted slowly just like drops from a cracked water bottle. The series contains sohbetler, some of them quite recent. The title of the eighth volume in this series of publications, VuslatMuştusu (Gülen 2008a) refers to the person who brings good news concerning coming home with God.18

• It is a tradition among Sufi masters to collect prayers and to publish them as a special guidance to prayer. Gülen has collected several such prayer books, the first in 1988 (DuaMecmuasι) but until now none has been translated into english, although I saw a collection, ImploringHearts, with Arabic and english titles among the forthcoming books in the most recent catalogue of Tughrabooks.19

• Finally, Çelik points to a book that is very important for some of Gülen’s admirers in the hizmet movement, since it contains a collection of his poetry. This book, KιrιkMιzrap (“Broken plectrum”), published in 2000, is important because it shows not only Gülen’s creativity, but also the role of poetry in traditional Sufi teaching. Poems were important in the passing on of knowledge from master to student, but

18 My translations of Turkish titles are based on conversations with Alper Alasağ in Izmir, August 2009. My dictionary gives “union” or “reunion” for vuslat but this would be problematic for orthodox Muslims. Alper suggested “arriving”, but my translation is based on the Christian idea that people are on their way to God; while we are wayfarers (viatores in latin), we hope once to come home with God just like Christ and the saints who – Christians believe – are at home with God (comprehensores in latin) already.

19 http://www.tughrabooks.com/catalog/2010.pdf (accessed on August 17, 2010)

in many of his sermons Gülen quotes poems as well, and in an oral culture the importance of learning poetry by heart cannot be overestimated. Maybe Gülen will shed some light on this aspect of his work in his new book in english on SpeechandPowerofExpression. As far as I know, BrokenPlectrum has not been published in english as of yet, but a number of the poems can be found in english translation on Gülen’s website.20

References

Agai, Bekim. (2004). Zwischen Netzwerk und Diskurs: Das Bildungsnetzwerk um Fethullah Gülen (geb. 1938): Die flexible Umsetzung modernen islamischen Gedankenguts. (Bonner Islamstudien, 2). Schenefeld: eB-Verlag.

Bulaç, Ali. (2007). Din-Kent ve Cemaat: Fethullah Gülen Örneği, İstanbul: Ufuk Kitap.

Çelik, Gürkan. (2008). The Gülen Movement. Building Social Cohesion through Dialogue and education, Nieuwegein.

Çetin, Muhammed. (2009). The Gülen Movement. Civic ServicewithoutBorders.New York: Blue Dome Press.

ergene, Mehmet enes. (2008). TraditionWitnessingtheModernAge:AnAnalysis of theGülenMovement,Somerset N.J.: Tughra Books.

Gokcek, Mustafa. (2009). “Gülen and Sufism”. In: Islam in theContemporaryWorld–1:TheFethullahGülenMovementinThought and Practice. Conference Proceedings, November 12-13, 2005. Rice University, Houston TX. Somerset N.J.: Tughra Books. Pp. 305-11

20 See http://www.fgulen.org/gulens-works/broken-plectrum.html (last accessed on August 17, 2010). The website contains another work in english that I did not find among the printed books: Religious education of the Child (http://www.fgulen.org/gulens-works/education-of-the-child.html)

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (1998). Towards the Lost Paradise. Izmir: Kaynak.

Gülen, Fethullah. (2000). Fethullah Gülen: Advocate of Dialogue. Compiled by Ali Ünal (translator) and Alphonse Williams. Fairfax, VA: Fountain Publications.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2000a). Essentials of the Islamic Faith. Translated by Ali Ünal. Fairfax VA: The Fountain.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2000b). PearlsofWisdom.Translated by Ali Ünal. Fairfax VA: The Fountain.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2002). Essays,Perspectives,Opinions. Compiled by the Fountain. Rutherford N.J: The light, Inc.

Gülen, Fethullah. (2004). Love and the Essence of Being Human. Prepared for publication by Faruk Tuncer. Translated by Mehmet Ünal, Nilüfer Korkmaz. Istanbul: Journalist and Writers Foundation Publication.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2004a). TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLoveandTolerance. Foreword by Thomas Michel. Somerset N.J.: The light, Inc.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2004b). Emerald Hills of the Heart: KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism. Translated by Ali Ünal. Vol. 1. Rutherford N.J.: The light, Inc.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2004c). Emerald Hills of the Heart: KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism. Translated by Ali Ünal. Vol. 2. Somerset N.J.: The light, Inc.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2004d). TheNecessityofInterfaithDialog.AMuslimPerspective.Somerset N.J.: The light

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2005). Muhammad, the Messenger of God:AspectsofHisLife. Translated by Ali Ünal. Somerset N.J; The light, Inc.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2005a). Questions and Answers about Islam. Vol. 2. Somerset. N.J.: The light.Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2005b). TheStatueofOurSouls.RevivalinIslamicThoughtandActivism. Translated from Turkish by Muhammed Çetin. Somerset, N.J.: The light.

Gülen. M. Fethullah. (2006). Questions and Answers about Islam. Vol. 1. Somerset, N.J.: The light.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2007). FatihaÜzerineMülâhazalar. İstanbul: Nil Yayιnlarι.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2008). EmeraldHillsoftheHeart:KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism. Vol. 3. Somerset, N.J.: Tughra Books.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2008a). Vuslat Muştusu. (Kırık Testi, 8). İstanbul: Gazeteciler ve Yazarlar Vakfι Yayιnlarι.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2009). Kitap ve sünnet perspektifinde Kader. İstanbul: Nil Yayιnlarι.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2009a). Kur’ân’dan İdrake Yansιyanlar, İstanbul: Nil Yayιnlarι.

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2009b). Hitap Çiçekleri. İstanbul: Nesil Yayιnlarι

Gülen, M. Fethullah. (2009c). Enginliğiyle Bizim Dünyamız. İstanbul: Nil Yayιnlarι.

Theological Dimension

The Theological Dimension of the Thought of M. Fethullah Gülen

ProfdrThomasMichel,GeorgetownUniversity,Washington,D.C.

Abstract

This paper concentrates on the theological dimension of Gülen’s thought that underlies his role as spiritual director and teacher of internalized Islamic virtue. The author will attempt to look at the specific understanding of Islamic faith that Gülen communicates to the young scholars and teachers, the businessmen, and the householders who make up the community formed by his vision. It is this theological perspective that guides Gülen’s role as spiritual master whose counsel has guided individual Muslims and formed a coherent and workable community life among his disciples. It may well prove in the long run to be the area of his deepest and most enduring influence.

1. Gülen’s place in the theological and spiritual tradition of Islam

Gülen as Spiritual Master

In recent years, much has been written about the thought of Fethullah Gülen and the activities of the “Gülen community”1 from diverse perspectives. Some have focused on his pedagogical principles and methods in an effort to understand the success of the schools and other educational ventures founded and administered by those in the community associated with Gülen’s name. Others have analyzed the social programs and institutions inspired by his ideas. Still others have focused on Gülen’s vision as the philosophical motor behind a social movement that is working to produce social change and renewal, in Turkey, in the worldwide Islamic umma, or in the modern societies in general. Still others have underlined Gülen’s call for universal love, fellowship, and tolerance and consequently his encouragement of interreligious dialogue as an essentially Islamic obligation.

In this paper, I will concentrate on the theological dimension of Gülen’s thought that underlies his role as spiritual director and teacher of internalized Islamic virtue. I will attempt to look at the specific understanding of Islamic faith that Gülen communicates to the young scholars and teachers, the businessmen, and the householders who make up the community formed by his vision. It is this theological perspective that guides Gülen’s role as spiritual master whose counsel has guided individual Muslims and formed a coherent and workable community life among his disciples. It may

1 Fethullah Gülen and those Muslims inspired by his thought dislike the terms “Gülen movement” and “Gülen community,” which imply that Gülen dictates and directs everything done by the community (cemaat in Turkish). They prefer to refer to the community’s activities as the Hizmet, “the Service.” However, since the former terms have entered both scholarly and popular usage, I will employ them in this paper.

well prove in the long run to be the area of his deepest and most enduring influence.

Roots in Qur’an and sunna

Islam, like other religious traditions, provides a wealth of doctrinal teaching, theological reflection, and spiritual experience so vast that it goes beyond what any individual believer is able to integrate personally and hand on to others. even the greatest scholar or mystic is able to assimilate, build upon and communicate only a relatively small part of the whole tradition. This means that every religious teacher is constantly making choices, selecting some elements of the Scriptural and communitarian tradition upon which to comment, elaborate, and emphasize, while passing over other elements in silence. Since no one can communicate the whole of tradition, an individual thinker’s choices reveal much about that person’s own theology and spirituality.In the case of Fethullah Gülen, it is not surprising that his most important model and teacher is the Prophet himself. His teaching is not so much natural philosophy as it is commentary on the Qur’an and hadith. Gülen’s “prophetology” holds that although it is possible to arrive at a certain limited knowledge of God by reason, particularly by means of reflection on nature, much of human existence can only be known through prophetic revelation.

“Although we can find God by reflecting upon naturalphenomena,weneedaProphettolearnwhywewerecreated,wherewecamefrom,wherewearegoing,andhowtoworshipourCreatorproperly.God sentProphets to teach theirpeoplethemeaningofcreationandthetruthofthings,tounveilthemysteriesbehindhistoricalandnaturalevents,andtoinform

usofourrelationship,andthatofDivineScriptures,withtheuniverse.”2

On this basis, it is not surprising that the vast majority of Gülen’s references are to the teaching of the Qur’an and his practical examples taken from the sunna of the Prophet. Gülen holds that the sunna was God’s gift to Muslims so that they would know how to live according to God’s will in a way pleasing to the Creator. “The sunna, the unique example set by the Messenger of God for all Muslims to follow, shows us how to bring our lives into agreement with God’s commands and obtain His good pleasure.”3 Moreover, the sunna is the source for the humane qualities that Gülen as a spiritual guide wants to instill. Character traits such as tolerance, piety, forgiveness, peacemaking etc., are rooted in the divine teaching proclaimed by and exemplified in the life of the prophets, particularly Muhammad. For example, in speaking of tolerance, Gülen notes that the quality is not of human origin, but is derived from prophetic teaching. “Tolerance is not something that was invented by us. Tolerance was first introduced on this earth by the prophets whose teacher was God.”4

Forbearers in the Islamic tradition

The emphasis that Gülen places on Qur’an and sunna underlines the “orthodox” nature of Gülen’s teaching and the community’s practice. Some observers of the movement have asked whether Gülen’s theology is to be located within the mainstream of Islamic doctrine. Conversely, if it is true, as many scholars hold, that there

2 M. Fethullah Gülen, “Prophethood and Muhammad’s Prophethood,” in EssentialsoftheIslamicFaith, Somerset, NJ: Tughra Books, 2009, p. 163. (Originally published as İnancınGölgesınde, Nil Yayınları, 1961.)

3 M. Fethullah Gülen, MuhammadtheMessengerofGod, Clifton, NJ: Tughra Books, 2010, p. 327.

4 M. Fethullah Gülen, Speech to Visiting Scholars, 13 January 1996. Reprinted in TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLoveandTolerance, Somerset, NJ: The light, p. 82.

is more than a single mainstream of Islamic theology and practice, into which current does Fethullah Gülen fit? This question can perhaps best be answered by looking at those Muslim scholars and pious forbearers with whom Gülen can be seen to identify himself.

Gülen’s writings are replete with references to the words of earlier Muslim scholars and mystics. He frequently cites those whom he calls “the lovers,”5 that is, predecessors as Jalal al-Din Rumi, Yunus emre, Ahmad Yasawi, and Said Nursi.” All of these figures are more or less associated with the Sufi tradition. Rumi6 and Yasawi were poets and founders of tariqas, and Yunus emre was a wandering folk poet not associated with any tariqa.The ulama to whom Gülen refers, such as Ghazali, Junayd, and Shah Waliullah, are scholars who have close connections to the broader Sufi tradition. even among those modern figures whom Gülen holds up as “heroes of thought and action” he includes Sufis and Sufi-oriented writers like Ahmet Hilmi, Ferid Kam, and Necip Fazıl Kısakürek.7

Gülen’s theology can be located best in this broad “humanistic current” of Muslims who stress the interior dispositions to be fostered in the believer in response to the revealed Qur’anic message and in imitation of the prophetic example found in the sunna. In this interpretation of Islam, faith is “virtue-oriented”; these Muslims stress internal qualities such as sincerity, patience, peace, tolerance, forgiveness, compassion, respect for others, and acceptance of

5 Ibid., p. 163. Cf. my analysis of Gülen’s appropriation of these figures in “Fethullah Gülen: Following in the Footsteps of Rumi,” in PeacefulCoexistence:FethullahGülen’sInitiativesintheContemporaryWorld,london: leeds Metropolitan University Press, 2007, pp. 183-191.

6 More than any other individual, Rumi seems to epitomize for Gülen the characteristics he seeks to form in modern Muslims. “They call everyone to their embrace and to the truth, like Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, and they tolerate every improper behavior toward themselves.” M. Fethullah Gülen, KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism:EmeraldHillsoftheHeart, Somerset: NJ: 2009, III: 270.

7 M. Fethullah Gülen, TheStatueofOurSouls:RevivalinIslamicThoughtandActivism, Somerset, NJ: 2009, pp. 68-72.

differences, and encourage humble lives characterized by deeds of goodness, love, and service.

This current, while closely related to the Sufi tradition, antedates Sufism as such and finds its origins in the pious, ascetic community of early Muslims centered in the Madina Mosque who came to be called the ahlal-suffa. These early scholars eschewed commercial and military pursuits and devoted their lives to studying and teaching the religious usul(sources). Rıfat Atay8 sees Gülen as reviving the ancient tradition of the suffa in two ways, firstly by embodying in his own life four of the typical characteristics of the early phenomenon (single, simple, humble, and pious), and secondly, by carrying on a consistent pattern of spiritual and theological formation for a select number of dedicated students.

Gülen’s relationship to the Sufi tradition

The suffa movement can be seen as a “pre-Sufi phenomenon, a precursor of tendencies that later developed into Sufism. While the similarities of the modern “Gülen movement” with the early ahlal-suffa are undeniably strong, the question remains of Gülen’s relation to historical Sufism. Zeki Saritoprak has called Gülen “a Sufi in his own way.”9 employing a term coined by Fazlur Rahman, I have referred to Gülen, and to Said Nursi before him, as “neo-Sufis.10

8 Rıfat Atay, “Reviving the Suffa Tradition,” in MuslimWorldinTransition:ContributionoftheGülenMovement, london: leeds Metropolitan U.P., 2007, pp. 459-472.

9 Zeki Saritoprak, “Fethullah Gülen: A Sufi in His Own Way,” Turkish Islam and the Secular State, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003, pp. 156-169.

10 Thomas Michel, “Der türkische Islam im Dialog mit der modernen Gesellschaft. Die neo-sufistische Spiritualität der Gülen-Bewegung,” Concilium,Dezember, 2005. See also, “Sufism and Modernity in the Thought of Fethullah Gülen,” TheMuslimWorld, 95/3: 2005, pp. 341-353.

Mustafa Gökçek notes that Gülen did not begin to write about Sufism until the 1990s, when he was over 50 years old.11 His earlier sermons and writings focused mainly on basic elements of Islamic faith and moral prescriptions, although he often included examples from the lives of earlier Muslim mystics and ascetics. However, in 1990, Gülen began to include a brief insert in the magazine Sızıntı that in each monthly issue elaborated a different concept of Sufi terminology. These articles became the basis for Gülen’s masterwork, KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism:EmeraldHillsoftheHeart, of which four volumes in english have now been published.12

The Twentieth Century scholar Said Nursi would seem to provide the closest model for Gülen’s personal relationship to Sufism. Nursi, while showing respect for the Sufi tradition and affirming many of their insights, always distinguished himself from the Sufis. Nursi distinguished his theological method from that of the Sufis by means of his praxis-oriented approach, what he called the “way of reality,” in which he abstained from contemplative speculation in favor of practical guidance for his disciples’ individual and communitarian lives. He states: “However, since our way is not the Sufi path but the way of reality, we are not compelled to perform this contemplation [of death] in an imaginary and hypothetical form like the Sufis.”13

like Said Nursi, Gülen belongs to no tariqaand follows no pir. He rejects the idea that he is trying to found a new type of Sufi Order and describes his complex relationship to the Sufi tradition as follows: “Ihave stated innumerable times that I’mnotamemberofa religiousorder.Asareligion,Islamnaturallyemphasizes the spiritualrealm. It

11 Mustafa Gökçek, “Fethullah Gülen and Sufism: a Historical Perspective,” MuslimCitizensoftheGlobalizedWorld:ContributionsoftheGülenMovement, pp. 183-193.

12 M. Fethullah Gülen, KeyconceptsinthePracticeofSufism:EmeraldHillsoftheHeart, Vols. I-IV, Somerset, NJ: Tughra Books, 2009-2010.

13 Said Nursi, Risale-iNur, Twenty-first Flash, p. 217.

takesthetrainingoftheegoasabasicprinciple.Asceticism,piety,kindnessandsincerityareessentialtoit.InthehistoryofIslam,thedisciplinethatdweltmostonthesematterswasSufism.OpposingthiswouldbeopposingtheessenceofIslam.ButIrepeat,justasIneverjoinedaSufiorder,Ihaveneverhadanyrelationshiptoone.”14

Common concerns with the Sufi masters

On the other hand, Gülen shares many concerns with the Sufi masters and praises Said Nursi for “pouring down on us all the wealth of our schools and Sufi lodges (takka,zaviya,maktab,madrasa).”15 like the Sufis, and like Said Nursi before him, he places the primacy in Islam on love, which he regards not only as a gift of the Creator God, but as the bond that unites humanity and can overcome disunity. “God Almighty has not created a stronger relation than love, this chain that binds humans one to another.”16 Gülen’s theological vision focuses on many of the same themes found in the writings of the Sufis. He elaborates, in the context of the demands of the Islamic community today, such typical Sufi concepts as ikhlas (sincerity or purity of intention), ma’rifat (knowledge), sabr (patience), and taqwa (piety).

Where Gülen’s theological vision departs from that of the Sufis is his emphasis on communitarian dimension of selfless service. While he affirms the importance of solitude and retreat (halwat, itikaf) to purify one’s spirit,17 he rejects any spirituality that smacks of an individualistic mystical flight to union with God that characterizes much Sufi theory and practice. He is similarly disinterested in the

14 M. Fethullah Gülen, cited in lynne emily Webb, FethullahGülen:IsThereMoretoHimthanMeetstheEye?, Paterson, N.J.: Zinnur Book, n.d., p. 80.

15 M. Fethullah Gülen, TheStatueofOurSouls:RevivalinIslamicThoughtandActivism, p. 77.

16 M. Fethullah Gülen, TheHorizon, Istanbul: Nil, 2000, p. 34. Reprinted in TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLoveandTolerance, p.37.

17 Gülen, KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism, III: 27.

kind of metaphysical speculation that preoccupied so many of the Sufis.

For Gülen, spirituality must always be oriented towards service of God and of others. He states: “Individual projects of enlightenment that are not planned to aid the community are doomed to fruitlessness… Just as plans and projects for individual salvation that are independent of the salvation of others are nothing more than an illusion, so too, the thought of achieving success as a whole by paralyzing the individual awakening is a fantasy.”18

The emphasis that he places on communitarian service of humanity is a quality that distinguishes the community inspired by the thought of Fethullah Gülen both from that of the Sufi practitioners and from that of the Nur cemaatwho follow more strictly the teaching of Said Nursi. For Nursi, transformation of Islamic society, and eventually civil society, will come about through the personal transformation of the individual Muslim achieved through the study of the Risale-iNur, Nursi’s 6000-page commentary on the Qur’an.

While members of Gülen’s community also study the Risale-iNur, Gülen hopes to bring about societal transformation through the establishment of institutions (e.g., schools, media instruments, dialogue centers) designed to promote the desired transformation. For Gülen, the way to God is by serving others. He states: “This path passes through the inescapable dimension of servanthood to God by means of serving first of all our families, relatives, and neighbors, then our country and nation, and finally humanity and creation.”19 The community commonly refers to its activities simply as “The Service” (Hizmet.)

18 M. Fethullah Gülen, The Horizon, Istanbul: Nil, 2000, p. 192. Reprinted in TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLoveandTolerance, p. 62.

19 M. Fethullah Gülen, Essays–Perspectives–Opinions, Somerset NJ: The light, 2002, p. 90.

Among the common concerns that Gülen shares with proponents of the Sufi tradition like Mevlana Jalal al-Din Rumi is the importance of concepts that describe the “interiorization” of religious practice. In particular, he focuses on two of these Qur’anic elements, which can be said to form the conceptual basis of Gülen’s theology. These are the notion of ikhlas, which may be translated “purity of intention” or “sincerity,” and that of ‘ibada(worship), with its related concepts of ‘ubudiyya (servanthood) and ‘ubuda (devotion).

Because of their centrality to the thought of Fethullah Gülen and the extent to which they shape and characterize the motivation and attitudes of the community inspired by his ideas, ikhlas and ‘ibada can be said to be the two cornerstones or pillars of Gülen’s theology. I have written about the topic of ikhlas elsewhere,20 but because the concept is so basic to Gülen’s theological perspective and so essential for the unity of Hizmet cemaat, I will take up once again key points of the topic here.

2. Sincerity: at the Heart of Gülen’s Theology

“Sincerity” in the Islamic Tradition

Ikhlasis a Qur’anic concept that is variously translated as “sincerity” or “purity of intention,” and Gülen’s understanding of the term covers both aspects of the Qur’anic concept. In ordinary parlance, “sincerity” indicates the notion of honesty or freedom from dissimulation and hypocrisy. A sincere person is one whose external words or deeds are

20 I delivered a paper entitled “The Wing of the Bird: Gülen on Sincerity” at an academic congress on the thought of M.F. Gülen held in Potsdam, Germany, in May, 2009, and a revised version of the paper at a similar congress held in Munich, Germany in February, 2010. The paper has been published as “Der Flügel des Vogels: Gülen zum Thema Aufrichtigkeit,” in MuslimezwischenTraditionundModerne, Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 2010.

in accord with their interior thoughts or feelings. A sincere person does not pretend to be expressing one thought or emotion while in reality his interior dispositions are to the contrary. Thus, a sincere person is not self-promoting, hypocritical, pretentious, two-faced, or devious. The sincere person neither flatters nor manipulates others. This straightforward transparency of speech and motivation is one aspect of ikhlas.

The second aspect of the Qur’anic notion of ikhlas, which brings together the notion of “purity” with that of “dedicating, devoting or consecrating oneself ” to some activity, is a key virtue in Islamic practice21, and is the aspect of ikhlas most often stressed by Gülen. Ikhlas refers to an interior disposition by which the faithful Muslim performs all external actions in a spirit of service and directed solely toward pleasing the Divine lord. In fact, in Islam the perfection of one’s witness to faith can be gauged by the double standard of ikhlas (purity of intention) and ihsan (goodness).

It is noteworthy that the brief expression of the Islamic creed found in the Qur’anic Sura 116, “Say: He, Allah, is One. Allah is He on Whom all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like Him,” has been the known in Islamic tradition as the “Surat al-Ikhlas,” that is, “The Chapter of Sincerity” or “The Chapter of Pure Religion.”

The importance of ikhlas has been commented upon down through the centuries by Muslim scholars, exegetes, and spiritual guides in every generation. The Sufi masters have been particularly fond of elaborating on this virtue, to the extent that in the minds of many Muslims, ikhlas is considered a “Sufi concept.” In commenting on ikhlas, Said Nursi distinguishes his own advice from that of the teaching of the Sufi tradition. While praising the insights of the Sufi

21 l. Gardet, EncyclopaediaofIslam, leiden: 2006, III: 1059.

masters, Nursi notes that “I am not a Sufi, but these principles of theirs make a good rule for our path.”22

Because of its roots in the Qur’an and in the tradition of Islamic spiritual writing, this aspect of ikhlas can perhaps be more adequately conveyed in english by “purity of intention” or “pure religion” than simply by “sincerity.” Ikhlas indicates the interior disposition in which one practices all the acts of religion solely for God’s pleasure rather than for any personal benefit that may accrue to them, whether that be prestige, pride, or the admiration of others. When one “worships God with sincerity” one’s intention is pure and undefiled by base or irrelevant motives. The Qur’an commends those who devote their lives to seeking God’s pleasure: “And there is the type of man who gives his life to earn the pleasure of Allah: And Allah is full of kindness to (His) devotees” ( Qur’an 2: 207).

Ikhlas in Gülen’s theology

In his treatment of ikhlas, Gülen builds upon what was elaborated in the tradition and applies these insights to the contemporary needs of communitarian life and the broader society. ¨While interpreting the basic meaning of the term to be “upright, sincere, and pure,” Gülen indicates that ikhlas means “pursuing nothing worldly while worshiping and obeying God.”23 At the deepest level, sincerity can only be understood in the mystery of the relationship between God and God’s faithful servant. Purity of intention is a grace or divine gift that God places in the heart of those He loves24 in order to increase, deepen and give eternal value to the servant’s ordinary good acts.

Gülen considers purity of intention to be “the wing of the bird” of a person’s life before God. The other wing is faithfulness, and together

22 Said Nursi, Risale-iNur,The Twenty-first Flash, p. 216

23 Gülen, KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism, 1999, p. 60.

24 Ibid. p. 62.

these virtues make up the two wings of grace that God implants in the soul that enable a person to approach God without hindrance. He quotes Mevlana, Jalal al-din Rumi, to the effect that if good deeds were a body, purity of intention (ikhlas) would be their soul. That is, it is sincerity that makes good deeds live, be effective, and have everlasting value. Without sincerity to animate deeds spiritually, all human endeavors would remain lifeless, ephemeral, and ultimately worthless. But those who fly with the two wings of sincerity and faithfulness will fly with God’s protection and will unfailingly reach their destination, that is, “God’s approval and pleasure.”

Faithfulness, the other wing of the bird, enables God’s servant to stick to his intention to serve God even when it is inconvenient or seemingly fruitless. This kind of loyalty to God is one of the most evident qualities of God’s servants, an outstanding characteristic of all the prophets, and the source of wisdom in the believer. In the loyal, faithful servant, God will plant the seeds of wisdom that will then spring from that person’s heart and tongue.

Gülen quotes Bayazid to say that it is through sincerity, not through human deeds, that a person goes to God. It is on the basis of a person’s sincerity that God judges acts, not on the magnitude or notoriety of the deed. The size and quantity of good deeds is unimportant. even a small deed or one that is unknown to others, if it is done with sincerity, is judged pleasing by God. This intentionality, the conviction that a person’s intention determines the value of a deed, is in keeping with the Islamic tradition. Gülen notes that God rewards a small act done with purity of intention more highly than many more ostentatious deeds done without the sincere desire to serve God alone.

For Gülen, Muslims must learn purity of intention from the prophets, particularly from the Prophet Muhammad. He states: “God’s Messenger had one intention: to please God and worship Him sincerely, as he stated in a famous hadith: “Perfect goodness or

virtue is to worship God as if you were seeing Him, and although you do not see Him, yet truly He sees you.”25 Just as the prophets could not take a step without sincerity, so also those who follow in the footsteps of the prophets will not be able to do anything without a pure intention. Gülen describes this purity of intention as “the pursuit of no worldly purpose in one’s relationship with God.26 In other words, worshiping and obeying God are the only legitimate reasons that a person should have for performing any good action.

Living with purity of intention

like Said Nursi before him, Fethullah Gülen is not interested so much in being a theoretician of the spiritual life as in offering concrete, practical advice to those who come to him for spiritual counsel. In this, Gülen, following Nursi, distinguishes himself from the great Sufi theoreticians like Al-Muhasibi, Al-Ghazali, and Hujwiri. Gülen is interested in continuing in the line of Nursi’s “path of reality” and cites Nursi to insist on purity of intention as the basic motivation for the disciple’s personal and communitarian actions: “We worship God only because we are His servants and He has told us to do so. Said Nursi said: ‘Do what you do only for God’s sake; start for God’s sake, work for God’s sake, and act within the sphere of God’s good approval.’”27

Gülen advises his disciples to maintain spiritual discretion. If purity of intention means that the servant does everything for no worldly motive whatsoever, but solely to seek God’s pleasure, it follows that sincere believers should not be ostentatious in their good deeds. One seeking God’s pleasure should hide supererogatory acts from the view of others and remain silent about edifying personal experiences,

25 Gülen, MuhammadtheMessengerofGod, p. 39.

26 Gülen, KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism,p. 60.

27 Gülen, MuhammadtheMessengerofGod, p. 38. Gülen’s citation of the Risale-iNur is taken from “The First Word,” p. 5.

special treatment received from superiors, or special gifts with which one has been endowed by God.

There is a universal human tendency to perform good deeds in order to be seen by others and gain their approval. Moreover, human motivation is often complex, with the desire to serve God mixed with a craving for human admiration and approval. The sincere servant recognizes that it is only God’s approval, not that of other persons, that matters; thus it is unimportant whether or not one is seen in serving God. A person who has purity of intention worries neither about being praised for his accomplishments nor censured for his failures. He does not care if others are aware of his achievements, nor is he preoccupied about receiving a reward. Such a person behaves with consistency, whether in public or private.

According to Gülen, sincerity teaches us that the true goal of acts of piety and goodness is God’s pleasure, not human recognition or respect. Moreover, in sincere worship the believer discovers that even the longing for Paradise is not sufficient motivation for doing what is right. Gülen explains: “Those performing [acts of worship] can be categorized by their intention, resolution, determination, and sincerity as follows: those who desire to enter Paradise, those who hope to be rescued from Hellfire, those who love and stand in awe of God, and those who feel that they must do so as a requirement of their relationship between God as the Creator and human beings.”28 The sincere worshiper does not care whether his deeds will form the basis for attaining Paradise.

In fact, sincerity should become second nature to God’s servants, not a virtue after which a person consciously needs to strive. Gülen advises disciples to be “so involved in worship or religious deeds in seeking God’s pleasure that one does not even remember whether one should

28 Fethullah Gülen, TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLoveandTolerance, Somerset: The light, 2004, p. 54.

be sincere or not.”29 In other words, even the virtue of sincerity itself must not be allowed to become the final goal of religious observance. The only true objective in the performance of any good act is to serve and obey God and to thereby give God the pleasure and satisfaction that is due Him.

Only a humble person can act with true sincerity. As Gülen explains: “Humble people do not attribute fruits of work and efforts to themselves, nor do they regard their successes or efforts for God as making them superior to others. They do not care how others regard them; they do not demand a return for their services for God. They regard their being loved by others as a test of their sincerity, and do not exploit God’s favors to them by boasting.”30

To arrive at a state of mind where one does not care whether one receives recognition for one’s good deeds, the disciple must engage in self-examination and self-supervision. Only the person who has learned interior honesty will know whether his motivation is solely to worship God or whether the true incentive pursued is some worldly gain, such as self-satisfaction, human respect, or personal ambition. Thus, developing a habit of honest evaluation and reflection will enable a person to grow in purity of intention. Gülen calls this muraqaba (self-supervision), by which God’s servants are led “to maintain the purity of thoughts, actions, and intentions even when they are alone, in the consciousness of His continual observation.” 31

Communitarian dimensions of ikhlas

It is not only for the purposes of an individual’s spiritual growth that purity of intention is a key virtue among those who seek to do God’s will. Purity of intention also has communitarian effects. There is

29 M.F. Gülen, KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism, 1999, p. 62.

30 M. F. Gülen, TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLoveandTolerance, p. 80.

31 Gülen, KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism, p. 57.

nothing that can more quickly disrupt the proper bonds of friendship among disciples than personal ambition, competition, and rivalry. When a disciple is in the habit of calling attention to his superior abilities or achievements in one or another area, or to boast about his relationship to his superiors, resentment and jealousy will inevitably arise among his confreres.

In his emphasis on sincerity as a key element in preserving the unity of the community, Gülen’s approach is very similar to that of Said Nursi, who repeatedly wrote of the necessity for sincerity to prevent disunity among the students of the Risale-i Nur. The history of many religious groups in various religions has shown repeatedly that jealousy and a sense of competition among members has been the cause of factionalism, resentment, and divisions into rival groups. It has produced a loss of dynamism and resulted in the break-up of many groups. It is only by the members carrying out their tasks with sincerity that this unhealthy rivalry can be avoided. In his long discursus on sincerity, Nursi envisioned a community in which “each of the members completes the deficiencies of the others, veils their faults, assists their needs, and helps them out in their duties.”32 If this type of relationship among fellow disciples is to be possible and the unity of the community is to be maintained, everyone must be sincerely striving solely to please God.

By contrast, the unity of heart and intention among those involved in the Hizmet cemaat can be traced in a large part to this emphasis on sincerity and purity of intention. It means that humble tasks – meeting guests at the airport, serving tea or coffee, feeding the poor in soup kitchens – have eternal value and ennoble the one performing them, if they are done wholly for the pleasure of God. A similar understanding underlies the readiness of intelligent, well-prepared university graduates to renounce prestigious and well-paying positions in academics or business to devote their lives to teaching

32 Said Nursi, Risale-iNur, The Twenty-first Flash, p. 214.

students in distant and often impoverished regions. The emphasis on purity of intention has convinced industrialists, businessmen, and entrepreneurs to contribute generously to projects whose completion they will never see.

Since it is sincerity that enables God’s servants to keep focused on serving God alone, thus making their actions, great or small, acceptable to God, if Gülen has been able to instill a sense of harmony and united service (hizmet) among his followers, it is largely because of the emphasis he has put on ikhlas. He cites Mevlana to this effect: “You should be sincere in all your deeds, So that the Majestic lord may accept them. Sincerity is the wing of the bird of the acts of obedience; without a wing, how can you fly to the abode of prosperity?”33

3. Worship: The motivation of the cemaat

The terms translated in english as “worship,” “servanthood,” and “devotion” are taken from Arabic and possess a long history in the Islamic tradition. like ikhlas, these concepts have been commented upon by Sufi teachers and theoreticians down through the ages. Gülen has appropriated this traditional language and applied it to the practice of Islam in modern society.

The term ‘ibada is derived from the Arabic root meaning slave or servant and carries the idea of enslaving oneself to God or of acting as God’s servant, with the consequent connotations of obedience, submission, devotion, faithfulness, service etc. The concept is not an innovation within the Abrahamic tradition, and is well known in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian New Testament. Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad were all known as God’s

33 Jalal al-Din Rumi, cited by M.F. Gülen, KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism, I: 62.

“servant,” and Gülen cites Muhammad as referring to himself in a hadith as being “a thankful servant of God.”34

Fulfilling God’s commands in daily life

In many treatments of Islamic belief and practice, and in the minds of many Muslim believers, ‘ibada is simply equated with ritual acts, specifically the ritual practices such as the daily salat prayers, the Ramadan fast, the pilgrimage to Mecca etc., that are obligatory for all Muslims. Particularly in works of fiqh (jurisprudence), ‘ibada as ritual activity is treated as a separate chapter distinct from mu’amalat (business affairs and contracts), munakahat (marriage regulations), jinaya (expiation), hudud (punishment), faraid (inheritance) etc.

Gülen expands upon the traditional view of ‘ibada to define it very broadly as “fulfilling God’s commands in one’s daily life, and fulfilling the obligations of being God’s servant.”35 It is interesting to note that there is no specific reference to ritual performance in this definition. In Gülen’s view, ritual obligations are included in the concept of ‘ibada, but the notion goes far beyond ritual performance to include everything that one does to live and act according to God’s will. When a member of the cemaatteaches physics in Kirghizstan, he is performing ‘ibada; he is worshiping God. When a businessman in Izmir donates funds so that schools, dialogue centers, well-digging projects, and publishing houses can be founded and maintained, he is doing ‘ibada. His donations are a form of divine worship.

Worship in this broad sense is the primary task of man and woman as God’s khalifa,or vice-regent on earth. Gülen holds that “Humanity’s vice-regency for the Creator takes place in an unusually broad sphere that encompasses acts ranging from believing in Him and worshiping

34 M. Fethullah Gülen, MuhammadtheMessengerofGod:anAnalysisoftheProphet’sLife, Somerset, N.J.: 2010, p. 89.

35 M. Fethullah Gülen, EmeraldHillsoftheHeart:KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism, Somerset, New Jersey: Tughra, 2009, I: 53.

Him to understanding the mysteries within things and the cause of natural phenomena.”36 This insight has concrete application in the strong emphasis given to the natural sciences in the schools established and operated by the Gülen movement. The teachers and students are worshiping God when they undertake a scientific study of the earth.

Gülen’s comprehensive understanding of worship has resulted almost in a kind of sacralization of education and helps to account for the emphasis the movement has given to opening and operating schools. For example, in one of his writings on education, Gülen states: “A school is a place of learning, where everything related to this life and the next is taught. It can shed light on vital ideas and events, and enable students to understand their natural and human environment. A school can also open the way to unveiling the meaning of things and events, thereby leading a student to wholeness of thought and contemplation. In essence, a school is a kind of place of worship; the ‘holy leaders’ are the teachers.”37

Worship as integrative and liberative

The broad compass that Gülen gives to ‘ibada is meant to have an integrating effect in the lives of his followers. The far-reaching notion of worship enables the members of the movement to bring together and maintain in equilibrium their devotional life, vocational commitment, and communitarian responsibilities. According to Gülen, worship enables believers to “arrange their feelings and thoughts, regulate their individual and social life, and balance familial and social relationships.” In bringing together these aspects of a responsible life, the worshiper is simply acting as a genuine regent (khalifa) of God on earth.

36 M. Fethullah Gülen, LoveandTolerance:TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLove, Somerset, N.J., The light, 2006, p. 208.

37 Ibid., p. 329.

To play this integrative role in the life of a believer, “worship” must embrace the totality of attitudes and actions of service. As Gülen notes: “Worship is not simply the performance of a set of particular movements, as some believe. It is what we call complete submission and the acceptance of a broad responsibility. Along with the title of vice-regent, it is the clearest expression of the relationship amongst humans, the universe, and God.”38

Worship is seen to have not only an integrative but also a liberative role in the believer’s life. An attitude of worship enables the believer to arrive at true freedom by becoming free from the obstacles to freedom, escape from the self-imposed dungeon people have created for themselves39 and the multifarious forms of slavery to which humans subject themselves. Gülen puts it as follows: “If worship is the placing of a consciousness of being bound to God into one’s heart, if it is the liberation of one’s self from all types of slavery, if it is the title of seeing, hearing, and feeling the beauty, order, and harmony that belong to Him in every molecule of existence – and there is no doubt that it is this and nothing else – then worship is the most immediate way to turn our face to God.”40

Servanthood (‘ubudiyya)

Gülen distinguishes between ‘ibada and ‘ubudiyya, which can be translated as “servanthood.” For Gülen, the concept of ‘ubudiyyabearsthe connotation of “living in the consciousness of being God’s servant,” whereas ‘ibada means “fulfilling God’s commands in one’s daily life.”41 In other words, ‘ibada refers to what the devout believer must do to serve and obey God in daily life, and ‘ubudiyya indicates the attitude which the believer must take towards God, the object of worship.

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid., p. 322.

40 Ibid., pp. 208-209.

41 M.F. Gülen, KeyConceptsinthePracticeofSufism, I: 53.

There is another, more subtle difference between the two concepts. Acts of worship consist of all physical and economic duties, which may include teaching school, financing dialogue projects, or delivering meat to the poor at the Id al-Adha, as well as such ritual obligations as the daily salat prayers or Ramadan fast. Servanthood (‘ubudiyya) recognizes that there is a deeper, inner dimension to all these activities that requires a degree of reflective awareness in the believer. The consciousness of the “internal congruity” that acts of obedience and service play in responding faithfully to God is what Gülen terms “servanthood”; it indicates an attitude whereby one is constantly standing before God in readiness to seek the Divine Master’s pleasure by carrying out active service in accord with His will.

Devotion (‘ubuda)

Gülen reaches back into the Sufi tradition to note a still further stage of worshipful involvement, that of “devotion,” or ‘ubuda. Gülen acknowledges his indebtedness to the Sufi tradition for having promoted a comprehensive understanding of worship as service of God, as well as its constant encouragement to those on the Path to worship God always and in every way. As with the case of ikhlas, Gülen affirms his appreciation for the insights of the Sufis to the Islamic meaning of worship. He states: “Sufism enables individuals, through the constant worship of God, to deepen their awareness of themselves as devotees of God… Sufism allows individuals to develop the moral dimension of their existence, and enables the acquisition of a strong, heartfelt, and personally experienced conviction of the articles of faith that before they had only accepted superficially.”42

Harkening back to Al-Ghazali, Gülen views worship as a way to obtain experiential knowledge of the truths of faith that otherwise would

42 M.F. Gülen, TowardaGlobalCivilizationofLoveandTolerance, pp. 267-268.

remain only postulates. As the believer progresses to deeper levels of worship, new perceptions of the realities of faith present themselves. He offers the following advice to his disciples: “Worship is the safest way to reach the most unshakable certainty in one’s conscience about the greatest truth, which is known only theoretically at the outset. In each station on this way, along which consciousness seeks certainty on the wings of reverence and respect, a person experiences a different taste of glimpsing the Beloved.”43

The Sufi theoreticians spoke of three levels or stages of worship: ‘ibada as the service performed by ordinary believers striving to advance on the path to God; ‘ubudiyya as the servanthood of those advanced souls whose mental and spiritual attitudes permit them to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles; and ‘ubuda as the deep devotion of “those whose mental and spiritual states cause them to turn to God wholeheartedly with a profound feeling of being in His company.”44

What characterizes the level of true devotion is an enthusiastic eagerness to serve God. It occurs when the worshiper moves beyond reluctance, objections, and grumbling and performs one’s duties with joyful spontaneity. Gülen cites Ibn al-Farid to affirm the superiority of this final stage of devotion: “The acts of worship and duties of servanthood required by every station or rank that I have reached during my spiritual journey have been fulfilled by my devotion.”For the Sufis, ‘ubuda (devotion) was a rare state of soul (hal) achieved by advanced practitioners on the Sufi path. Gülen characteristically holds up even the stage of ‘ubuda to those engaged in what he sees to be the mission of Islam in the world, that is, service of God by serving others. Members of the cemaat are called to nothing less than ‘ubuda.

43 M. Fethullah Gülen, “Understanding and Respect,” 14 June 2006, http://www.fethullahgulen.biz/about-fethullah-gulen/161-gulens-thoughts/1241-worship.html

44 Ibid., I: 54.

He writes: “This vital mission can only be realized by the devout and godly, who never think of themselves, except insofar as they see their own salvation through the salvation of others.”45

The stage of devotion is, in the view of Gülen, not so much a spiritual achievement of the select few who have devoted their lives to the mystical path, but an attitude that can be achieved by any pious Muslim who strives overcome his or her selfish passions to serve God and others. Gülen has presented countless young Muslims with the challenge to live as one of the “devout” and has thereby inspired many to devote their lives to the service of others.

Gülen himself puts much hope in this “new generation” of idealistic young Muslims. “The future will be the work of these devout people who can represent such a significant mission, showing their responsibility and exhibiting their accomplishments. The existence and continuance of our nation and the nations related to us will be permeated with the thoughts, inspirations and outcomes of a new civilization and with the vast, reviving dynamism of a rich culture, carried aloft into the future on the shoulders of these devout people. They are the trustees of the sublime truths and the heirs of our historical riches.”46

Finally, it must be noted that by giving the priority to worship as a comprehensive life of service to God, Gülen is not implying that ritual performance is unimportant or optional. ‘Ibada in the sense of ritual arises from “a deeply embedded need to acknowledge the Divine” and to be in submissive contact with the “Mysterious power

45 M. Fethullah Gülen, “The Devout: the Architect of Our Souls,” in TheStatueofOurSouls, Somerset, N.J.: Tughra Books, 2009, p. 91. In his biography of Muhammad, Gülen describes the prophet in similar terms: “A Prophet is totally dedicated to his mission, and thus is an altruist who lives for the happiness and good of others.” M. Fethullah Gülen, MuhammadtheMessengerofGod:anAnalysisoftheProphet’sLife, Tughra Books, 2010, p. 77.

46 Ibid., pp. 95-96.

that controls everything.”47 He stresses that our worship can add nothing to God’s glory, which is infinite, but ritual worship benefits the believer in this world and the next. “It is we who need to worship God; not God who needs to be worshiped. He is free of all need.”48

Upon the twin pillars sincerity and worship, Gülen has built a practical theology oriented towards a life of worship and service. It is what might be called “spiritual theology,” oriented as it is to helping Muslims to live their Islamic commitment before God. Gülen has not written a systematic theology textbook, but has proposed spiritual advice to those engaged in worldly tasks, showing them how to sanctify the most basic deeds to God by offering them to God with purity of intention, and to worship the lord in their daily lives by “fulfilling the obligations of being God’s servant.”

47 M. Fethullah Gülen, QuestionsandAnswersaboutIslam, Somerset, N.J.: Tughra Books, 2009, I: 33.

48 Ibid., I: 35.

Socialcultural Dimension

The Flexible and Multilayered Character of ‘Hizmet’ (Social Service) Movement in Immigration: A Case Study from Belgium

ProfDrJohanLeman,CatholicUniversityofLeuven,Belgium

Abstract

What about social integration and participation in the Gülen inspired Volunteers hizmet Movement in Belgium? The focus is on one of the important projects: the lucerna school with its four seats in Flanders. Does the school bear a ‘Gülen stamp’? After a short overview of Gülen’s thinking on school, the Volunteers Movement is situated among two other important Belgian Turkish institutions at the education and school scene. Through an analysis of the lucerna schools from a ‘loosely coupled organisation’ perspective, we nevertheless will see that the school has a precise profile in accordance with Gülen’s thinking, even if this (obviously) doesn’t mean that the school, as a whole, corresponds only to that rationale. Pragmatic aspects may create interesting paradoxes between different Gülen inspired initiatives in different countries.

1. Introduction: Social Integration and Participation

The Gülen movement is a global network of volunteers, teachers, intellectuals, business people and students who are inspired by the writings and preachings of Fethullah Gülen’s philosophy. Putting into practice Gülen’s ideas, the community has participated at the instauration of schools, education or research centres, a hospital or by raising consciousness in the media. They have achieved it by creating it or being mobilized for it, and by supporting creation and/or continuation through human, social and financial capital, on a contractual or non contractual basis.

However, a Movement most of the time may be a “loosely knit social network” and some institutes in it (not at least a school) may in , in fact, be “loosely coupled organisations” (Weick 1982). It means that one may expect that among the Gülen inspired hizmet, not all institutes are equally involved in the philosophy of the Movement and that even in more strongly involved institutes there are individual actors who really support organisationally and philosophically the initiative, sympathizers and ‘clients’. This is what this paper is about. A lot of initiatives categorised under the label ‘Gülen’, institutes as well as individual actors, are in a stricter or in a looser sense inspired by Gülen’s ideas. A Movement is quite less homogeneous than the theoretical exposé about Gülen’s philosophy abouthizmet, as we will briefly describe it in a first chapter, may suggest.

A second reflection, since our interest is the social service aspect, it concerns our understanding of social integration, social cohesion and citizenship. In accordance with the ideas of Kearns and Forrest (2000), we may find the following criteria important: sense of responsibility, social order, social solidarity, social capital, and the identification with the place where one lives. Care for education and school, labour market participation, nationality acquisition, knowledge of

the language of the region and a non-oppositional attitude in inter-religious affairs have been seen as adequate concretizations of social integration. Citizenship may be filled in through exercising cultural, social, economic and political decisions respecting the rules of the game in society.

In our paper, we will discuss in short what the Gülen inspired Volunteers Service Movement implicitly and sometimes explicitly sees as its ‘mission statement’. Then we will analyze its initiatives in Belgium, examining how the Movement presents itself among other initiatives within the Turkish (and broader) immigrant population in Belgium, and then at the internal diversification in the Gülen inspired initiatives. Finally, we will focus on an important school project in Flanders (i.e. the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) and in Brussels, namely the Gülen inspired lucerna school. We will put the question if, through the ‘loosely coupled organisation’ structure, being part of a ‘loosely knit social network’, a clear ‘Gülen stamp’ appears, and additionally we will try to understand at which levels there is a broader or narrower margin of interpretation for the actors.

2. The Social-Cultural Profile of the Movement: Gülen’s Ideas

The key concept in the Movement is hizmet, service to humanity as an expression of service to God (Çelik 2008, 2010). This is the originality of Fethullah Gülen vis-à-vis the position of Bediüzzaman Saïd Nursi (1876-1960). As Yavuz (2003: 188) writes: Nursi emphasized the ‘inside out’, Gülen the ‘outside in’ dimension in Islam. In a Christian tradition one may say that Fethullah Gülen is a theologian who claims that there is no belief without the works. But more than the ‘works’ in Christianity, the hizmet is a criterion to appreciate someone’s religious involvement in Islam, says Gülen. Among others, this means that a hizmet oriented entrepreneurship may become a religious act.

A business framed by hizmet may become equally religious just like its inside dimension - the spirituality - which of course will also be present in whoever acts in a spirit of religious hizmet. The sadaqajariya, the financial support of initiatives of public, common interest (strongly anchored in the Turkish mind, since it guarantees salvation as long as the initiative exists), will be a fundamental pillar in the development of Gülen’s hizmet, not at least its educational network. In 2003 Agai can write that “the movement governs about thousand schools all around the world (Agai 2003a; Agai 2003b), supported by local entrepreneurs, altruistic educators, and dedicated parents,” “a tripartite relationship” (Çelik 2008: 44).

One may understand that the theological ideas of Fethullah Gülen on entrepreneurship, conveyed in a charismatic way in his preachings, may have as a result that many businessmen have felt attracted to his ideas. But what about the intellectuals? When discussing about it with Gülen inspired, also former leftist intellectuals in Turkey, one may see how for some the impasse created by former extreme left – extreme right struggles (before the 1980ies), and for others the nuanced approach of the secular, in between official ‘third French republic’ laicism and islamist secularism have been a stimulus to follow Gülen’s way of thinking. Also, the place given to science and the recognition of its autonomy as a complementary partner for religion, and positively accepted as part of God’s revelation through Creation, is a stimulating idea for young intellectuals in Turkey and abroad.

When speaking with young intellectuals in Flanders who sympathize with Gülen’s ideas, we may see how they have found some pride again in being a Muslim. To quote one of them: “More than once I felt ashamed about the low quality of the ideas of our preachers when I visited the mosques in former years. It simply was backward talk for someone who was a university student. However, one day, a friend invited me to participate in some meetings in a quite marginal small

mosque in my city where a young imam presented the ideas of Gülen. A heavy weight fell from my shoulders. I felt I could be an intellectual, a modern person and a Muslim believer. That is the reason why today I do for the Movement what I do.” In the eyes of some of the young second generation Belgian Turkish intellectuals in Flanders, Gülen’s ideas present an Islam that has the right to claim an adequate and credible place in modern Western society, not in opposition to the West. As we will see, this is important for the becoming visible of the Movement in Flanders.

By thinking in terms of the ‘socially valuable’ which is in line with Gülen’s philosophy, one begins to discover education and school as key concepts. “education is a spearhead of the Gülen Movement and functions as its means of social engineering” (Çelik 2010: 97). It is well known by all of the people who have been inspired by his ideas. Gülen declared very openly that Turkey didn’t need more mosques or imam-hatip schools, but was in need of a highly qualified secular education system. It is through education and school that the new generation, the ‘golden generation’, will lead society in an ethical way. This new generation will focus on secular science, but in correspondence with Islamic ethics. Business and science have become pillars in Gülen’s concept of society, with education, school and Islamic ethics as the motor and the glue. And, of course, Gülen emphasizes also an internalisation – that is his sufi ‘Sitz im leben’ – with attention for self-discipline, open tolerance and a missionary spirit (Michel 2003: 78).

If school is so fundamental an object for religious hizmet, and if entrepreneurship in hizmet perspective is also an expression of Islamic religiosity, then sponsors are essential participants in the big religious Islamic project as formulated by Gülen.1 That the school concept

1 For a discussion of the Movement’s approach to education, see Agai 2003 (who speaks of an “educational Islamism” as opposed to a “political Islamism”), Michel 2003, Aslandogan and Cetin 2006, and Vicini 2007.

should keep its distance from politics, is due to insights from the mid of the 1980s, when Gülen’s inspired school initiatives spread over the whole of Turkey. That the school concept should be secular, and non-confessional, is an idea that has become more important since the 1990s, when the initiatives became transnational and schools were created outside of Turkey. The dialogue among religions, cultures and civilizations got an ever more important place in Gülen’s writings and preachings.

In our last chapter, a case study from Belgium, we will confront the idea of a ‘tripartite partnership’ among the parents (seen by Gülen as the most fundamental partner in education), and then – at equal footing – the educators/teachers and the sponsors, with the reality of the Gülen inspired lucerna school in Flanders. We will try not to focus on the philosophy of the school, but on the practices. But first we will compare shortly the Gülen inspired perspective on education and teaching with two other important tendencies in the Belgian Turkish immigration: the Milli Görüs and the Diyanet initiatives in the field of education. Before looking at lucerna school, we will also look at the larger cluster of Gülen inspired initiatives in Flanders and Belgium.

3. The Movement in the Broader Turkish Immigrant Context in Belgium

3.1 Belgian-Turkish educational initiatives for children and youngsters

It is interesting to situate the Gülen inspired projects in the whole of educational and school projects that are offered by the

Belgian-Turkish organisations to their own communities2. What is the Movement’s programmatic and organisational originality in immigration? Note that there are also other projects that are visited by Belgian-Turkish immigrants, proposed by Belgian initiatives (e.g. the Foyer projects in Brussels, Byram and leman 1990), but these are not our point of discussion here. However, it shows very clearly that parents very often can opt among a plurality of projects. Finding a project in its neighbourhood may be an important criterion of choice. If parents make other choices, there will surely be a reason. Nevertheless, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the parents opt for ‘the whole’ philosophical package related to the didactical project of the school of their choice. It may be particular aspects that attract them, e.g. discipline.

In Belgium, as in most countries in Western europe, three different educational initiatives coming from the Turkish-Belgian community itself, take a clear position in the immigrant neighbourhoods. For Milli Görüs (i.e. IGMG, Islamische Gemeinschaft Milli Görüs, with in Belgium: BelçikaIslamFederasyonu, here: BIF), religious education and ‘Islamic umma’ identity comes first. For Diyanet (i.e. BelçikaTürk Islam Diyanet Vakfi, Turkish Islamic Diyanet Foundation of Belgium) developing ethnic-cultural identity is their main priority and religion is seen as a support for identity. In the Gülen Movement, schooling and education are the top values, related to Islam, but in a way fundamentally different from Milli Görüs. That is what clearly appears from discussions with their leadership. The fundamental difference between the three initiatives is, that BIF and Diyanet do not offer an educational project inside the regular structures of Belgian society, while Gülen Movement does. The educational projects offered by BIF and Diyanet use religious facilities (e.g. mosques), Gülen Movement uses the regular school system. BIF and Diyanet are outside of the system, Gülen Movement inside.

2 Our findings are the result of a one year field research undertaken from November 2007 until December 2008 by esma Yildirim (Yildirim and leman, 2010, in press).

BIF focuses on religious education and, since some time, invests also in non-religious aspects of education, but still through religious facilities. Diyanet, at least outside Turkey, uses religious facilities for religious courses and most of the time also follows this path to offer language courses. Gülen Movement offers a secular educational school curriculum inside the existing Belgian school system, and only in a rather occasional non-systematic way does it offer some religious education, but outside the mosques.

In Belgium, BIF (Milli Görüs Belgium), which is a civil initiative, has been providing religious services for Belgian Turks since 1986 with a network today of 28 mosque organizations and 90 associations. It also includes departments of youth and women. It has approximately 10,000 members. Yet the total number of Turkish people who benefit from mosque services is estimated between 40,000 to 50,000 all over Belgium. Between 20 to 25% of Turkish Belgians may be regarded as BIF followers.

The education activities of BIF can be categorized into two groups according to the age of the person: children (6-13 age) and youth (14-25). The courses for the children aged 6-13, are given in the mosque especially at the weekends in the morning. There is only one independent school initiative, where BIF people have created a regular school in the Belgian private regular school system, namely in the French part of Belgium (in the city of Mons). In the BIF approach the first aim is to construct an Islamic global community (umma) in the minds of the children. Children learn the importance of being mu’minun (believers) and at a second moment their ethnic identification with Turkishness is supported. Today BIF in Brussels provides its mosque activities approximately to 400 children and youth. As a comparison, the Gülen inspired regular lucerna school seat in Brussels attains 340 children and youth which is a quite similar number. However, as already stated, in BIF it is outside of the system; in Gülen inspired Flemish lucerna school inside the system. (And

in Brussels there is also another educational initiative, Prisma centre, Gülen inspired as well, visited by some 130 young people for support in their studies.)

Diyanet, which is a Turkish Government, non civil initiative, has according to the head of the Foundation, 62 mosques and 19,000 members in Belgium. It has more or less twice as many followers and mosques as BIF, representing some 40 to 50% of Turkish Belgians.

When looking at Diyanet initiatives, one finds that almost 4,500 children (ages: 7-13) benefit from Turkish language and history classes and similarly in the BIF they join in the Qur’an learning courses. However unlike the BIF, the teachers of the Diyanet are not volunteers but professional teachers salaried by the Turkish state. The director of Diyanet in Belgium is the Secretary of the Turkish embassy for cultural issues. The teaching language is Turkish, and it is given either integrated as a small part of the regular school system or out of school. There are different motivations for the Turkish parents’ choices of the Diyanet classes. Turkish language and Turkish culture courses are one of them. The fact that the Diyanet is seen as a laic-state organization also makes it a trustworthy association for some parents in which children are taught about a rational mainstream Islam, without superstition. The number of Diyanet following pupils today for the whole of Belgium is 4500, but it remains restricted to elementary school. To give an idea, today the Flemish Gülen inspired lucerna school in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, counts 1230 pupils, but most of them at secondary school level. If we take Dutch and French speaking parts of Belgium together, and don’t restrain our numbers to the school initiatives in the regular system, Gülen figures here also are quite similar to Diyanet numbers. There is indeed also an “ecole des etoiles” with seats in Brussels and Charleroi as a regular school in the French speaking part of Belgium. And there are four after-class centres for school support of young students, namely in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and limburg.

From our findings, Gülen inspired education and school initiatives appear, among the Belgian-Turkish school supportive initiatives as the most important ones, qualitatively and structurally, and maybe even numerically. Its initiatives have been anchored, inside the regular school system and under the autonomous control of the Hizmet Volunteers themselves. This is totally absent in BIF and Diyanet, whose initiatives are situated in the mosques in the case of BIF, or in religious facilities in case of Diyanet, with some minor exceptions where they rent classes in Belgian schools, falling under the final authority of Belgian school management. .

Is there something typical of the Gülen initiatives, even if they are not centrally organized? Anticipating our comment on the lucerna school seats in our last chapter, we’ll see that initiatives as Brussels Prisma education Centre and lucerna, that we could visit, have in common that they recruit among a variety of ethnic backgrounds. I quote the director of Prisma: “We want our students to see that they must go out of their small community and realize that they can contribute to this society too. The image of the Turkish community as a closed community that lives in diasporas must change.” It also explains why the classrooms do not have any Turkish flags, neither the Turkish national anthem, nor any pictures of Atatürk. The director of Prisma: “It is just because here is not Turkey. We want to emphasize this. We would like to say that this is your country and you should adapt to it. Belgian Turks must know at first Belgium very well.” Consequently, success, hard work, planning, discipline, respect, love are key words and mottos that are repeated by the teachers. “No education without love”, “no success without devotion” are typical mottos which are aiming to target students and encourage them for hard work, in all Belgian Gülen centres and schools we could visit.

Another factor that is typical, is their interest for school related attitudes and practices at pupils’ home. Again the director of Prisma:

“Since we believe that education first starts at home, we wish to see the living conditions of our students. (…) We make a report for each student and ask parents to pay attention to the things we mention in those reports.”

At grassroots level, it is not that easy to distinguish in memberships and sympathies. But the stories that are told are quite favourable for the Gülen Movement. For example, during our fieldwork, we heard a story of a woman who donated her own wedding day jewellery to help the poor students no matter to which nationality they belong. Similar stories are very influential in increasing the motivation of the followers. However, it must be noted that such generosity is also very commonly seen in other movements. For example both in the Gülen Movement and in the BIF, we have seen that women organize fairs and sales in the mosque for the benefit of the association, and some women may participate at the fairs of both associations. Women make significant contributions, not necessarily restricted to one organisation. And another remark: many people can frequently cross the borders between BIF, Diyanet and Gülen initiatives and even be present in two kinds of initiatives. These are not three separate worlds.

3.2 The flexible cluster of Gülen inspired initiatives

It is quite difficult to have an idea about the number of people being influenced by Fethullah Gülen’s ideas in Belgium, first because the Movement itself does not want to be a ‘corporate group’. It prefers to remain a cluster of initiatives that do not necessarily meet together. Currently, there is Fedactio (Federation of Active Associations of Belgium), founded at May 30, 2010, by 25 founding member associations, nowadays with 50 member associations. It is composed of five platforms: Businessmen and Professionals; a cluster ‘Social cohesion and dialogue’; another ‘Women and Society’; a fourth one around ‘education and Youth’; and a fifth cluster around ‘Culture, ethics and values’. Fedactio, however, does not represent the whole

of Gülen inspired initiatives. IDP, Intercultural Dialogue Platform, for example, is not part of it. Zaman newspaper is not part either. Also, the Flemish lucerna school is not a Fedactio member, while the francophone ‘ecole des étoiles’ is a member. However, people may be integrated in an initiative that is part of the overarching Fedactio structure, while they may at the same time be a teacher in lucerna school. And for some of them, there is also a typical Belgian distinction, due to the Belgian French-Dutch speakers divide, though not among Fedactio member associations.

The five business associations are situated in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, limburg and Wallonia. They have as their priority: the organisation of business networking, events and business trips. But since ‘social service’ is also part of their mission statement, they engage locally supporting the institutes in the other four platforms, or lucerna school , or IDP. They are first and second generation Belgian-Turkish immigrants. Fedactio associations are typically Belgian-Turkish institutions and focus on Belgian local realities. Apart of the business platform, the more developed one nowadays clearly is ‘education and Youth’, with its four after-class support centres, ‘ecole des étoiles’, four university and high school students associations, various parents associations, and youth centres. ‘Women and Society’ (with for example the Brussels ‘Golden Rose’ association), and most of the other associations and platforms are quite recent ones, which try to open themselves also to non-Turkish participants. The four non-business platforms are composed of associations with typically second generation Belgian-Turkish young people.

If the question is put why IDP is not a member of Fedactio, the answer is that IDP sees itself as an initiative with a very concrete identification with Gülen’s ideas. Fethullah Gülen is the honorary president of IDP, IDP being its spokesman for Belgium. The 50 associations belonging to Fedactio will see themselves as influenced by Gülen’s thinking, but

not really in all of their actions. There is a second distinction. IDP, which started as a platform interested in inter-religious dialogue and developed into intellectual, cultural and social cohesion interests and contacts aims at national and international level (i.e. with the e.U.).What we learn from Fedactio, IDP and later on lucerna, it, is that one may see all these initiatives as associations that are part of a ‘loosely knit social network’. There is still another aspect that is part of the flexibility: since the Gülen Movement does not have mosques either, one may see how most of the time people who are Gülen sympathizers easily visit Diyanet mosques or they have BIF members in their family. The picture is quite complex and shows various layers of involvement and a lot of plural agency in the life of most of the actors.

A final point that I want to underscore when looking at the Gülen inspired initiatives in general, is what I want to call a sane ambition to be present and recognized with the projects as well at grassroots level as at a high level in society. One may see it when looking at the composition of advising committees for the initiatives. But there is also the fact for example that IDP has started a project for the instauration of a chair for teaching and research at KU leuven, in the Social Sciences faculty. However, the interest in initiatives at grassroots level is equally strong. The activities of the platform ‘Youth and education’ are a good example of it. And people active in IDP may also invest a lot of energy in their teaching at a lucerna school that recruits largely in socially very marginal immigrant neighbourhoods. This brings us to our last chapter.

4. The Lucerna School seats in Flanders

In 2003 there is an initial meeting around the idea to start up a Gülen inspired school in some Flemish cities with important Turkish presence. Among the participants at the first meetings were a politically engaged young ecologist politician from Ghent, the

manager of a big Antwerp electro and furniture shop and the owner of a cleaning company. The school starts already in September 2003, in a Brussels office block, with a first year of secondary education. There are 19 Turkish Dutch speaking pupils, and 8 teachers, though not employed with full time job. In 2005, the school moves for the first time, in 2007 for the second time. In Brussels, from 2005 on, an elementary school is added, and in 2010-11 the Brussels section of the lucerna school counts a total of 340 students, among whom 120 at the elementary and 220 at the secondary level.

In the meantime some new seats have been created in Antwerp, where in 2010 230 students are registered at secondary school and 80 at elementary school. In a city near Ghent, Melle, roughly 200 students, and in Genk some 280 students follow secondary school. The lucerna school project started in Brussels in September 2003 with 19 students and today, 7 years later, it counts, spread over Brussels-Ghent-Antwerp and Genk, 300 students at elementary school level spread over two cities, and 930 students at secondary school level spread over four cities: a total of 1,230 students by September 2010.

In the four cities the lucerna school seats have also opened a total of seven boarding schools, with a separation between boys and girls of 15 years and older. A total of 180 students attend these boarding schools.

It is interesting to see how the philosophy and organisational culture of the Movement, when studied as a ‘loosely knit social network’ works at practical level. In accordance with the spirit of the Movement, it is sponsoring by local Turkish entrepreneurs that supports each local initiative. Antwerp entrepreneurs who sponsor the Antwerp seat, Brussels entrepreneurs the Brussels seat, and so on. For the sponsors (currently members of the business associations with a platform at Fedactio) and the initiators of the lucerna schools it is obvious that the aim of the school is to improve the academic progress of the

Turkish students, and to realize – and this is their explicit wish – that the Belgian Turkish students should become as competitive at the Belgian universities as the other students. At a second step, this aim is enlarged also to students of foreign non-Turkish provenance. The last two years it has clearly become part of the objectives to integrate non immigrant students in the lucerna school seats.

The first objectives have been intellectually elaborated in a Gülen perspective. Within the complex Belgian school system the lucerna school was positioned in the free schools network and not in the public State school system. Inside the free school network (which in the eyes of the initial participants shows some distance from politics), a non-confessional profile was opted for. The result is an educational initiative inspired by a Turkish, Islamic thinking and ethics, that explicitly wants to be non-confessional, say secular. It means that Islam and other religions can be presented as an ideological subject, just as in the public State school system, and here there is a difference with most of the schools in the regular Belgian private schools network. Note that the presentation of at least one ideological subject is compulsory in the schools in Belgium. It gives the lucerna school a pluralistic, secular format in an Islamic linking body.3

The board of the school is populated with highly schooled second generation, people from the field of free professions and entrepreneurs, all from Turkish provenance. 60% of teachers are native, the others a mix of people with Turkish, but also with Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Moroccan and Flemish background. The directors are native or Belgian-Turkish.

The profile of the parents is socially very diverse, most of them second generation, but some already third generation (i.e. parents of the kids in kindergarten). Inner-Turkish diversity is very well represented

3 For a similar approach of Gülen inspired schools in Germany, see Irvine 2007: 64.

and the issue doesn’t create a minimal problem. For the last two years, efforts have been made to also attract Belgo-Belgian pupils. However, this is less easy than it seems with the school still being seen by outsiders as a ‘Turkish’ or ‘Islamic’ school. However despite this, the interest in the school by converts and parents from mixed marriages is increasing.

The school board recruited an advice committee, and it is composed of people with a Flemish academic or political background, in a very pluralistic way, also including people with an obviously agnostic and strongly secular background.

With regard to its motivations, strategies and perceptions, the lucerna school shows the following structure:

- The Gülen philosophy has been clearly supported by the board and the Belgian Turkish part of the direction.

- The entrepreneurs on the board, members of the member associations at Fedactio, put financial capital and private property at its disposal, support the buying or renting of a building when needed, do prefinancing where asked and intervene in some complementary salaries.

- Young Belgian-Turkish second generation intellectuals abundantly invest their human capital in the successful development of the school.

- The group of teachers is composed of people who adhere to the Movement and other people who identify with important aspects of the project. An example would be the holistic approach of the education project as proposed by the direction, though they don’t necessarily adhere to the Gülen thinking in its entirety; also former students or pupils at universities or high schools who sympathize are helpful, by acting as tutors or simply taking a room at a boarding school at night.

- With regards to the parents, the motivation for opting for a lucerna school may or may not be inspired by Gülen’s ideas. It happens that parents opt for the school simply because they feel it is a good school where the students are well guided by the teachers and where serious discipline is maintained. It may happen that parents opt for a non lucerna school with explicit care for Turkish language at elementary level and afterwards opt for a lucerna school at secondary level, even if the school policies vis-à-vis Turkish language are totally different. For some parents, the important factor may be discipline, moral standards and caring teachers, or proximity to the home.

5. Concluding Remarks

let us go back to the questions with which we started. What is the impact of the Gülen Volunteers Service Movement on social integration and participation in society? Do we see a typical Gülen stamp? Do we also see elements of non strictly Gülen related reasoning?

Concerning social integration and participation, from our findings it clearly appears that taking up responsibility in society, respect for social order, solidarity, social capital and the promotion of the identification with the place where one lives, is part of the programme and of the aims of the Volunteers Service Movement. One may even wonder if the desire for integration in the sense of assimilation is sometimes not made too explicit… I refer to the attitude vis-à-vis Turkish language, a language that is scrupulously kept outside the school walls. Is there a typical Gülen stamp? If there is one commonality, among Fedactio, lucerna and others, it is the idea of hizmet: responsibility for humanity and society. Also, in the school system, there is an

explicit framing of the “tripartite relationship, i.e. parents, educators/teachers, sponsors” for starting up a project.

But there are also elements of non strictly Gülen related reasoning. We call it actor’s agency inside the ideological framing. To make it explicit, one may see the difference between the Gülen inspired schools in Western europe, Turkey and Turkey’s neighbouring countries. In Turkey’s neighbouring countries the Turkish language is present inside the schools, most of the time as a second language. In Turkey itself, in many Gülen inspired schools there is a huge attention for other languages than Turkish already in the first years of elementary school, and not only english, for example also Russian. In Flanders, Dutch language and assimilation, conform the dominant norms in social-cultural Flemish environment, is the mantra. But at the same time, in another issue, we see a positive acceptance of religious emblems at school, also inside the classes, and for teachers, what makes us think more of an Anglo-Saxon, less Flemish, again more strictly Gülen inspired interpretation of the secular. As a way of final conclusion, I may emphasize still two other findings. A first one concerns the continuous ambition to work through interventions at a structural level, at least for education, but also in business strategies. These are indeed the initiatives with the longest tradition. One may say that the initiators always have tried to play the game in a very structural way, with as a result an – at first view - successful embedding in society. A second final conclusion concerns the becoming visible of the hizmet in society. It is part of the attractiveness of the Movement that it could present a forum of up-to-date modern social, intellectual and religious identification for young, second generation Turkish intellectuals in europe in their personal quest in young adulthood. It has offered them an excellent cultural, religious and social capital, that has found support among older (and younger) successful Turkish immigrant entrepreneurs. One cannot reduce, of course the hizmet to external social and cultural factors, but they are part of the picture.

References

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Agai, B. (2003b). The education-network of Fethullah Gülen:the flexible implementation of modern Islamic thought: Acomparison of three countries. Hamburg, Germany: Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

Aslandogan, Y.A. and Cetin, M. (2006). The educational philosophy of Gülen in thought and practice, in R.A. Hunt and Y.A. Aslandogan, eds. Muslim Citizens of the Globalized WorldContributions of the Gülen Movement, 31-54, Somerset, NJ: The light & IID Press.

Byram, l. and leman, J. eds. (1990). Bicultural and TrilingualEducation:theFoyerModelinBrussels.Clevedon-Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters.

Çelik, G. (2008). The Gülen Movement. Building Social CohesionThrough Dialogue and Education. PhD thesis at Tilburg University, The Netherlands.

Çelik, G. (2010). The Gülen Movement: Building Social Cohesionthrough Dialogue and Education. Delft: Eburon AcademicPublishers.

Irvine, J. (2007). ‘The Gülen Movement and Turkish Integration in Germany’, in Hunt, R. and Y. Aslandogan, eds. MuslimCitizens of the Globalized World. Contributions of the GülenMovement.New Jersey: light: 62-84.

Kearns, A. and Forrest, R. (2000). ‘Social cohesion and multilevel urban governance’, UrbanStudies, 37 (5/6): 995-1017.

Michel, T. (2003). ‘Fethullah Gülen as educator,’ in M.H. Yavuz and J.l. esposito (eds.) TurkishIslamandthesecularstate.TheGülenmovement, 69-84. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse Univ. Pr.

Vicini, F. (2007). ‘Gülen’s rethinking of Islamic pattern and its socio-political effects’, in Yilmaz, I? et al., Proceedings‘MuslimWorld in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement’.International Conference, leeds Metropolitan University Press: 430-444.

Yavuz, M.H. (20003b). IslamicpoliticalidentityinTurkey. london: Oxford University Press.

Yildirim, e. and J. leman (2010, in press). ‘Islam and education among Turkish Belgians: the Impact of Dianet, Milli Görüs and Gülen Movement’, in FestschriftEmilioPlatti. (in press).

Weick, K.e. (1982). ‘Administering education in loosely coupled schools’, PhiDelataKappan, 63 (10): 673-676.

Financial Dimension

Financing the Gulen-inspired projects

ProfDrHelenRoseEbaugh,UniversityofHouston,Texas

Abstract

Given the number and outstanding quality of the varied projects associated with the Gulen Movement, the question of financing has been raised by outside observers as well as critics of the movement. In fact, there has been accusations that it is foreign governments such as Saudi Arabia, Iran or the American CIA that is funneling money into the projects. The purpose of the study that prof. ebaugh initiated in 2008 was to explore the financial structure, operations and motivations connected with Gulen-inspired institutions in Turkey. By means of extensive interviews with top administrators in these institutions, she documented how the project was begun, costs associated with the original project, sources of financing, the history of sustaining the project over time as well as its current financial status. In addition, prof. ebaugh interviewed a cross section of people who are supporters of the movement to determine amounts of money contributed by people in various occupational and income groups as well as motivations for giving.

The number and scope of projects inspired by the ideas of Mr. Gulen and operationalized by his supporters is vast and continuously growing. In addition to the l,000 or so schools in Turkey and around the world;1 the projects include: six top-notch private hospitals; at least two major universities; hundreds of student dormitories and preparatory courses for the national university exam in Turkey; an international relief organization; the Journalist and Writers Foundation; a media conglomerate that includes Zaman newspaper with the largest readership of any newspaper in Turkey, the english version, Today’s Zaman, Aksiyon, a widely read news magazine and Samanyolu television station; Kaynak Holding Group, Turkey’s largest producer, distributor and exporter of education products (Hendrick 2009); TUSKON, a regional NGO that represents over 10,000 businessmen; Bank Asya; a travel agency; and hundreds of local organizations around the world that sponsor conferences, lectures and interfaith/intercultural trips to Turkey. The question of how these many endeavors are financed is repeatedly raised, both by those who are simply curious about the movement and also by the movement’s critics. The critics point to the fact that such vast amounts of money must be backed by some government and speculate that it must be Iran, Saudi Arabia or perhaps the American CIA.

In order to understand the financial structure of the Gulen movement and its many affiliated institutions, in April 2008, I spent two weeks in Istanbul, Bursa and Mudanya conducting formal interviews with top administrators in Gulen-related institutions with the goal of documenting the financial history and structure of the organizations. I focused on how the organization or service project was begun, costs associated with the original project, sources of financing, the

1 Due to the non-hierarchical, locally based network structure of the movement, as well as varied terms for the schools, it is impossible to give an exact figure for the number of Gulen-inspired schools worldwide. However, based on best estimates from those who study the schools, I maintain that there are over l,000 schools in over 100 countries on 5 continents.

history of financially sustaining the project over time as well as its current financial status, including expenses and sources of income. I inquired specifically about any government financing, including not only money but also land, buildings and tax breaks. I interviewed the CeO or another top administrator at the following organizations: Bank Asya, Samanyolu t.v., Zaman newspaper, The Journalists and Writers Foundation, Fatih University, Sema Hospital, Istanbul and Bakar Hospital, Bursa, three Gulen schools and Kimse Yok Mu, the relief organization.

In addition, I interviewed a cross section of people who are supporters of the movement, some in one to one interviews and others in focus groups. I interviewed two groups of businessmen who are major supporters of movement projects, one in Istanbul and one in Bursa. each of the businessmen contributes a minimum of $l million per year to service projects. I also interviewed a group of engineers and another of doctors, as well as two groups of blue collar workers. These interviews helped me determine amounts of money contributed by people in various occupational and income groups as well as motivations for giving.

While my book describes the data I gathered for each specific institution, in this paper I will focus on general patterns, using examples from various enterprises to demonstrate what I found. In the second part of the paper, I will try to address the question of why people contribute to the movement as they do.

Financing Gulen-Inspired Enterprises

Mr. Gulen himself has never had personal wealth to allow him to sponsor projects that he saw as important to the future of Turkey. He chose to live an ascetic life dedicated to worship, reading, writing and preaching. The story is told that he prayed that his relatives would also remain poor so as not to raise any suspicions of gaining monetarily

from his influence Apart from encouraging people to donate money, Mr. Gulen remained distanced from all financial involvements.

Beginning in the 1970s and escalating in the 1980s when President Ozal initiated economic policies that promoted entrepreneurship and global investment on the part of Turkish businesses, Mr. Gulen encouraged the businessmen who were attracted to his ideas to grow their businesses and donate a portion of their wealth to the projects sponsored by the movement. In large part, it was the wealthy businessmen who financed the first dormitories and preparatory schools where Turkish youth could come to attend high school and university and to prepare for the mandatory university entrance exams. Again, in the early 1980s, when President Ozal’s policies allowed the first private schools in Turkey, the businessmen first in Izmir and then Istanbul, bought the land, built the schools and hired the teachers to open the first Gulen-inspired schools in Turkey.

In order to protect the schools from takeover by the military government, the early schools were owned and administered by a corporation or foundation and run by a board of businessmen, a model that is followed today both in Turkey and wherever Gulen-inspired schools have been established. These businessmen and others in the locale whom they solicit and inspire provide the initial funding for a school. While each school is private, it follows the curriculum specified by the state and teaches comparative religion only one hour per week.

each student pays tuition, amounting to an average between $7,000-9,000 per year. eventually, usually between two to three years, tuition allows a school to become self-sufficient and no longer dependent on businessmen for support. At that point, the businessmen use their resources to build a new school, finance a new project or support needy students in the school. Approximately 20-40% of the student body in each school who cannot afford the tuition, receives need-

based scholarships, provided by local supporters of the movement. In addition to monetary contributions to build and support the schools, local businessmen often contribute in-kind donations, especially those in the construction and furniture business.

Zaman and the english version, Today’sZaman,is a good example of how the Gulen inspired enterprises began and now operate in Turkey. In the late 1980s Mr. Gulen began talking about the importance of having a newspaper that would be inclusive in terms of reporting various ideological perspectives and opinions, would report the most current fashion in an objective way, would emphasize dialog and tolerance rather than hatred among groups and that would deemphasize alcohol and nudity in its advertizing. In 1986 a group of businessmen who were inspired by Mr. Gulen and who thought such a newspaper was a good business venture bought shares in the paper and Zaman was launced.

From the very beginning, it was businessmen who were interested and involved in the media who owned and controlled the paper. Mr. Gulen had no financial or administrative involvement except that he wrote a column periodically, and still does. After 25 years, today Zaman has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Turkey. In addition to the newspaper, there is a larger media group which also owns not only the newspaper but also a weekly magazine and a news agency. In 2007 the annual income for the Media Group was approximately $250 million, with over half of that coming from subscriptions. For the newspapers, over 50% of income comes from advertizing. Zaman is not only self supportive today but is a profitable business venture for its shareholders.

Mr. Dumanli, current editor-in-Chief of Zaman, whom I interviewed, commented that some, but not all, of the original shareholders were supporters of the movement. He was unsure how many of the current board support the movement since board members are selected from

the leaders in the media and business community of Turkey with no stipulation of ties to the movement.

While some critics have accused the paper of financial irregularities, financial transparency is one of the requisites of Zaman’s staying in business. every year the government investigates the finances of every newspaper in Turkey and if there are any infringements in regard to finances, the paper can be shut down or fined. In its entire history, Zaman has not had infringements despite the rigorous review of the public auditors.

Bank Asya has a history very like that of Zaman. In the early1990s, Mr. Gulen agreed with some businessmen that opening an interest-free bank was a good idea. 346 businessmen, some , but not all of them supporters of the Gulen movement, bought shares in the bank. Mr. Gulen attended the opening ceremonies and was photographed with some of the original shareholders which suggested to the media that the bank was associated with the movement. However, Mr. Gulen never sat on the board or had any direct dealings with the bank.

While some media sources continue to present the bank as the official bank for the Gulen movement, Mr. Kabaca, current president of the bank, reported that, while some of the Gulen inspired schools and hospitals do use Bank Asya for some of their banking needs, their choice is based upon competitive bidding among banks in Turkey. He said that the bank has no competitive edge with Gulen-inspired projects and he has to work as hard to get their business as he does with other businesses in Turkey. For example, he said, Fatih University, a Gulen inspired institution, worked for many years with a government bank until Bank Asya won their business by developing a system of collecting tuition that university board of directors liked. He said that some of the Gulen inspired schools use his bank but others deal with other banks in Turkey.

Since its inception fifteen years ago, Bank Asya has performed very well financially, increasing its capital 7-8 times since its origins. In 2007, Bank Asya reported current deposits of $5 billion. As a result of its financial success, the bank has attracted global investors, both individuals and companies.

Fatih University opened on the outskirts of Istanbul in 1994, one of the newly approved “foundation universities.” In Turkey only charitable foundations can establish private universities, not individuals or businesses for the purpose of profit. The foundation that founded Fatih was initially financed by supporters of the Gulen movement in Ankara and Istanbul. One wealthy businessmen from Istanbul donated the scenic property appraised at $5 million and today worth about $100 million. Other businessmen contributed to constructing the buildings and opening the university.

Currently, tuition fees are sufficient to cover operating expenses such as faculty salaries and maintenance of buildings. However, Turkish law requires that foundations associated with private universities raise the money to build new buildings and labs. Many people, mainly Gulen supporters, make contributions to the foundation.

If a university in Turkey, either public or private, meets certain criteria, the government gives it 15% of its budget every year. In 2006 and 2007 Fatih qualified and received its portion of government money. However, in 2008 it failed on one criteria and was denied government assistance.

A characteristic of all Gulen inspired institutions, rather they be schools, hospitals, media organizations or universities is that they are usually initiated, constructed and financed by local businessmen, politicians and ordinary people inspired by the movement. For that reason, the movement is very non-hierarchical and non-bureaucratic. The one exception to this pattern is Kimse Yok Mu Solidarity and Aid

Association, referred to simply as Kimse Yok Mu. This organization is dedicated to relief efforts both in Turkey and wherever in the world there is a disaster or drastic humanitarian need. This Gulen-inspired agency does have formal, hierarchical structure and organized mechanisms for fundraising.

The agency began in the aftermath of a massive earthquake in the Marmara region in Turkey. In 2002 it was established as a non-profit foundation to assist with human relief efforts. It raises about $16 million annually, some through very creative fundraising techniques such as placement of a “bank” in schools and shopping malls and sending text messages to an advertized cell phone number from any of the three major phone companies that add the donation amount to the customer’s monthly telephone bill.

To summarize what I learned from studying Gulen-inspired institutions in terms of their financial structures: with the exception of Bank Asya which was a business venture from the beginning, the remaining Gulen-inspired projects were originally financed by groups of local supporters who wanted to make Mr. Gulen’s ideas reality by creating organizations that would express these ideals. In every case I studied, the initiation, planning and financing of the schools, dormitories, prep courses, hospitals and media conglomerates began when a group of Gulen supporters, usually including local businessmen, came together and saw a need in their community that required a specific institution. They then pledged their own money and in-kind donations, and offered to solicit help from their business acquaintances and friends. Usually they established a foundation to collect and administer the project.

Within a few years the projects become self supporting. The sponsors then look around for another project that needs their assistance and put their resources to help it get off the ground, sometimes in Turkey and sometimes in other countries. Often times the recipients in the

service projects, such as schools, dormitories, prep schools, hospitals and media consumers, appreciate the values and opportunities that their experiences in the institutions afford them and they want to become sponsors and contributors so that others will also benefit. As a result, the cadre of benefactors and supporters is growing not only in Turkey but around the world.

Structure and Benefits of the Local Circles (sohbets)

In the course of my interviews, I discovered that giving financially is a characteristic, not only of the wealthy businessmen, but of everyone in the movement. My data show that most people give between 5-20% of their annual income, with 10% being the average. In the two groups of wealthy businessmen, it was not uncommon for them to give $3-4 million annually to various projects. Many of them divided their income into thirds, with one-third put back into the business, one-third used to support one’s family and the remaining third given to movement projects. While it is impossible, due to lack of membership rolls and financial records, to specify exactly how many such wealthy businessmen contribute, I discovered that the number is not insignificant. Repeatedly, I either interviewed or had interviewees mention supporters who owned some of the biggest and most profitable companies in Turkey. Many of these wealthy supporters also had family who were involved in their businesses who also contribute.

What was astounding, however, was that it was not only businessmen who supported the movement financially but people in all professions and occupations and at all economic levels. And, regardless of the amount of money contributed, I found that most people I interviewed estimated that most supporters give at least 10% of their annual income to movement projects. Again, even though it is impossible to determine how many people either in Turkey or worldwide are supporters of the movement, there are certainly millions of them, probably at least 8-10 million worldwide. Mr. Gulen was once

asked by a reporter, “where the water for this mill comes from.” My interviews revealed that it is the people in the movement who are supplying the water for the mill.

The question remains: why? What motivates people to give to the many service projects that are built and maintained by supporters in the Gulen movement? How is the movement structured such that giving is embedded into the heart of the movement?

The answer to these questions lies in two sources: first, deeply engrained Islamic and Turkish cultural/religious roots and, secondly, the organization of sohbets or local circles. The movement is inherently tied to Turkish culture and to a Turkish understanding of Islam. The values of giving and showing hospitality have deep historical roots in Turkish culture. Traditions related to generosity, hospitality and charity can be traced back to the central Asian civilizations from which Turks hail. Among the various reasons given for why the nomadic Turks living of the ninth and tenth centuries were so ready to accept Islam is the existence of many similarities between their pre-Islamic lifestyes, values and ethics and those that Islam teaches. The DedeKorkut, an important source of early Turkish history, provides many examples of Turkish hospitality. When a clan member died, relatives slaughtered his horses and gave a funeral feast. Some stories condemn or belittle the houses or tents that do not receive guests or help the stranger in need.

Certain acts of giving prescribed by the Qu’ran and encouraged by the Prophet Muhammad have found almost continuous cultural translation in pre-Ottoman, Ottoman and modern Turkish society. These include notions of sadaka, zekat, kurban, vakif, ahilik, bereket, komsuluk and karz-i-hasen. I cannot describe each of these in detail; however, I choose three of them to demonstrate how they are deeply embedded in modern Turks as motivation for charitable giving.

While zakat is the obligatory payment of a certain portion of one’s total wealth to the poor once a year, sadaka is a voluntary contribution that is given with the sole intention of pleasing God and in expectation of a reward in the Hereafter. The recipients of sadaka are not necessarily only Muslims but anyone who needs charity. Sadaka is not only monetary or material, but can also be any favor given, even a smile. The most common ways to give sadaka today are contributions via the collection box in one’s mosque, the sacrifice of a ram or cow (kurban) and the distribution of its meat to the poor or the giving of funds to a charitable organization. Sadaka is given by people who are still alive as well as in the name of those who are deceased. A prophetic tradition encourages the offspring of a deceased person to give sadaka to a charitable trust in the name of the deceased.

Vakifs are charitable trusts set up by individuals who declare all or part of his or her property to be a vakif, that is, dedicated to religious or charitable purposes. Beneficiaries are named and a trustee or board of directors are established to manage the vakif according to the original purpose for which it was established. Vakifs were widespread under Ottoman rule not only among Muslims but also Jews and Christians. These charitable trusts provided many services that modern state and local governments provide, such as provision of health care and education, road maintenance and clean water. In addition to serving the needy, vakifs also increased public respect for the rich who established them. Today in Turkey, many types of charitable trusts still exit. Some provide funds for restoration and preservation of historical sites but others provide financial, educational and health services to the public.

Bereket is another important Turkish-Islamic notion embedded in the culture whereby people believe that when something is done with the intent of pleasing God and without expectation of worldly reward, it will create abundance. This idea of abundance resulting

from generosity is applied not only to money but also to time, life and other intangibles.

Twice during the year, Muslims celebrate special festivals that call forth their obligation to share with the needy. During the month of Ramadan when every practicing Muslim fasts from sunrise to senset there is also the requirement to share with those less fortunate. Muslims around the world make special contributions during Ramadan to help those in need.

eid-ul-Adha, the Day of Sacrifice, occurs right after hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca and, on that day, Muslims sacrifice animals in remembrance of the sacrifice that Abraham made to God. In addition to eating the meat themselves and sharing with family and friends, one third is given to the poor and hungry. Today many Muslims give money for the purchase of meat and food that is distributed to those who are hungry and there exists electronic services that coordinate these exchanges.

As the above examples indicate, there is a long and rich Turkish-Islamic tradition of giving in Turkey. The Gulen movement, therefore, is able to gain peoples’ trust by tapping into the network of philanthropic motivations already present in Turkish society. Mr. Gulen, when he challenged Turkish people to set up dormitories and schools for the young people in Turkey was calling upon a long Turkish tradition to help those in need. He expressed his call to action in terms of fundamental Turkish-Islamic values: hospitality, giving, charity and the obligation to help the needy in society, known as kimmet. Gulen simply provided ways that Turkish people who believed in what he was envisioning could express himmet, the generosity and giving that they were used to in the tenets of their culture and religion.

Another practice that was familiar to Turks was that of cemaats and sohbets. The cemaat was a type of social group that evolved in

Turkey after the formation of the Republic and the outlawing of the Sufi orders and the abolishing of madrasas. Practicing Muslims who wanted to preserve the Islamic heritage while adapting to modernity formed circles around scholars who blended religious devotion with a mild form of nationalism or spiritual practices. These groups of people around pioneering figures were called cemaats, a grassroots movement of practicing faithful Turkish people who did not want to abandon their faith tradition while embracing the modern age. Within the cemaats were sohbets or small groups that have no formal membership, no initiation rites, require no building to meet and have no public recognition of membership. Rather they are people who meet regularly to read interpretations of the Qu’ran, to share ideas and needs of people in the group and to decide what service projects the groups want to support financially.

Mr. Gulen had been an active member of a cemaat around Said Nursi’s teachings and had experienced the fellowship and worthwhileness of this form of organization. As his ideas caught hold in Turkdy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he encouraged the sohbet as a way for those inspired by his ideas to get together and discuss how to operationalize the ideas in terms of building a better Turkey. People were familiar with sohbets so it was natural for them to organize around this inspiring preacher.

Sohbets or local circles are typically organized according to location and neighborhoods or according to education and jobs. For example, doctors in an area might meet together as will dentists, lawyers, teachers and housewives. While members of a local circle share readings and ideas, they also share their lives in terms of what is important to them at the time.

An important part of every social circle in which I interviewed is supporting some needy project, either in Turkey and in some other country. When I asked how people in the circles learned about such

needs, I was told that the Gulen-inspired community is a very tight knit one and people know which projects need help. Alternatively, supporters working in a service project sometimes approach a circle and make known needs connected to that endeavor. Word circulates throughout the local circles which projects are especially in need at a given time and people in these circles get together to decide what they can do to help.

The large contributions made by the large business owners are important not only in the projects that can be supported by the size of their donations but in terms of giving legitimacy and visibility to the movement. Frequently I heard supporters mention the “businessmen” who are major donors that make the building of new schools, the opening of private hospitals and the starting of universities possible.

In a local circle of young engineers I learned that there are about 1,000 engineers who are part of many local circles in Istanbul and that the group donates about $2 million a year to Gulen-related projects. About half of that comes from members themselves and the rest solicited from family and business associates of the members.

The blue collar workers are not able to make large contributions but, again, most give 10% of their income which usually supports scholarships for needy students in the schools or dormitories. They also help one another who might be in financially need at a given time. Often children of circle members can stay in local dormitories free of charge and such living arrangement is often favored by parents because of such dorm living is more conducive for study and for meeting friends that are preferred by their parents.

Since financial giving is an expectation in every local circle, I asked whether members publicly announce his/her yearly pledge. While great emphasis was placed on the voluntariness of contributions and that money is given without expectation of gaining approval

and status from fellow members, interviewees acknowledged that there is competition among circle members regarding how much one can donate. This was especially noteworthy among the wealthier businessmen who often challenged one another to increase their pledge. Also hearing publicly what a colleague is donating often is motivation to do the same.

Most giving is done to a foundation rather than directly to a school or individual. This keeps the giving from being too personal and from contaminating motivations in a self serving direction. Rather, donations are given to a pool that helps needy people but nobody knows who is supporting which ones. Giving is done in a spirit of serving the Creator by serving his people.

In addition to financial contributions, it is important to recognize the many and varied volunteer services that members provide to the movement. I interviewed supporters who work or go to school 40 hours per week and still contribute 15-20 hours to working with projects in the movement. Women often cook and serve meals to groups who gather for activities; men organize activities, create ads for events, manage video and audio taping of events; participants attend events sponsored by the movement. Volunteerism is one major characteristic of people who support the movement.

When asked why supporters give to the movement, the main responses I received were: to make better human beings as Mr. Gulen encourages; to educate youth; to please God; to earn a reward in the next life; to be part of a movement to better the world; to provide hope to the people of Turkey and around the world. While personal monetary success is not an overt motivation for giving, a number of interviewees at all socio-economic levels commented that giving to worthwhile movement projects often brings material rewards to the giver. These successes are seen as God’s blessings on those who give.

It is also the case that being a supporter of the movement opens up a wide network of business opportunities. even though the construction of schools and hospitals, for example, involves competitive bidding, often preference is given to a business run by a movement supporter if his/her bid is fair and competitive. Often supporters who own companies donate some materials and expertise, along with their bids. Business owners in the movement have also created a large, worldwide association of businessmen, TUSKON, that provides a network of contacts and training for its 10,000 members.

A major unanticipated consequence of being part of a local circle as well as the movement as a whole is the sense of belonging and sociability that such close interaction and friendship provides for the supporters. Many of my interviewees said that the sohbet was the most important part of their week and that nothing was allowed to interfere with that time. It is here that they are renewed in terms of their faith, where they meet friends and establish social networks, where they network in terms of business opportunities, where they are motivated to make himmet, where they learn how their contributions are helping to remake Turkey society and where they are imbued with enthusiasm for the Gulen movement. As I argue in my book, offering himmet or financial contributions to the projects supported by the movement provides both demonstration of their commitment but also generates commitment in so far as it makes the goals and services of the movement a personal investment.

Structural Dimension

Mobilization, Institutionalization and Organization in the Gülen Movement

ByDrMuhammedCetin,EastStroudsburgUniversity,PA,USA

Abstract

There have been a number of attempts by academics to describe the organization of the Gülen Movement (GM). To account for the consistency and continuity of the action by Movement participants many of these scholars have posited a great degree of hierarchy or centralization in the Movement. However, so far researchers have overemphasized the interdependence of the institutions and SMOs of the GM and failed to recognize the degree of autonomy enjoyed by the SMOs and institutions and the degree of their localization in their responsiveness to issues raised by the grassroots.

My study, which is derived from research which the author carried out by means of interviews and questionnaires with almost a thousand informants working in ten countries, differs from previous research in that it incorporates insights from the actors’ own goals, values, frames, and discourses. This paper first identifies the types of institutions which are set up and maintained by GM participants, how the institutions are governed and how they are linked into a network. It then describes why and how the participants in the GM come

together and establish institutions. It also examines how leadership is practiced in networks, and how the influence of Fethullah Gülen affects Movement participants within the framework of Sociology of Social Movements.

Introduction

The Gülen Movement1 organizes and mobilizes itself through what is called ‘service-networks’ or alternately ‘project-networks’. The service networks are relational, associational and professionalized associations, through which individuals and groups come together to con struct meaning, to make sense of their being in togetherness and in action. All service networks of the GM are voluntary. Through the service-networks, individuals recognize, combine and sustain the meanings, values and plurality of aspects present in being and acting together. The term ‘hizmet’ is used in Turkish and is preferred by all participants in the GM to describe their attitude and work in the service-networks.2

An ethic of positive action and voluntary altruistic service provided for others, ‘hizmet’ denotes disinterested voluntary provision, non-contentiousness, and all of the altruistic services that local communities and the wider society need. Fethullah Gülen neither approves nor ever uses the terms ‘Gülen Move ment’ or ‘Gülen Community’. He prefers the action to be called the ‘volun teers service’, because this does not connote any contentious otherness, po-litical separatism or conflictual front. He insists that the Movement does not and must not involve conflict, and the volunteers’ service must be offered within a certain framework of principles. However,

1 The Gülen Movement will hereafter be abbreviated as the GM and ‘Movement’ with initial capital will hereafter mean ‘the Gülen Movement’.

2 Cetin, 2010:269.

this contemporary social phenomenon is generally referred to as ‘the Gülen Movement’ for ease of reference by academics and researchers.3

The service-networks mobilized by the GM have produced many organizations and institutions which may be called ‘social movement organizations (SMOs), civil society organizations (CSOs), or non-governmental organization (NGOs). For ease of reference and with no bias against any term, I will use the term SMO for any institution established by the participants of the GM. “A SMO is the complex or formal organization which identifies its goals with the preferences of a social movement…and attempts to implement these goals”.4

This paper will first explain what types of institutions are set up and maintained by GM participants and how the institutions are governed. Then it will describe why and how the participants in the GM come together and establish institutions; in short it will present the internal organizational factors and components of the GM through the insiders’ own framings and action in relation to the contemporary theories of social movements. This paper is based upon my research and the book, TheGülenMovement:Civicservicewithoutborders, 2010, New York: Blue Dome.

Institutions and organization

Fields of activity

The Gülen Movement focuses on education, health, media, publication, ethical finance and humanitarian aid and relief. There is no political wing, party or umbrella organization of the Movement.

3 Cetin, 2010:128.

4 McCarthy & Zald, 1977:1217–18.

The SMOs inspired by the GM in these fields can be categorized as follows:5

• education: pre-school – kindergarten; primary; secondary, high school (lycee- normal, science and vocational); higher education – university, language courses, computer courses, university entrance examination preparation courses; study centers for all ages; student dormitories and hostels.

• Health: polyclinics, hospitals, health and diagnostic centers.

• Media: TV, radio; and daily, weekly, quarterly (religious, social, literary, scientific, popular, ecology, children) journals; Writers and Journalists Foundation

• Publishing: publishing houses, printing firms, bookshops, art-design and graphics companies.

• Business and finance: a bank; an insurance company; an international and other regional businessmen’s associations; bureaus of human resources and consultation; holiday resorts and accommodation.

• Humanitarian aid and relief: local/regional, national and transnational aid organizations; study centers for the poor and under-privileged; reading halls, women’s clubs or foundations; cultural centers; interfaith dialog centers.

5 Cetin, 2010:215–16.

The service organizations work on the open and com petitive market and some became market-oriented, while others are charity-based foundation. However, they are not commercial enterprises in the sense that they do not privilege market presence and paid services for member-cli ents; the intention (rather than profit making) is to provide quality ser vices and in this way answer in the best way the needs of people from all walks of life.6

Leadership, decentralization and accountability

leadership in the GM is decentralized: the degree of autonomy of the different components of the Movement is great and overlapping of influence can occur.

Gülen has repeatedly expressed his reluctance to lead and even his detestation of any lead ership or mention of leadership, whether communal, religious or political. He argues that ‘single-person leadership is no longer viable’, and says, ‘As everything has become so detailed, particularized, specified, and enumerated, tasks now assume such forms that even unique, outstanding individuals cannot accomplish them by themselves. That is why the place of genius has been now replaced by collective consciousness with consul tative and collective decision making.’7

About leadership in the GM specifically, Gülen says, ‘Behind the institutions are many people and companies from almost all walks of life regardless of their worldview, beliefs, and lifestyles …What I have done is only encourage people’. The assumption that almost a thousand institu tions and millions of volunteers and participants in the Movement across the world are envisioned and governed by

6 Cetin, 2010:215–16.

7 Ünal and Williams, 2000:328; Cetin, 2010:222–23;

Gülen or any single individual else or a specific group of people, is absolutely untenable.8

Rather than direct personal intervention, it is Gülen’s intellectual and moral influence that is felt within the Movement. His relation ship with the Movement is one ‘more of inspiration than organization’. This contrasts with centralized organizations, where power resides in a single leader, or a central committee, and local chapters have little autonomy.9

However, while the GM as a whole is decentralized, its SMOs have managerial organization with positions of authority in their departments, and the SMOs in the GM contribute to the education-al, social, and financial wellbeing of the wider society. Some of them are formal chains of institutions but not central ized. This decentralization is not a negative reaction to political or administrative centralization. Movement participants do not perceive the existence of any centralized committee or organization and there is therefore no rank–file relation ship or discontent with such a committee.10

The grassroots participate in the formation of the Movement’s culture and contribute to the concrete management of its action by exercising re ciprocal control, by coordinating, and by utilizing the information broad cast through the media outlets. Different initiatives may overlap and different individuals may fulfill a number of functions contemporane ously due to manifold and inclusive networks. In most cases, these individ uals (rather than institutions) act as informal intermediaries in various forms of inter-organizational relationships. The GM there fore does not need to have an umbrella organization

8 Ibid.

9 Irvine, 2007:66.

10 For reaction to centralization, see Rucht, 1989:85, Della Porta & Diani, 1999:154, and Rucht, 1999:2–4; Cetin, 2010:216.

to co-ordinate or to build a coalition of various SMOs for lobbying or collecting resources.11

The other factor which renders an umbrella organization or leadership unnecessary is the degree of cultural development in the GM. The high degree of cultural development raises participant morale and, therefore, participants’ commitment and tenacity in the face of adversity; this helps in retention of movement participants.12

Since the various SMOs of the Movement grow and consolidate in widely varying environments, this necessitates division of labor, plurality of models and functional specialization with more specific definition of roles and norms. Participants in the GM modify SMOs in secondary details in response to stimuli and limits deriving from peculiarities in the local environment where they operate. The SMOs ‘are all accountable to the local authorities (the State) and their own official inspectors, and comply with the state and international law: their openness, visibility and accountabil ity to the System legitimate the SMOs, and reduce the negative effects or avert the danger of suppression by potential opponents.13

Duplication of functions and responsibilities among the various compo nents of the collective actor prevents exploitation of the positions, authority and resources assigned to individuals. It provides some kind of inner supervision by all and makes one accountable to all.

The indi viduals who have assumed any projects are continually supervised and supported cognitively, motivationally and, when it is necessary, materially to complete the projects. This provides people with strong incentives, solidarity, cohesion and exchange of experiences among components. Therefore none is accused

11 Cetin, 2010:215, 279.

12 Ibid., 217.

13 Ibid., 150, 193, 217, 265; Ünal & W, 2000:333–4.

personally of a failure but all marshal support, direction, consensus and resources necessary for the collective action.14

Competition and division of labor

Competition between projects and institutions is not restricted. Team work and competition, along with co-operation and consultation between service-projects, are encouraged; competition between individuals is not. Competition is not for differentiation or individual self-interest but is a motivational device to reach for the best and progress within the confines of the social and political order. When it concerns the schools, this is interpreted by Ozdalga (2005:435–6) as a competitive struggle for higher profit and better academic results; efficiency based on open compe tition, both within economic enterprises and educational institutions, is more important than solidarity with or cronyism of a specific group of family members, relatives, and/or clan, etc.15

Division of labor is based on formal rules in institutionalized organizations, while in relational networks tasks are allo cated in an informal manner, and mainly according to the skills that each member proves able and willing to contribute to a project. The forms of SMOs, as formal and institutionalized companies, have brought with them the development of professionalized management in the Movement.16

14 Cetin, 2010:193.

15 Ozdalga, 2005:435–6.

16 As also indicated by Della Porta & Diani, 1999:17; Cetin, 2010:217–19, 228, 233, 273, 281.

Participants recognize that division of labor, responsibility and managerial authority must be present. Therefore, social and professional control in any SMO is through direct supervision and formal standard rules or universally acknowledged sanctions. This social and professional control is also under constant supervision by the board of directors or trustees related to each SMO. This brings efficacy, the search for satisfactory internal relations and observance of legal boundaries.17

An administrative role does not give anyone greater power or control over strategic resources, nor is it rewarded with significantly greater material advantages. Whether short-term or long-term, an undertaking does not provide any justification for differentiated control over resources of collective action.

A managerial or administrative role requires greater commitment, liaison and a com patible and holistic relationship with all. However, commitment is regarded not only as a practical day-to-day aim but also a long-term goal for all participants, not just administrators of the SMOs.

The specialization of the activities of the various individual networks results in a division of labor and roles among the various project groups. Referral to professionalism and field expertise or information provides greater ca pacity to intervene in the production and negotiation of the collective ac tion of the GM. This, of course, requires that participants acquire, develop or consult associative or pro fessionalized expertise. In this way, grassroots and professionalized par ticipants formulate the proposals by consensus. The efficacy of projects and institutions is reported on by the media so that they can be emulated or improved on and get appropriate feed-back.

Thus, while the grassroots provide a flow of resources, and the SMOs process and broad cast information and the outcomes, other networks are performing a kind of intermediate representational function.

17 Irvine, 2007:66; Cetin, 2010:218, 223.

Autonomy and interdependence

each project or institution follows the rules and regulations laid down by the state or states in which it is working (the System), alongside which it has proce dures and rules of its own that it has developed in everyday operation. each SMO is governed by its own internal logic and arises out of specific rela tions, different societal ends, exchange and interaction between roles, and interpersonal and affective communication in everyday life and exchanges among the individuals in society.18

Thus, the institutions and service projects are autonomous and formally independent of one another; however, they are informed of each other’s activities through networks of volunteers and professionals, who set a good example for one another, and provide alternative perspectives and forums that can be emulated or improved on by others.

While working within the lim its allowed by the law and the System makes them autonomous, interac tion, exchange and benefiting from collective outcomes, and recognizing these as their own and being recognized by others as such, make the various SMOs which comprise the collec tive actor of the GM interdependent.

As individuals or service-groups are connected by interdependent relation ships, any variation in one element has effects on all the others in the Movement. The mutual relationships are negotiated, while institution alized relationships are contractual. They adapt, negotiate, devise strategies, and restructure the field and adjust the means and future projects in accor dance with their cumulative experience.19

18 Cetin, 2010:191.

19 Ibid., 192.

Internal regulation

With legal constitutions, SMOs have obvious inter nal differentiation, functional division of labor, limits to the area of influ ence – working within a limited territory, the mechanisms of horizontal and vertical co-ordination, leadership and personnel selection criteria. They also keep written records. So, except for what is in the legal constitution of each SMO and the law of the country where it is based, there is no other system of laws and regulations that governs procedure or behavior in particular circumstances, or within a particular SMO.20

There is no hidden (informal) disciplinary procedure in any organization. However, in interpersonal social relationships, it is obvious that individu als share their perception of the issues and action, and this could have social–moral influence on or implications for the individuals in a specific service-network, just as in any day-to-day social relationship anywhere in the world.21

Resource allocation

No single individual in an SMO has the right to distribute power or resources. However, that does not imply the non-existence of an authority structure within the organiza tion. Therefore, the distribution of administrative pow er can vary within the SMOs.

All SMOs in the Movement are formally structured so that resources cannot go unaccounted for or disappear in any way. There has been no evidence to the contrary since the Movement has been around, and the resources re ferred to are in any case under the control and supervision of the State and legal authorities, as mentioned earlier. This is one quality that makes the institutions and their workers

20 Ibid., 228.

21 Ibid.

trustworthy and commendable in the eyes of ordinary people as well as the authorities.22

This local and decentralized control of resources means that resources are not and cannot be reallocated among the collective actors of the GM by any central authority. On the other hand, each of those dimensions can affect others through its outcomes: for example, the meaningfulness of primary relations, and the existence of equi librium of the role system, and openness in decision-making mechanisms, all have impacts on social relations, resources, or production.23

Why and how Gülen Movement participants mobilize

Against the imposition of lifestyles which no longer provide individuals with the cultural bases for their self-identification, the Movement deals with human needs at the cultural and spiritual level. The meanings and motives for behavior that the GM attempts to consti tute and the internal processes of the formation of attitudes are not merely material and political. It brings collective energies into focus so that deep-seated dilemmas and crit ical choices can be addressed. It asserts that the individual can only be educated, cared for, and informed, within a healthy environment and sound institutions. In order to be able to do this, the Gülen Movement sets up new institutions, provid ing a new language, new organizational patterns and new personnel.24

22 Ibid., 280.

23 Ibid., 191.

24 Aslandogan & Cetin, 2006:49; Cetin, 2010:164.

Motivation of participants and supporters

There is no formal membership as such in the Move ment. Individuals do not belong to any single community or network only. What distinguishes the GM is the multiplicity of its par ticipants’ affiliations; they participate simultaneously in a number of areas of social life and in associations of various kinds.25 In each of these settings only a part of the self, and only certain dimensions of the personality and experience, are acti vated.26 In a religiously-motivated search, alternative affiliations are a jour ney for personal and spiritual development and meaning.27

Neither newcomers nor existing participants are unintegrated, excluded, marginal or rootless people. Re search shows that participants are from among those who are active and in tegrated into the community. This contradicts the common supposition that mobilization is a phenomenon involving those who are most affected by social disintegration and exclusion. In fact, availability for mobilization is weak among such marginal and rootless groups, while those who do be come participants in a movement generally have a more solid collective identity and closer ties to a network of social affiliations.28

25 Diani (2004:348–9) uses ‘overlapping affiliations’ for this.

26 Snow & Machaleck (1984:180), and Kilbourne & Richardson (1988:2), cited in lofland (1996:222–3).

27 Melucci, 1999:124, 308.

28 Irvine, 2006:74; Cetin, 2010:211; Oberschall, 1973:135; Melucci, 1999:297; Della Porta & Diani, 1999:8–9; Stephenson, 2007:132.

The individuals who form the service-networks in the Movement in-clude a very high percentage of people from a middle class or higher so cio-economic position. They develop a vision of the world. They become sensitive to particular and global con cerns and causes. They acquire information and necessary skills and compe tencies to deliver service-projects that meet real social needs.29

Participants very openly and visibly engage and inte grate in projects for education, culture, interfaith dialog, societal peace and civilizational co-operation. This brings them recognition as bearers of uni versal ethical values or value orientations. This also cannot be associated with ideas or orientations that are narrow, marginal or exclusive.

Individuals perform the greatest role in the process of becoming involved in the GM. Prior interpersonal contact is the single richest source of movement recruits. Relationships through social life facilitate involvement and make it easy and comfortable for individuals to join and contribute to networks of services.30

Within these networks, individuals interact and engage in negotiations as they produce the cognitive and motivational schemata necessary for action. People by their free will accept roles in accordance with their individual differences and personali ty traits. Individuals come into these service groups with a conscious decision to change and to direct their own existence.31

In these social contexts, people can carry on discussion of appropriate action, and activate material resources, cultural capital and labor. The social and cognitive processes in such contexts help develop a rationale that legitimates a project’s formation and follow-up

29 Cetin, 2010:241.

30 McAdam etal., 1988:708; for research supporting the argument that interpersonal interactions and affective bonds are the fundamental background to movement participation, see lofland, 1996:234–6.

31 Cetin, 2010:182, 193.

projects. In addition to the rationale, people also develop a belief that the project or institution and its services are truly necessary and worth all contributions.32

As there is not a single dimension to human behavior, all problems are first brought for solution to networks of people, into the ambit of com municative processes; the individuals only become informed within the col lectivity. Then through collective reasoning they voluntarily integrate into re lational networks of educational, social, and altruistic services. The GM does not give identity to people, but provides resources for them to construct their own identity. It makes them responsible for both that identity and their action.33

Those who do not participate in the GM but support its collective action are highly diverse and widespread. The multiplication of roles and professions within the varied and widespread socio-economic groups who maintain a co-operative (but not participatory) relationship with the Movement makes it more difficult to identify specific social categories for the GM. The overwhelming pro portion of educated participants in the Movement do not work in religiously-oriented occupations but in education, engineering, the sciences and business. Their moderate faith-inspired initiative was building a network of schools, universities, hospitals, media and businesses. This is interpreted in one way as a ‘third way’ between the forces of secularism and radical Islamism. That too is a factor encouraging more co-operative support for the Movement from non-participants or ‘third parties’.34

32 lofland, 1996:195–7.

33 Cetin, 2010:190.

34 Howard 2005; Gülerce, 2004; Kaya, 2000; Della Porta & Diani, 1999:32; Ateş etal.2005.

Con structing meaning – making sense of the world through service-networks

The service-networks of the GM share orien tations that bind actors and the specific way of acting together through time. Actors and networks share, within the opportunities and constraints, what is pro duced by their work. They share also the definitions of ends, means, field of action, investments and rewards. There is a larger network of active relationships between actors who interact, com-municate, influence each other, negotiate, and make decisions. These continuous processes have in time produced many, varied and successful institutions.

Participants in the GM belong to many social networks and enjoy the full com plexity of human relationships. This permits individuals to look for and take up practical opportunities for the self-planned integration of personal experience in everyday life. Self-fulfillment is through self-willed formation of meaning, and self-planned integration and experience.35

The GM service networks attribute value to individual views, contribution to philanthropic projects and collective reasoning. They do not require or render individuals to replace or relocate pri-mary associations36. The participants in the GM therefore do not see it as a surrogate family. They find an authentic relation to themselves and to others and therefore call one another and the whole society to responsibility through the networks.37

As the cultural, symbolic and plural form of the networks respects indi vidual differences and needs, it does not welcome sectarian solutions and marginalized ambitions. It does not welcome the actualization of interests formed and pur sued in conflict with the

35 Cetin, 2010:197, 277; lofland, 1996:197; Melucci, 1999:308–9.

36 Gender, age-group, locality, ethnicity, etc.

37 Cetin, 2010:182.

Turkish System and law or with that of wherever they exist and operate.38

Through the GM service networks people become more able to reach out to other systems, relations, meanings, goals and interests than was possible for them on their own. Also, within these networks people come to understand that the vast poten tial to make a change in the lives of others is far broader than their own actual capacity for action. Through the establishment of social relation ships, people become open to the personal realization that an individual is limited and not even sufficient unto himself/herself. On the other hand, they have opportunities to compensate for their limitations in community service through the potential of the collective actor.39

People can participate in the service-projects and institutions in the GM at various levels of commitment and with different degrees of involvement. To be sure, a shared identity characterizes the Movement as a whole. But different levels of affiliation of partici pants and non-participants with the service-projects and SMOs make the identity of the Movement open and inclusive.

Being open to the outside world, not having or seeking a totalitarian or ganizational structure, but instead having and seeking compatibility with other collective actors and civil society bodies, and not being restricted to a certain time and place (or territory), all indicate that networking, par ticipation and affiliation within the GM are not exclusivist, alienating or sectarian.40

Individual commitment to a specific project or a specific service-network does not demand a life-term involvement. Individuals pass from one service-network to another, and involvement may be temporary.

38 Ibid., 201, 276.

39 Ibid., 182.

40 Ibid., 228.

Decision making in the Gülen Movement

The general principle of decision making in the GM makes clear the difference between the Movement as a mass membership organization and a cadre-type organization which would be ‘more fragile and temporary, highly absorbing, smaller in scale and likely less democratic than the mass membership organization’.41 The general principle of decision taking in voluntary services and project-networks in the GM is that a large number of participants gather together in a single or different places and collectively undertake an interchange or consensus on new projects.42 All alternative actions and con siderations are explicitly discussed and concluded by all participants as a whole. Collective decisions are taken either through consensus or voting.43 The selected managerial committee or board controls the transfer and redistribution of roles, re sources and power through processes of collective reasoning. The norms within the networks include a definition of the relationship between the organization and society, in particular of the relationship between the Movement and the participants in its service-networks, and guarantee integration. They provide the critical point of reference for every process of action and transformation All those who constitute the service-network can intervene in the decision-making control of resources.44

In addition to this democratic participation, the princi ple is commonly accepted within the GM – it originates in well-known Islamic teaching – that authority or power is not something to compete for, and is not allocated to one who asks for it.45

41 lofland, 1996:159.

42 Della Porta & Diani, 1999:141.

43 Cetin, 2010:173.

44 Ibid., 228.

45 Beekun & Badawi, 1999:3; Cetin, 2010:228–29.

Organizational forms can therefore be considered as a strategic choice made by the service-network on the basis of the principles and goals of the GM. Within the thought and action of the GM, organizational form and choices are not made by leaders. The purpose of having network leadership is not to obtain membership loyalty or generate propaganda, but to negotiate, mediate and facilitate co-operation among individuals and the wider society.46

Different demands as they arise enter the local decision-making process, which can be open to the participation and control of various components of the network locally or regionally. As continuous, active, democratic, stable and enduring participation is encouraged, this does not let a large and inactive base finance a small number of managerial or active leaders, a primary cadre or main organization. This naturally prevents any leader or organization from having differing resources and differing degrees of power. However, this does not hinder various degrees of commitment, specialization, formalization and professionalization in the GM.47

educational institutions, for example, are typically gov erned by a trust or a board of directors. Members of the board meet regularly and monitor and set policy for the institution. Irvine, studying the GM in Germany, concluded that “the relationship between Gülen and the insti tutions …is loose and one more of inspiration than organiza tion. As in Turkey, the Movement is extremely decentralized.” However, consensus is as important as inspiration for many participants as Irvine found that “many of the par ticipants in the centers and schools appear to have no idea that they are inspired in any way by the ideas of Gülen. Indeed […] most teachers are there because they believe in what the centers are doing, not because they are necessarily inspired by Gülen.”48

46 Cetin, 2010:230.

47 Irvine, 2007:66; Cetin, 2010:223;

48 Irvine, 2007:66–7; Cetin, 2010:223–24

Criteria for selection of projects

Projects are selected for their practicability, legality and eff ectiveness. They are not exploited for a ‘politics of signification’, that is, in order to gain ascendancy over others or to move up in some existing hi-erarchy of constituency, class, politics or credibility.49 The reason for this is explained by Gülen very simply: ‘If each individual in a network tries to impose himself or herself as the only authority in a certain field and some others imitate him or her, disci pline is destroyed, confusion engendered, and the community is divided against itself.’50

The social heterogeneity of the participants in the Movement, alongside geographical dispersion, formalization and institutionalization in over one-hundred countries, become motivational factors for them. Individuals perceive their identity, affiliation and Movement services to be in a high de gree of accord and correspondence within their life space and the world at large. Their own and the Movement’s orientations, interests and values are congruent and complementary. Moreover, as the Movement’s goals and worldview do not depart much from mainstream or pre-existing prospects at hand, participants readily incorporate their energies into the Movement’s collective action. Almost a thousand educational and cultural institutions world-wide is considered to be a proof of this.51

If specific issues are connected with universal values (peace, human rights, poverty relief, and so on), short-term projects can be taken up, allowing an immediate and correspondingly transitory mobilization. ex amples of this have been earthquake relief for Pakistan, Peru and Haiti, Far east tsunami aid, Af rican famine and poverty relief, and other relief efforts in disaster-hit coun tries.

49 Melucci, 1999:36–7; Ashton, 2005:3–4; Ünal & Williams, 2000:159.

50 Gülen, 2005a:102.

51 Cetin, 2010:203; Yavuz & esposito, 2003:xxii; Fuller, 2004:53.

Such action is carried out within the bounds of transnational consensus and legality. Different components converge in such mobilizations – institutions, the media, luminaries from the art world, and foreign authorities. What is striking about these short-term service-projects is that the GM draws especially upon lo cal service-networks, leisure time and also professionalized commitment. In this way, the collective actor of the Movement establishes relationships and co-operates with the institutions or professionalized sectors of the market for short-term mobilizations.52 An example of this was the football match organized between a world team and the Turkish national team for Bosnian-Croatian orphans, whose edu cation had been interrupted for lack of facilities and finances after the war.53

Diffusion and circulation

Any service-network in GM may initiate a project or brainstorm around a particular theme, and different service-networks set up committees to study the feasibility of projects without referral to any formal or centralized authority. If a project proves successful, this fact is broadcast or circulated by volunteers, associates in the media or sym pathizers in the periphery. The professionalized staffs at other SMOs may then take up issues and take them further. In this way, each SMO represents the col lective purpose, but no single SMO can or does claim to be recognized as representing the GM’s collective interests as a whole.54

52 lofland, 1996:229.

53 Fuller, 2004:53; Cerrahoglu (1995); Ünal & Williams, 2000:152.

54 Cetin, 2010:219; This is a point also been made by Taylor (1989:761–70) and lofland (1996:199–200) about social movements.

There are people skilled in more mundane tasks of organizing and there are people more skilled in framing in service-projects. However, this way of working never nullifies or disregards the value and respect attached to Gülen’s views and perspectives. The participants in service-projects orga nize themselves flexibly to accommodate and redefine their tasks and inner structures in accordance with the feed-back coming from the wider public. They may also seek alternative suggestions from Gülen’s counsel and his interpretations of current events through the media. Participants are clear that there are many sources of opinion and au thority available to them.55

This collaborative framework tends results in a diffusion of themes and experience, and circulation of volunteers and expertise. It is commitment to a rich and supportive culture, which keeps the SMOs of the Movement viable and continuing.56

Conclusion

The service-networks of the Gülen Movement operate altruistically to offer what is lacking in a society. People or groups efface themselves in them and work without being named or acknowledged. Compared to political action, the type of community service and the various orientations of the GM involve the high degree of flexibility of a very adaptable organizational form and the elasticity of inter personal relationships. This lets the networks fulfill simultaneously self-re-flective functions and produce cultural codes. It enables an easy shift or ‘bridging’ from one function over to another. This collective identity struc ture with adaptable networks and self-reflective resources supports public mobilization and provides the energy for projects. That in turn feeds the networks with new participants, trains new skills and redefines issues and the public space. It is one of the reasons why the GM has been acknowledged transnationally and why it continues to burgeon and grow.

55 Cetin, 2010:208, 277.

56 Ibid., 279.

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Political Dimension of the Gülen Movement

DrIhsanYilmaz&Dr.ŞammasSalur,FatihUniversity,Turkey

Abstract

This paper analyzes the discourse of the Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen on politics, democracy, state, secularism and rule of law and argues that his discourse is in tune with the Zeitgeist. He argues that democracy and secularism understood in Anglo-Saxon sense is compatible with Islam. As a scholar Gülen has argued that about 97 per cent of the Islamic law is related to personal matters and Islam leaves to individuals and societies to sort out their political issues, depending on their time and socio-economic and politico-cultural realities. Thus, he gives special importance to spirituality and piety instead of political matters unlike Islamists. Gülen is also of the firm opinion that mixing religion with daily politics is dangerous and harms especially religion and that is why he says that as a Muslim scholar he takes refuge in God from both Satan and daily politics.

IntroductionTurkish Republic had not allowed pluralism and democracy to operate until 1950. During these four decades a positivist and staunchly secularist elite ruled the country. Islamic identity and discourse were to a great extent de-legitimized and marginalized by the Republican Kemalist elite. The role of Islam in the public sphere has been radically marginalized and the state attempted to confiscate and monopolize even this marginal role, leaving no official room for private interpretations of Islam. even though the Turkish Republic has followed assertive secularist policies, Islam is still deeply rooted in the minds and hearts of the people. The state, through its secularist policies and programs of westernization, endeavored to eradicate the value system of the Muslim people in the country without providing, at the same time, a satisfactory and all-encompassing ideological framework which could have mass appeal and was capable of replacing Islam. The positivist Kemalist ideology could not fill the gap which Islam was supposed to have forcefully vacated. Religious leaders, their successors and the religious functionaries, have regained their influence in public life and have continued to attract masses into their religious atmosphere. local Islam survived despite all attempts of the state. Islam in its all sorts of manifestations is pervasive in a modern sense in Turkish society. After all Sufi brotherhoods and lodges were closed down by the Turkish Republic; they did not challenge the state, as a result of the Sunni understanding of preferring a bad state to anarchy, chaos and revolution. Nevertheless, they continued their existence unofficially without making much noise and without claiming any public or official role. In return, the officials turned a blind eye to their existence. As a recent study on Turkey reconfirmed “(t)he vibrancy of Islam is remarkable in almost all areas of Turkish life. This Islam is neither a replacement for, nor an alternative to, the modern world: it is an integral part of life” (Shankland 1999: 15, see for detailed data Shankland 1999: 54-61, see also Yilmaz 2005: ch. 4).

Turkey can no longer be explained by centre and periphery paradigm. There are now centers and peripheries in Turkey. In today’s Turkey, centres and peripheries –just as identities- are intermingled and the

boundaries between them have become blurred. Periphery is no longer composed of low or folk culture. It is no longer composed of villager, religious, uneducated and oppositional masses. We can argue the same for the centre from the opposite angle. Islam is an obvious reality of some of these centres and peripheries. In today’s urban spheres in Turkey’ Islam is represented not only at an individual level but there are countless institutions, official of unofficial. Sufi brotherhoods, Islamic communities and faith-based movements appeal also to white-collar workers and upper-middle class sections of the society. These communities, movements and businessmen who are associated with them operate several companies, dormitories, schools, Islamic charities, hospitals, journals, dailies, radio and TV stations and so on. They also run several other types of NGOs and civil society institutions. Their activities range from poverty eradication to human rights advocacy to interfaith & intercultural dialogue. Faith-based Gülen movement is only one of these many Islamic entities but it is probably the biggest one in terms of number of people who are associated with it; variety of the areas it is interested in; number of countries it operates and the interest it attracts from the media and academia –local, national, international.

Gülen and the Movement Associated with His Name

Fethullah Gülen is a Turkish Muslim scholar, thinker, author, opinion leader, and preacher emeritus. He has inspired many people in Turkey to establish educational institutions that combine modern sciences with ethics and spirituality. His efforts have resulted in the emergence of the Gülen movement. Gülen is now “one of the latest and most popular modern Muslims that Republican Turkey has produced” (Kadioglu 1998: 18). The actual number of people inspired by Gülen’s works and sympathizers is not exactly known. But it is agreed that it is the largest civil movement in the country. In newspapers, he is at times referred to as the unofficial civil religious leader of Turkey (Ozgurel 2001).

Gülen’s teaching offers “a contribution that is devout, and looks for the renewal of Muslims through deeper engagement with the sources

of Islam. At the same time, this Islamic depth calls for deployment of an appropriate ijtihad that is directed towards Islamically faithful engagement with the realities of the current historical and geographical and socio-political contexts. All of this, together, is then directed towards tajdid or “renewal” of Islam and of Muslims that can actively develop and enrich both the ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’social capital that religions can offer to the wider civil society” (Weller 2007: 283).

Gülen has influenced those who share his thoughts and aspirations, numbering a few million, to establish over 1000 educational institutions such as primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities that endeavor to combine modern sciences with ethics and spirituality, in over 120 different countries; from Kazakhstan to Tanzania, from United Kingdom to Australia. In addition to his contribution to the betterment activities of education in Turkey and the World at large, he is also renowned for his endeavors for the establishment of mutual understanding & acceptance and tolerance in the society. His social reform efforts, begun during the 1960s, have made him one of Turkey’s most well-known and respected public figures. His dedication to solving social problems and satisfying spiritual needs have gained him a sizeable audience and readership throughout the world.

In the first phase of his life Gülen gathered his students into a quasireligious community which aimed to form them into a generation of pious and educated Muslims. Gülen saw these communities as a way of building a new generation of morally superior persons (Penaskovic 2007: 411). His movement has worked towards inculcating individuals with this desire and practice, and the effects can be seen through the numerous charitable works the people associated with the movement have developed. As such, the movement has an important effect in building civil societies as the bases of civilization, through individual empowerment and societal empowerment (Krause 2007: 171). empowerment is achieved one, when the individual develops and advances his/her own skills, education and consciousness and two, when other individuals benefit

from that person’s charity, education, or guidance (Krause 2007: 171). Gülen’s teaching also offers both a critique of the political instrumentalisation of Islam while at the same time providing a basis for active Muslim engagement with the wider society in ways that are based on an Islamic robustness and an Islamic civility (Weller 2007: 269).

Gülen has lead the establishment of many charitable organisations, hospitals, schools, universities, media outlets, journals, poverty eradication foundations, and interfaith & intercultural dialogue institutions. Volunteerism is a cornerstone to the success of the movement’s institutions, as well as the support of small businessmen, the social elite and community leaders, and powerful industrialists. With donations from these sources, trusts and foundations have been espacially to establish schools and to provide scholarships to help students (Krause 2007: 166). The Gülen movement shares much in common with many Western, Christian, philanthropic initiatives in education and public discourse of the past three centuries, particularly in North America and it cannot be easily understood in the limited context of the Muslim world (Barton 2007: 650). The “movement exemplifies an institution and mode of action that is indispensable to decision makers and policy makers struggling with the strains of ideological cleavages and growing fear and threats of terrorist and racist action. A look at four major components of civility – tolerance, cooperation, reciprocity, trust - illustrate how the teachings and philosophy of the Gülen movement is a vehicle for the development and securing of civil societies” (Krause 2007: 171). Analysing empowering effects that result from the Gülen movement’s efforts, captures a deeper understanding of how their mode of action enables greater well-being, health and the ability of individuals to be in better positions to take greater control over their choices. empowerment is achieved through its educational and charitable efforts. The movement is dedicated to education in a broad sense (Krause 2007: 169).

The Gülen movement is based on an Islamic philosophy that embraces a ‘common good,’ and emphasises the universality of values,

spirituality and principles of justice – in short, the welfare of society and all individuals within that society. Gülen’s work and movement has become an active force within civil societies, as can be seen in the numerous activities pursued, and its growing presence in an increasing number of countries outside its origins, Turkey (Krause 2007: 165). The movement has become “a transnational actor on a major scale, through both its educational and its interfaith programmes. Its non-state nature is clear and its global reach substantial” (Park 2007: 59). Tracing the range of activities of “the movement is difficult, given its devolved nature and its sometimes coy approach to self-publicity, but the movement has sponsored or contributed to, and sometimes dominates, a confusing diversity of often overlapping interfaith organizations” (Park 2007: 57). As emphasised by John O. Voll, “in the clashing visions of globalizations, Fethullah Gülen is a force in the development of the Islamic discourse of globalized multicultural pluralism. As the impact of the educational activities of those influenced by him attests, his vision bridges modern and postmodern, global and local, and has a significant influence in the contemporary debates that shape the visions of the future of Muslims and non-Muslims alike” (Voll 2003: 247). The movement has also “already emerged as an element in Turkey’s ‘soft’ power, whether the state appreciates it or not” (Park 2007: 54).

Gülen on Secularism, Democracy and the Rule of Law

As John O. Voll (1999: 243) observed a while ago:

Humanityisnowenteringanerawherethediscussionsmustgobeyond the debates in the context of modernity where religiousandsecularareseenasopposites.Thedesecularizationoftheworlddoes not simplistically refute the ideas of secularization theory;it transcends those ideas. Just as global and local are becomingincreasinglyinterdependentintheprocessesofglocalization,thereligious and secular dimensions of contemporary society arecoming together in ways that defy the logic of the old conflictbetween religion and secularism within modernity. In theMuslim world, as in other major faith traditions, articulation

of thisnewrelationship takesmanydifferent forms that clearlygo beyond the main lines of the old assumed polarity betweenreligiousandsecular.

An analysis of the Gülen movement would suggest that the movement is a manifestation of such a development. As Berna Turam (2003: 185) puts, the Gülen movement “aims to revitalize faith in secular regimes and not against them”. In Gülen’s view, the faithful can comfortably live in secular environments “(i)f secularity is understood as the state not being founded on religion, hence it does not interfere with religion or religious life; and as the faithful living his religion does not disturb others; and furthermore if the state will accomplish this task in a serious neutrality, then there is no problem” (Armagan & Unal: 108, quoted in Altunoglu 1999: 103). He makes a reference to an Anglo-Saxon understanding of passive secularism and argues that within the boundaries of this type of secularism, Islam and secularity of the state could be compatible (Yilmaz 2000: 5). As for secular law-making, in his view, Islam does not have a problem with it:

In Islam, the legislative and executive institutions have alwaysbeen allowed to make laws. These are based on the needs andbettermentofsocietyandwithintheframeofgeneralnormsoflaw.OndomesticissuesintheIslamiccommunityanditsrelationshipwith other nations, including economic, political and culturalrelations,Muslimshavealwaysdevelopedlaws.Thecommunitymembersarerequiredtoobeythelawsthatonecanidentifyas“higherprinciples”aswellas lawsmadebyhumans.Islamhasno objection to undertaking ijtihad (independent reasoning),istinbat(deductivereasoning),andistikhraj(derivation)intheinterpretationofShari’ahprinciples(Gülen2005:450).

Gülen movement-funded Abant Platform has been advocating views similar to Gülen’s views on secularism, democracy and rule of law.1 The Abant Platform is a result of the attempt at finding solutions to Turkey’s problems by bringing together scholars and intellectuals of all colors. The Abant Conventions are organized at least once a year

1 For an analysis of the Abant Platform, see Ugur 2007.

and every convention ends with a declaration (Yilmaz 2000: 7). The issues that the Platform has discussed and the places it has discussed them gives a clear indication of the Gülenian worldview:

Islam and Secularism- Abant, Turkey (1998); Religion, State and Society- Abant, Turkey (1999); Democratic State and the Rule of law- Abant, Turkey (2000); Pluralism and Social Reconciliation- Abant, Turkey (2001); Globalization- Abant, Turkey (2002); War and Democracy- Abant, Turkey (2003); Islam, Secularism and Democracy: The Turkish experience- Washington DC, US (2004); Culture, Identity and Religion in the Process of Turkey’s eU Membership-Brussels, Belgium (2004); New Pursuits in education- erzurum, Turkey (2005); Republic, Multiculturalism, and europe- Paris, France (2006); Global Politics and the Future of the Middle east- Abant, Turkey (2006); Turkey-egypt Colloquium: Islam, West and Modernization - Cairo, egypt (2007); Historic, Cultural, Folkloric and Contemporary Dimensions of Alevism- Abant, Turkey (2007); Turkey-French Conversations II- Istanbul, Turkey (2007); Kurdish Issue- Abant, Turkey (2008). “The public declarations consist of three broad items: i. A belief in social harmony, ii. A commitment to liberal-democratic values, iii. A referral to Turkish and/or Islamic perspective” (Ugur 2007: 159).

The concluding remarks of the third Abant Declaration (2000) were as follows:

Democraticstateenjoyingtheruleoflawstandsinequaldistancefrom all non-violent systems of faith and ideology and ways oflifebasedonthesesystems.Thestateshouldbebasedonasocialunderstanding, which ensures basic rights and freedoms of alldiversegroupsequally.Noindividualorgroupshouldbeexcludedfrompoliticsandpubliclife.

Gülen’s views on democracy are well-known. He has been underlining for a long time that “Islam does not propose a certain unchangeable form of government or attempt to shape it. Instead, Islam establishes fundamental principles that orient a government’s general character,

leaving it to the people to choose the type and form of government according to time and circumstances” (Gülen 2006: 14). Fundamental principles Islam prescribes, accruing to Gülen, are social contact and election of a group of people to debate common issues (Gülen 2006: 17). Gülen summarizes the theological reasons why Islam considers that people are responsible for their own fate and thus governance:

Islamconsidersasocietytobecomposedofconsciousindividualsequipped with free will and having responsibility toward boththemselves and others. Islam goes a step further by adding acosmic dimension. It sees humanity as the “motor” of history,contrarytofatalisticapproachesofsomeofthenineteenthcenturyWestern philosophies of history such as dialectical materialismand historicism. Just as every individual’s will and behaviordeterminetheoutcomeofhisorherlifeinthisworldandinthehereafter,asociety’sprogressordeclineisdeterminedbythewill,worldview, and lifestyle of its inhabitants. The Koran (13:11)says:“Godwillnotchangethestateofapeopleunlesstheychangethemselves[withrespecttotheirbeliefs,worldview,andlifestyle].”Inotherwords,eachsocietyholdsthereinsofitsfateinitsownhands. The prophetic tradition emphasizes this idea: “You willbe ruled according to how you are.” This is the basic characterandspiritofdemocracy,whichdoesnotconflictwithanyIslamicprinciple.AsIslamholdsindividualsandsocietiesresponsiblefortheirownfate,peoplemustberesponsibleforgoverningthemselves(Gülen2006:16).

Gülen’s understanding of majority rule does not permit a tyranny of majority: “members of minority communities should be allowed to live according to their beliefs. If these sorts of legislations are made within the norms of international law and international agreements, Islam will have no objection to any of these. No one can ignore the universal values that the Qur’an and the Sunnahhave presented with regard to the rights mentioned above” (Gülen 2005: 451).

Whenever speaking on the issue of democracy, Gülen constantly reminds us that Islam is a religion and thus is more than a political method, system or ideology:

OntheissueofIslamanddemocracy,oneshouldrememberthatthe formerisadivineandheavenlyreligion,whilethe latter isaformofgovernmentdevelopedbyhumans.Themainpurposesofreligionarefaith(iman),servanthoodtoGod(“ubudiyyah),knowledgeofGod(ma“rifah),andbeautifulactions(ihsan).TheQur’an,initshundredsofverses,invitespeopletothefaithandworshipoftheTrue(al-Haqq).ItalsoaskspeopletodeepentheirservanthoodtoGodinawaythattheymaygaintheconsciousnessof ihsan. “To believe and do good deeds,” is among the subjectsthat Qur’an emphatically stresses. It also frequently remindspeoplethattheymustdevelopaconsciousrelationshipwithGodandactasiftheyseeGod,orasiftheyareseenbyGod(Gülen2005:451-452).

Politics & Islamic State versus Religiosity & Piety & Spirituality in the Gülenian Discourse

Fethullah Gülen has stayed away from ideologisation and instrumentalisation of religion in politics. While Islamists had conceived Islam as identity, ideology and politics and focused on religion instead of religiosity, Gülen had been harshly critical of Islamists. “The distinction between political ambition and religious activism is crucial for a correct understanding of Gülen’s mission” (Ozdalga 2000).

Said Nursi, one of Gülen’s intellectual predecessors, was an Islamist in Ottoman times but after having seen that doing politics in the name of religion harms only religion itself he famously and repeatedly declared that “I take refuge in God from Satan and politics”, speaking from the experience. In his magnum opus, Risale-iNur, he substantiates on several occasions his claim that engaging in daily politic in the name of religion is a “satanic” act. Gülen, like Nursi, “can be said

to have reason enough to regard politics as a sometimes diabolical business. But does he believe that Islam contains an alternative model of politics? The evidence that he does not is plentiful and compelling and comes from several different angles” (Barton 2005: 16).

The phrase, “Sovereignty belongs to the nation unconditionally,” does not mean that sovereignty has been taken from God and given to humans. On the contrary, it means that sovereignty is entrusted to humans by God, that is to say it has been taken from individual oppressors and dictators and given to the community members. To a certain extent, the era of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs of Islam illustrates the application of this norm of democracy. Cosmologically speaking, there is no doubt that God is the sovereign of everything in the universe. Our thoughts and plans are always under the control of the power of such an Omnipotent. However, this does not mean that we have no will, inclination or choice. Humans are free to make choices in their personal lives. They are also free to make choices with regard to their social and political actions (Gülen 2005: 453).

Gülen also flatly rejects the totalizing ideology of Islamism:

This vision of Islam as a totalising ideology is totally againstthe spirit of Islam, which promotes the rule of law and openlyrejectsoppressionagainstanysegmentofsociety.Thisspiritalsopromotesactionsforthebettermentofsocietyinaccordancewiththe view of the majority. Those who follow a more moderatepattern also believe that it would be much better to introduceIslam as a complement to democracy instead of presenting itas an ideology. Such an introduction of Islam may play animportant role in the Muslim world through enriching localforms of democracy and extending it in such a way that helpshumansdevelopandunderstandingoftherelationshipbetweenthespiritualandmaterialworlds.IbelievethatIslamalsowouldenrichdemocracyinansweringthedeepneedsofhumans,suchasspiritualsatisfaction,whichcannotbefulfilledexceptthroughtheremembranceoftheEternalOne(Gülen2005:452)

He is also well aware that generally speaking Islamism is a reactive and reactionary ideology that is formed by contemporary human and social needs rather than what actually religion dictates. Put differently, he strongly refutes the claim of the Islamists that what they advocate is indeed the true, authentic, original and pure Islam:

When those who have adopted Islam as a political ideologyratherthanareligioninitstruesenseandfunction,reviewtheiractivitiesandattitudestheyclaimtobebasedonIslam,especiallypolitical ones, will discover that they are usually moved bypersonalornationalanger,hostility,andothersimilarmotives…A Muslim’s beginning point must have an Islamic basis. Inthe present situation, Muslims cannot act out of ideological orpoliticalpartisanshipandthendressthispartisanshipinIslamicgarb, or represent mere desires in the form of ideas. If we canovercomethistendency,Islam’strueimagewillbecomeknown...2ThosewhostudyandputforwardopinionsconcerningtheIslamicperspectiveofstateandpoliticsusuallyconfuseIslam,establishedby the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet, with the Islamas constructed through the historical experiences of MuslimsandofcoursebasedonShari“ah(legal)principles,andalsothesuperficiallyobservedIslamof themoderntimes.TheycomeupwithvariousshapesandformsinthenameofIslam;sometimesusing Qur’anic citations, a few selected sayings of the Prophet,or sometimes ideas and suggestions of one of our contemporarythinkers and they vow to make their interpretation reign iftheyhavetheopportunity(Gülen2005:449).ItwouldnotbeacorrectunderstandingofIslamtoclaimthatpoliticsisavitalprincipleofreligionandamongitswell-establishedpillars.Whilesome Qur’anic verses are related to politics, the structure of thestate, and the forms of ruling, people who have connected theimportoftheQur’anicmessagewithsuchissuesmayhavecausedamisunderstanding.ThismisunderstandingistheresultoftheirIslamic zeal, their limitations of their consideration solely ofhistorical experiences, and their thinking that the problems ofIslamic communities can be solved more easily through politics

2 http://www.dislam.org/content/view/314/1/ visited on 19 October 2008.

andruling.Alloftheseapproacheswithintheirowncontextsaremeaningful.However,thetruthdoesnotlieintheseapproachesalone(Gülen2005:455).

He repeatedly declared that “there is no particular model for either the method of election or the system of administration” (Gundem). He explains that:

...inIslamitisnotpossibletolimittheconceptofgovernanceandpoliticsintoasingleparadigm,unliketheprinciplesoffaithandthepillarsofIslam.HistoryshowsusthatintheIslamicworld,sincethetimeoftheProphet,therehavebeenmanytypesofstates.This is so even ifwe exclude the elections in the earlyperiodofIslam and the qualities that were exhibited in those elections.Even if one cannot see some major methodological differencesamongthesetypesofgovernance,therearemanydifferencesinthedetails.Thosewhoarenotawareoftheprinciplesofthesedifferentmethodsofgoverninghaveunderstoodeachofthemasaseparatesystem.Ihavetonotethatthesedifferencesweretheresultoftheaspectsofreligionthatareopentointerpretationandrelatedtothefieldofindependentreasoning(Ijtihad)(Gülen2005:454).

Recently, Gülen has been arguing that in this age Islam does not need a state support, which is a new ijtihad. He does not oppose to the idea of mutual autonomy of state and Islam. He puts that “(i)f a state... gives the opportunity to its citizens to practice their religion and supports them in their thinking, learning, and practice, this system is not considered to be against the teaching of the Qur’an. In the presence of such a state there is no need to seek an alternative state” (Gülen 2005: 451). He also told Ali Bulac that establishing and Islamic state is not a religious duty for Muslim individuals and that in this age civil society can independently maintain Islam even where Muslims are not in majority.

Gülen is a modern version of alim (singular of ulama) and ulama never engage in a selective reading of the sources as Islamists do. While Islamists did not respect the authority of the ulama, Gülen,

backed up by his intellectual power too, helped ulama profile regain its prestige back among cosmopolitan urban middle class white collars, a base Islamists were trying to address.3 Gellner argues that development and education have been conducive, rather than detrimental, to teaching the orthodox practices of Islam because, in the past, the knowledge-based orthodox (ulama-formulated) observance was generally limited to more educated and urbanite Muslims; while the practices of the rural periphery were intermingled with superstition and, in some cases, remnants of pre-Islamic practices (Gellner 1992: 2-22). Today it is possible for many more Muslims to adhere to the orthodox practices. This observance is not seen as a sign of backwardness (Gellner 1992: 2-22). This is definitely the case with white-collars and cosmopolitan middle classes that compose majority of Gülen’s followers and sympathizers.

Ulama, unlike the Islamists, look at the issues from a holistic point of view. For instance that is why Gülen could see many verses in Qur’an that strongly encourage dialogue while many Islamists were busy portraying all non-Muslims in the same manner. While Islamists focused on political acts, Gülen keeps reiterating that hereafter is much more important and his life in the 5th floor revolves around worship. Gülen transcends the strictly scripturalist and literalist Salafi epistemology by attempting to rehabilitate Sufi concepts and by focusing on the renewal of inner faith. This is reminiscent of the approach adopted by previous Islamic activists and intellectuals who, like al-Banna (d. 1949) in egypt, Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938) in colonial India, and Said Nursi (d. 1960) in Turkey who were conscious of the spiritual dimension of Islam.

Paul Tillich coined the term “the ultimate concern” that is, what a community or individual considers to be of most importance:

3 Ulama were not always conservative in Islamic tradition and history. For instance, unlike the image portrayed by several modern scholars on Turkey, the bureaucratic ulama were progressive and were not staunchly opposing the Ottomans modernization project. Their class struggle with the other sections of the state are mistakenly interpreted as their opposition to modernization. The only opposed the change in the sense that they did not want to see their power diminishing in the state structure.

“Whatever concerns a man ultimately becomes god for him... and conversely, it means that a man can be concerned ultimately only about that which is good for him” (Tillich 1951: 211). Gülen’s ultimate concern in this life differs from many Islamists at least in the sense that what they do in practice. While Islamists focus on political acts, a socially active Gülen reiterates that hereafter is much more important and worship is vitally important. He does not see the Qur’an as a political book or project:

The Qur’an is a translation of the book of the universe, whichcomesfromthedivinecommandsofcreation,aninterpretationof theworldof theunseen,of thevisibleand invisible. It isanexplanationofthereflectionsofthedivinenamesonearthandin the heavens. It is a prescription for the various problems ofthe Islamic world. It is a guide for bliss in this life and in thelife to come. It is a great guide for the travellers in this worldmoving towards the hereafter. It is an inexhaustible source ofwisdom.Suchabookshouldnotbereducedtothelevelofpoliticaldiscourse, nor should it be considered a book about politicaltheoriesorformsofstate.ToconsidertheQur’anasaninstrumentofpoliticaldiscourseisagreatdisrespectfortheHolyBookandisan obstacle that prevents people from benefiting from this deepsourceofdivinegrace(Gülen2005:456).

Thus, his conceptualization and understanding of Islam does not match with Islamist ideals:

Islam,asareligionisbasedupontheenlightenmentofthemindand the illuminationofheart. It isbasedon the satisfactionofbothmindandheart.Becauseofthis,faithandworshipprecedeeverything.Andthefruitoffaithandworshipisthegoodmorality.ThepoliticizationofIslam,understandingandrepresentationofIslamasapoliticalsystem,inmyopinion,isagreatinsultingtothe spirit of Islam (Gulen 1997a, quoted in Altunoglu 1999:107).4....thosewhoaretryingtolivelikeaMuslimshouldexert

4 Post-Islamism should be viewed in the light of the contradictions and failures, which some religious leaders see as undermining Islam per se.In a sense, post-

amaximumeffortnottoconfusecertainissues.Secondarythingsinthereligionarebeingmadetoseemlikeprimaryessentials.Forinstance,dailyprayers,andfastingduringRamadanaretwoofthefoundationsofthereligionwhichareobservedindividually.Thosewhoseemtobeatextremes,whoopposesecularism,needtolookintotheirsensitivityinobservingtheindividualandfamilialcommandmentsofthereligion.Canwereallyobservethematanideallevel?Ifwemissedoneofthedailyprayers,ordidnotfastoneday,thenwemustthinkfirstbeforewecomeupwithotherclaimsandwemustbeashamedbeforeGod.Thesearethingsthatcannotbecompromised.ThosewhoneglectIslam’sessentials,likethedailyprayers,givingtocharity,fastingduringRamadan,arein a serious deficit. Those who slander, or speak in the absenceof others (giybat), even if they are writing in representation ofMuslims,areinagreaterror.TheMessengerofGodsaysgiybatisagreatersinthanadultery;hesaysslanderisunforgivable.Ifweareoccupiedwithsucherrors,itwouldbedisrespectfultothereligiontoargueaboutthewholenessofthereligion.ForthesakeofGod, let’s completeourreligionfirst inourpersonal lives, inthemoralityofourchildren,inourintellectualandspirituallife.Let’sseewhattheoutcomeofourpersonalexperienceofacompletereligion is. We have to save ourselves from the contradiction ofbeing in conflict with others for an all-encompassing religionwhilewearelackinginthepersonaldimensionofourreligionandarecommittingmajorsins.Thisisourfault.Afteraccomplishingthiswecansay,“Ourconscienceisnotconfidentsincewecannotfullyobservethisorthatcommandmentofourreligion.Youmustavoidbasingyourjudgmentsonpossibilities.Let’sfindasolutionby staying within the limits of mercy.”... Democracy today hasvarious manifestations: Christian democrats, social democrats,liberaldemocrats...Whyshouldn’ttherebeademocracywhichincludesIslamicsensibilitiesandthoughts,ademocracythathasitsreferencesfromIslam?(Gundem).

Islamism seeks to save Islam as faith by undoing Islamism as politics, Bayat 1996: 51-52.

Gülen is not a socially inactive thinker and practitioner who formulates a discourse and practices it and then only passively observes if people discover and emulate them. Gülen seeks to actively engage with this world by teaching and presenting his weltanschauung and its praxis.

References

Altunoğlu, ebru (1999) Fethullah Gülen’s Perception of State andSociety, Unpublished MA Thesis. Istanbul: Bogazici University.

Barto, G. (2007). Fethullah Gülen: Contributions to global peace and the inter-religious Dialogue. Speech delivered on Friday, November 23, 2007 for the launch of the Fethullah Gülen Chair in the Study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations at the Australian Catholic University, http://en.fgulen.com/content/view/2492/55.

Bayat, Asef (1996) “The Coming of a Post-Islamist Society”, Critique, Fall, pp. 43-52.

Gellner, ernest (1992) Postmodernism,ReasonandReligion. london and New York: Routledge.

Gülen, Fethullah (2005) ‘An Interview with Fethullah Gülen – translated by Zeki Saritoprak and Ali Unal’, TheMuslimWorld,SpecialIssue,IslaminContemporaryTurkey:TheContributionofFethullahGülen,Volume 95, No.3, pp. 325-7.

Gülen, Fethullah (2006) Essays, Perspectives, Opinions. Second revised ed, 3rd impression. Somerset, NJ: The light.

Gündem, M. 2005. Days with Fethullah Gülen: An analysis of amovementwithquestion-and-answers, 5th ed. Istanbul, Turkey: Alfa.

Kadioglu, Ayse. 1998, “Republican epistemology’, TheMuslimWorld, Vol. 88, No. 1, 1-21.

Krause, Wanda (2007) “Civility in Islamic Activism: Towards a Better Understanding of Shared Values for Civil Society Development”, in Ihsan Yilmaz et al (eds) Muslim World inTransition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement. london: leeds Metropolitan University Press, pp. 163-175.

Ozgurel, Avni (2001) Radikal, 2 March 2001.

Penaskovic, Richard 2007 M. Fethullah Gülen’s response to the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ Thesis, in Yilmaz et al. eds MuslimWorld in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement. leeds: leeds Metropolitan University Press. 407–418.

Ozdalga, elisabeth (2000) ‘Worldly Asceticism in Islamic Casting: Fethullah Gülen’s Inspired Piety and Activism,’ Critique, 17, pp. 84–104.

Park, Bill (2007) “The Fetullah Gülen Movement a a Transnational Phenomenon” in Muslim World in Transition. (Pp. 46-59). leeds Metropolitan University Press.

Shankland, D. 1999. Islam and Society in Turkey. Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, UK: The eothen Press.

Tillich, Paul (1951) Systematic Theology, volume one, Chicago, University of Chicago.

Turam, Berna (2003) “National loyalties and International Undertakings: The Case of the Gülen Community in Kazakhstan”, M. Hakan Yavuz and John esposito (eds.) TurkishIslam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement, Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, pp. 184-207.

Ugur, etga (2007) “Religion as a Source of Social Capital? The Gülen Movement in the Public Sphere”, in Ihsan Yilmaz et al. (eds) MuslimWorldinTransition:ContributionsoftheGülenMovement. london: leeds Metropolitan University Press, pp. 152-162.

Voll, John O. (1999). TheIslamicThreat:MythorReality?(3rd ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Voll, John O. (2003) “Fethullah Gülen: Transcending Modernity in the New Islamic Discourse”, M. Hakan Yavuz and John esposito (eds.) TurkishIslamandtheSecularState:TheGülenMovement, Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, pp. 238-247.

Weller, P. (2007). Robustness and civility: themes from Fethullah Gülen as resource and challenge for government, Muslims and civil society in the UK. In Yilmaz et al., eds. Muslim world in transition: Contributions of the Gülenmovement. 268–84. leeds, UK: leeds Metropolitan University Press.

Yilmaz, Ihsan (2000) “Changing Institutional Turkish-Muslim Discourses on Modernity, West and Dialogue”, paper presented at the Congress of The International Association of Middle east Studies (IAMeS), Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany. 5-7 October 2000.

Yilmaz, Ihsan (2005) MuslimLaws,PoliticsandSociety inModernNationStates:DynamicLegalPluralisms inEngland,TurkeyandPakistan. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Gender Dimension

Reflections on Women in the Gülen Movement: Muslim Women’s Public Spheres Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

DrMariaCurtis,UniversityofHouston-ClearLake,Texas

Abstract

This paper will outline research on women’s participation in the Gülen movement that has been ongoing since 1998. The author’s data is drawn from informal interactions as well as formal interviewing and ethnographic observation with both Turkish women and women of many other nationalities, both in Turkey and in the U.S., who either self identify as adherents in the movement, or take part in some way in the public spheres that the movement directly and indirectly opens to them. These various layers of women’s participation are loosely configured, but effective in the powerful impact they have over public perception of pious, and practicing Muslim women. The multiple public spheres that are opened up by women taking part in the Gülen movement offer incoming women unique opportunities to participate in public life. Her research has followed the development of the Gülen movement as it has moved squarely into a very large, publically recognized mainstream transnational movement that operates at every socio-economic level. At

the final completion of this research project, it is my hope that in book form it will offer many portraits of women who have benefited from participation in the Gülen movement, and that non-Turks who are less familiar with Middle eastern societies may come to replace such dichotomies as “public vs. private” and “male vs. female”, with more subtle understandings of dynamic Muslim public spheres that Muslims themselves experience as fulfilling, and rewarding.

This paper outlines research on women’s participation in the Gülen movement that has been ongoing since 1998. My data is drawn from informal interactions, as well as formal interviewing and long-term ethnographic participant observation with both Turkish women and women of many other nationalities, both in various cities in Turkey and in the U.S., who either self identify as adherents in the movement, or take part in some way in the public spheres that the movement directly and indirectly opens to them. Rather than attempting to document a hierarchical path that women follow in this movement, my interest is more in the adaptability of the flow of ideas and influence that the Gülen movement imparts as it moves from location to location, from one group of individuals to another, and how they make it their own in different locations. experiences of women in the Gülen movement are so varied, that there can really be no generalizations made that succinctly spell out what a “Gülen woman” is. Gülen women are many things. My research offers some insight into how women become interested in the Gülen movement, and what their experiences are as they continue on the path toward becoming an “Abla”, or a big sister who shares in leadership and organizational responsibilities, of which there many who constitute the backbone of the women’s component in hizmet. I will offer some examples of women who have traveled back and forth between Turkey, the U.S., and in some cases a third or fourth country where they might have also lived. When all put together, the narratives I have collected cannot offer a single profile of what women’s participation

looks like. Rather, we can gain a sense of the many ways that women take part in this transnational service movement, or hizmet, as they prefer to call it1. In this paper I want to examine the notion of how the Gülen movement opens Muslim public spheres to women, and reflect on the alternate forms of modernity and women’s leadership roles that are possible.

My research has been multi-sited beginning in Austin, Texas in 1998, then Turkey and back again several times between 1999 and 2008, and from San Antonio (2005-2007), to Pennsylvania (2000), to San Francisco (1999 and 2006), Atlanta (2005), and Houston (2007 to 2010), Izmir (2001, 2003, 2007) Ankara (2008, 2009) and with approximately sixty interviews in Istanbul (2008, 2009). In the last twelve or so years, I have had many exchanges and experiences with women in Turkey, and Turkish American women from almost every region in Turkey now living in the U.S. who self identify as taking part in hizmet, or what we might call the “service” or “volunteer” movement. In addition to Turks and Americans, many other ethnicities and nationalities can be found among women in hizmet, they are Armenian, Kurdish, Alevi, African American, european American, Mexican and Mexican American, Guatemalan American, Native American, Columbian, Irish, British, Australian, Turkmen, Russian, Azeri, Afghan, Uzbek, Albanian, Spanish, Ahiska, Tajik, Bosnian, Albanian, Macedonian, and Kyrgyz women who have considered themselves adherents in the movement in some way. In nearly every country where hizmet has travelled, native people in those countries take part in the movement, some by either marrying someone already taking part in hizmet, or by participating in the many events that hizmet volunteers organize. Added to this list are the many American women who have attended various Gülen affiliated group dinners and events and who now consider themselves lifelong friends, perhaps with women who might have first invited

1 1 Cetin, Muhammed. The Gülen Movement: Civic Service without Borders. Blue Dome Press. 2010.

them for a Ramadan iftar, or tea, or a henna party at a ladies Coffee Night. Though they might not be formal participants in hizmet as organizers, some do attend events regularly and their presence should also be thought of as a women’s sphere where meaningful social interaction takes place, namely interaction across religious backgrounds.

The more time spent in conducting this research, the more I return to one conclusion, and that is that “the woman question” cannot be answered in any straightforward way at all, particularly not in a single conference paper, nor in a single book. We have seen numerous works created on the movement from other perspectives, and we should expect and encourage multiple and ongoing work on women and gender as well. One will see a great variety of women who express their attachment to the Gülen movement differently, and who take part in it in their own unique ways. One may find women entrepreneurs, teachers, opera singers, TV personalities, newspaper and magazine journalists, engineers of all persuasions, stay at home mothers, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, AIDS and cancer researchers, forensic psychologists, and medical personnel trained to help trauma victims during times of international natural disasters, daycare administrators, Qur’an school teachers, dormitory managers and university professors. In Turkey there is a wide cadre of highly successful professional women who also join in activities. So well established and developed are Gülen women’s circles in Turkey that one could say that for every level of education, for every region, for every level of spiritual attachment, ranging from the decidedly secular to those who spend a great portion of their time as practicing Muslims, one will find institutions and activities that appeal to clusters of women with similar educational and career backgrounds. In short, there is no one role that women in the Gülen movement play, rather, there are many. In Turkey where the issue of wearing the headscarf has been so decisive, within the Gülen movement one will find women with a very wide range of understandings of

Islamic modesty. With regard to Turkey where the movement has had the longest time to develop across multiple generations, one will find the greatest diversity in institutions and groups of women who volunteer and work in those institutions. This may be a result of the “state” vs. “private” institution building history in Turkey. Those who have the capital to build such institutions open private hospitals and institutions. These fee charging institutions then take the burden off of state run facilities. In Turkey one can see the many private hospitals and health related institutions as sites where women may not only work, but also rise to the top of administrative positions. More than that, as the rules regarding the wearing of the headscarf are less important, one finds groups of individuals from across the religious spectrum that become accustomed to working together as professionals. Outside of Turkey the situation is different, as women in hizmet are newly landing in places where they are involved in establishing common support networks and building their infrastructures again from the ground up, often while in their young childbearing years while they are also in some cases improving their second language abilities. In Turkey in particular, and more and more so in other places, childcare facilities have become a priority. Childcare cooperatives between women, informal community based childcare that is offered to women so that they might attend community events, as well as more formalized state regulated paid daycare which allows women to work while removing the worry of who will take care of children in a mother’s absence. Rather than ask what is the role of women in the Gülen movement, a more interesting question is “what will the role of women be in the years to come?”

While the Gülen movement is certainly a movement that lives in the here and now, it is also one that is constantly forward facing, anticipating the next generation and contemplating what the world might look like with more well educated and spiritually sound

children in it. Nilüfer Göle2, a Turkish sociologist, wrote what is considered to have been the first serious book, The Forbidden Modern, on the newly emerging pious Turkish women who were seeking both a modern education and the choice to dress modestly in the larger Turkish public sphere. Similar modern piety movements have been seen in other parts of the Muslim world3 and they have articulated some of the same themes around women reclaiming the rights afforded to them in the Qur’an and the Hadith. Since the 1970s and 1980s when these piety movements4 began to emerge, they have been labeled in many ways; Islamic feminists and believing women

2 Göle, Nilüfer. The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1997.

3 Some remarkable work has been published on this subject. The following proved very helpful references in this research.Abu-lughod, lila, ed. Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle east. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1998.Cooke, Miriam, and Bruce lawrence. Muslim Networks: From Hajj to Hip Hop. The University of North Carolina Press, 2005.Deeb, laura. An enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi’i lebanon. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006.Göle, Nilüfer , and ludwig Ammann, eds. Islam in Public: Turkey, Iran, europe. Istanbul: Bilgi University Press, 2006.Mahmoud, Saba. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005.Saktanber, Ayşe. Women, Religion, and the Politicization of Culture in Turkey. I.B. Taurus, 2002.van Wichelen, Sonja. Religion, Politics and Gender in Indonesia: Disputing the Modern Body. Routledge, 2010.

4 Ahmed, leila. Feminism and Feminist Movements in the Middle east, a Preliminary exploration: Turkey, egpyt, Algeria, People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. In Women’s Studies International Forum. Volume 5, Issue 2, 1982, pp. 153-168.

in Islam (as opposed to Muslim feminists)5, progressive Muslims6, “born-again” or “veiled again”7 Muslims. Negative critiques of modern women’s piety movements have considered the appearance of women seeking a more public, practice-based approach to Islam in the daily lives of women with suspicion, asking, “is this Iran all over again?”8.

5 Barlas, Asma. “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an. Austin, Texas. The University of Texas Press, 2002.Moghadem, Valentine M. Islamic Feminism and its Discontents: Toward a Resolution of the Debate. Signs: Journal of Women and Culture in Society. Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 1135-1171. Summer 2002.Read, Jen’nan Ghazal and John P. Bartkowski. To Veil or Not to Veil? A Case Study of Identity Negotiation among Muslim Women in Austin, Texas. In Gender and Society, Vol. 14 No. 3. June 2000. Pp. 395-417.Winter, Bronwyn. Fundamental Misunderstandings: Issues in Feminist Approaches to Islamism. Journal of Women’s History - Volume 13, Number 1, Spring 2001, pp. 9-41.

6 Badran, Margot. Between Secular and Islamic Feminism/s: Reflections on the Middle east and Beyond. In Journal of Middle east Women’s Studies. Vol. 1 No. 1, Winter 2005, pp. 6-28.esposito, John and John Voll. Islam and the West: Muslim Voices of Dialogue. In Fabio Petito and Pavlos Hatzopoulos (eds.), Religion in International Relations: The Return from exile (london: Palgrave Macmillan. 2003.Othman, Norani. Muslim Women and the Challenge of Islamic Fundamentalism/extremism: An Overview of Southeast Asian Women’s Struggles for Human Rights and Gender equality. In Women’s Studies International Forum. Vol 29, Issue 4, July-August 2006, pp. 339-353.

7 Haddad, Yvonne Y. A Century of Islam in America. In Hamdard Islamicus V XXI, No. 4, 1997.Rozario, Santi. On Being Australian and Being Muslim: Muslim Women as Defenders of Islamic Heritage. In Women’s Studies International Forum, Volume 21, Issue 6, November 1988, pp. 649-661.Van der Veer, Peter. Transnational Religions: Hindu and Muslim Movements. In Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies. No. 7, Spring 2004, pp. 18.

8 The common secular fear of practicing Muslims who wish to have more access to the secular public sphere is a comparison to the Islamicization of the public sphere after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The various chapters on different women’s movements and support of women acquiring education and employment in Abu lughod’s (ed.) work demonstrates how each movement has its own history, leaders, goals for women, and how each national plan for the improvement of women is directly linked to distinct visions of regional

As the Gülen movement moves into a new generation, the very language with which it describes itself is expanding. As the movement moves west in particular, it has begun to respond to its critics, and the articulation of what exactly hizmet is has gone well beyond superficial explanations. We know hizmet today in the U.S. as a movement dedicated in interfaith dialogue, and beyond that it is now compared to “servant leadership”9 because this is a model that is understandable outside the movement itself. Although the vocabulary is expanding, and those doing hizmet are better able to explain what it is they do and why, beneath these linguistic shifts, the same desire to serve, as it is required by Islamic principle of alms giving through serving others is still intact. Van Gogh’s famous painting called “The Sower with Setting Sun”, one that is etched in the mind as one of the most well known images in the history of modern european art, has been used as the cover of a book on leadership in the Gülen movement10. Here, a leader in hizmet is featured as a person working diligently alone in a field as the day’s sunlight is coming to an end. In short, the seeds one plants today are what make tomorrow meaningful. Today’s action is important insofar as it leaves something behind for those who come next. Indeed to be involved in serving others need not be restricted to those who self identify with the Gülen movement. It is in this ability to create a language that others who are not Muslim, who do not self identify as being in the Gülen movement, who may not consider themselves to be religious at all, that the Gülen movement operates, and thus it should be considered one of the most developed and

nationalism. See Abu lughod, lila, ed. Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle east. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press, 1998.

9 Çelik, Gürkan and Pim Valkenberg. Gülen’s Approach to Dialogue and Peace: Its Theoretical Background and Some Practical Perspectives. In The International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp. 29-38.

10 Çelik, Gürkan and Yusuf Alan. Hizmetkar liderlik: Yeni Bir liderlik Anlayışı. Rotterdam: libertas Media, 2003.

mature progressive Islamic movements, in Turkey11, and perhaps in the Muslim world.

With regard to women’s participation in the Gülen movement, it should first be acknowledged that it is one that offers multiple forms of support beginning with young people, in this case girls, and it continues to offer that support into adulthood. In fact for every stage of life, from daycares, to elementary schools, to middle schools, to high schools, universities, dormitories, study centers, hospitals, mental rehabilitation institutions, nursing homes, television and media outlets, there is perhaps not a moment in one’s life or a life problem for which one would not be able to find some form of assistance. In Turkey, the backbone of these institutions is educational. The one characteristic shared by nearly every woman I have spoken with in the Gülen movement is their encountering the movement early in life while in school, and then maturing in the movement spiritually, personally, and professionally while having ablalar, or big sisters, who served as personal role models who supported them through exams, marriage proposals, early motherhood, navigating careers, etc. As girls become women, they feel a sense of wanting to help other girls as a way of honoring the women who helped them, and thus the cycle of what one informant called “adoptive motherhood” continues from one age set to the next. In one particularly rich conversation with a woman who served as an Abla, she commented that my time with her had been too short, and that I should come back and stay a while in Istanbul to continue interviewing other women that she considered important. She said she would be my mother, my big sister; she’d help me and would help take care of my children while I did research. We were both pregnant at the time of our discussion, and she added that my child and hers would be siblings together, we

11 In Berna Turam’s work, which focuses mostly on Gülen schools and nationalism in Turkey and in Central Asia, she argues that the Gülen movement is the most widely known and mainstream of all revival movements in Turkey. See Turam, Berna. Between Islam and the State: The Politics of engagement. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2007.

would be a family. While some who see women’s activities from the outside may assume there is enforced gender segregation and that separation is an indication of lack of inclusion, the following passage reveals quite another understanding of the feminine spheres in the Gülen movement:

“Butyousee,thatishowwegetthingsdone,todayIamlike your mom or sister, and tomorrow you may be mine.If you come here [to continue research], we’ll find help foryou to get your research done. We ourselves wanted to dosomething, too. We said “Hey, let’s have a Qur’an schoolforourdaughters”,thenwerealizedthepersonteachingthecourseneededchildcareforherchildrentomakeithappen.Sothenwesaid,“O.K., thenlet’sopenadaycare foractivewomen [doing hizmet outside the home] who need help”.Then our kids needed good places to stay when going tocollege.Theyneededgoodrolemodelswhileawayfromtheirfamilies. Families wanted to know their girls would be ingoodhands.Theyneededagoodplacetostudy,supportandcaring,andhomecookedmeals.Sowesetupdormitoriesandruntheminawaythatmakepeoplefeelathome.Someofusinthisneighborhoodwantedtowork,tohaveacareer,andwewantedtoworkinasafeplace.Thosewhowanttoworkcanworkininstitutionsthatservegirls,andtheycanworkwith other women who also care about the future of girl’seducation.Weputtogetherourtalentsandwecancreatealotforourselves,andforourchildren”.

I kept trying to articulate with her during our extended conversation some notion of liderlik, or leadership, as it pertains to women in hizmet. First she stressed the use of hizmet over “Gülen movement” and warned me that this was an Americanized understanding of hizmet that lost the essence of serving others. She objected to this term as she thought it implied selective membership, which she considered against the spirit of hizmet. She preferred hizmet as it

implies a wider level of open participation and service to humanity, not just those in hizmet. She said

“Don’tthinkabout[hizmet]asleadershipperse,thinkabout it as women who are “mütevazı and gayretli” orhumbleandpowerful.Whenyouwriteyourbook,youhavetoputthisinthetitle,O.K.?Whenwearehumble,wedoourworkforthesakeofothersandforservingothers.Thisleavesournafs[ego]outofthepicture.Thisinspirestrustinothers,and then people look to us for assistance because they trustus.Weleadwithhumility;itistheonlywaytolead,itistheonlywaytobealeader.Sohizmetistraininginbecomingagoodleader,formenandwomenitisthesameprocess.Alsoweshouldnotlookatwhoisatthetop,perse.Onecanbealeadernomatterwheretheyareaslongastheydotheirwork,whateveritis,withgoodintentions.OnlyAllahknowswhatthemostimportantjobis.Whoistosaythatthepersonwhodoes“menial”workdoesnotdothemostimportanttasks?”

She went on to describe how leading in this way was her idea of trying to live as a practicing Muslim, by applying religious ideals in everyday contexts and interactions. When women behaved according to these principles, they were giving other girls positive role models, role models they too might want to emulate as adults. This attention to intention produces a community of likeminded women who share a sense of comfort and trust with each other. This comfort is what makes working in a Gülen institution attractive and explains why girls and women share a continued connection over many years. This long-term association with the Gülen movement is the best testament to the positive experiences women have in it and helps explain their continued participation.

I listed earlier many ethnic groups in many cities and many different professions. I have visited “sohbet” and “ders” groups, or study circles, and have seen many different styles of participation. Some women

who get a great sense of satisfaction for example from cooking for large groups and events, and who live fairly traditional lifestyles12 and who spend most of their time with other women with similar life experiences. These women lead richly meaningful spiritual lives that include attending regularly sohbet groups, taking part in group prayer for different problems or causes, and potentially travelling to different spiritual retreats where they will be able to hear sermons by other women. Their practices mirror those we might associate with followers of a Sufi path, practicing the tenets of the faith while engaging in collective forms of worship that are more rigorous than the five times a day prayer. Although they may not be in the limelight of the movement, they are asked by both groups of men and women to pray for important problems, issues, or upcoming projects. Indeed, they are the torchbearers of the movement, passing the flame of commitment and faith on to others.

In other cases, some women have dedicated themselves so fully to hizmet that they chose not to marry at all and literally work from dawn to dusk in some capacity to further the cause of hizmet, either directly or indirectly. One such woman who worked at Samanyolu in Istanbul gave me a bag full of CDs of programs she had produced on well-known Sufi scholars that had aired in previous years. My conversation with her had been more like speaking with a wise sage than interviewing a television producer. I asked her if she attended weekly sohbet groups because she spoke like some of the more

12 Berna Turam has pointed out that women in Turkey, whether educated, urban, or secular or not, may likely be ev hanimlar, or stay at home wives and mothers. She astutely points out the many examples of modernizing projects in the greater Muslim world that seek to raise women’s educational status so that they may stay at home and provide education to their children. In this sense, terms like modern and traditional tend to bleed into one another. Turam’s assertion cites Abu-lughod’s edited volume, Remaking Women, in which case studies in egypt, Iran, and Turkey reveal in each countries’ women’s movements, men writers who outlined what modern women’s education and place in the public and private spheres would mean for “modernity” at given moments in times.

charismatic sohbet leaders I had heard in the past. I was surprised when she replied that her job was her faith and her family. So devoted was she to her work, that she had time for little else and she attended far fewer sohbet discussions than she had in the past. After reflecting on our conversation and viewing some of her work, I began to understand the earlier comment on working diligently in whatever capacity one finds oneself as a form of hizmet. This Samanyolu producer did not identify herself as a “leader” among other ablas. Her sense of modesty would not have allowed her to do so. However, her degree of dedication and the admiration and respect of her co-workers, and above all her hard work made her an abla by default, a recognized leader who had earned her stripes. If we imagine that this woman’s work was potentially viewed by millions of viewers in Turkey, Central Asia, europe, and the U.S., and her work presented a coherent history of Sufism, can we not call her a leader? Perhaps we can think of her work and influence like that of a charismatic female sohbet leader with an audience of potentially millions of listeners.

Jenny White’s13 work has focused on women and their participation in vernacular politics. She describes the women of Ümraniye, a neighborhood on the Asian side of Istanbul, and their collective sharing in building a political consensus in the same way they had pooled resources together in rural village settings during harvest periods. She cites the term imece to describe the collective will and effort rural women who settled in Istanbul who made their rural social order work for a greater political cause in the contemporary, urban suburb of Istanbul while taking part in and relying on a sense of safe and reliable female friendship support networks. These loose, interconnected, and interwoven women’s collectives offer those who participate a sense of security and serve to buffer them from what might be otherwise harsh experiences from life’s ups and downs. Women’s groups offer a sort of safety net when one’s

13 White, Jenny. Islamist Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003.

own personal, financial, or familial resources run thin. Women in Houston, Texas apply these same principles of imece annually during the organization of the Turkic Festival. Since 2007, the Houston Turkish-American community has put on an ever expanding festival that celebrates not only Turkish culture, but also Turkey’s close Central Asian neighbors. In 2009 more that 20,000 people attended the festival. Houston-area Turkish women prepared traditional foods (börek, mantı, döner kebap, dolma, baklava, kadayıf, kısır, humus,gözleme,içliköfte,to name but a few). During the festival and during other kermesler, or traditional arts and crafts fairs, the homemade food that women prepare if often the biggest selling component. Turkish women in the U.S. come from all regions of Turkey and are able to represent nearly every sort of specialty regional cuisine. Such variety of Turkish cuisine may not likely appear in similar events in Turkey. For the three days of the Turkic Festival in Houston, the entire grounds of the City Hall complex are transformed into a Turkish public space complete with traditional food taking center stage. Though we might discount such participation as “just food preparation”, it should in fact be seen as a powerful form of solidarity building14 and fund raising as well. Women’s collectives in Turkey as well as the U.S also organize fundraising for various causes. In 2009 I met with a group of retired teachers living in an affluent neighborhood on the european side of Istanbul. They had regular sohbetler, or spiritual study groups, that also featured a significant fundraising component. One afternoon there were approximately thirty women present and the meeting began with the group singing of Salavat, or a short prayer honoring the Prophet Mohammed, his family, and companions. Women passed around a bundle of emerald green napkins, and as the bundle travelled from person to

14 For more on food and women’s solidarity, see the following: Counihan, Carole and Penny Van esterik, eds,. Food and Culture: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 1997. AND Counihan, Carole M. and Steven l. Kaplan, eds. Food and Gender: Identity and Power. london: Routledge. 2004. AND Inness, Sherrie A. Cooking lessons: The Politics of Gender and Food. lanham, Maryland: Rowman and littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2001.

person, each person unwrapped a napkin, while each time the napkin revealed yet another napkin inside smaller than the one that had covered it. There were forty15 napkins in all. This continued until a small glass container was revealed inside that contained the beard clippings of the Prophet Muhammad. The small container was passed around and each person confirmed that after 1,400 years, the beard clippings still smelled like a rose. each woman brought the small glass container close to her nose to witness the miracle. When the more spiritual aspect of the gathering concluded, the meeting shifted to fundraising. later two young women from Central Asian countries gave testimonials describing how scholarships they had received had changed their lives and afforded them opportunities they would have never had without attending Gülen schools. The hostess of the gathering along with the Abla presiding over the event reminded the group of women how successful they had been at fundraising, and how their group was among the most successful groups of fundraisers in Istanbul, raising millions of liras the previous year. The Abla asked that the group of retired teachers remember their teaching days and asked them to contribute again to make more scholarships available for girls. And that they did, they got out their wallets and checkbooks and contributed, and later enjoyed speaking individually with the two young Central Asian girls. They were also very curious about what activities women in the U.S. were doing. I explained that many were involved in dialogue events and in dispelling stereotypes about Muslims that were pervasive after 9/11. They wondered why Turkish women new to the U.S. would feel the need to explain how the events of 9/11 had nothing to do with mainstream Muslims. “Isn’t this already obvious?”, one woman asked while others nodded in agreement. This statement and the collective reaction indicated that Gülen women initiatives vary widely, and what a woman in Istanbul might do to participate in the movement might be very different from what they do elsewhere. In a fundraising event in 2010 in Houston on KadirGecesi, considered to

15 The number forty is an auspicious number in the Islamic tradition.

be the most holy day of Ramadan and of the Islamic calendar, women assembled for a himmet meeting to raise funds for various building projects around Houston such as the building of a mosque, a large children’s park set to be the largest in town, a dinlenmeparkı, or a park for strolling and relaxation, a plans for a new university.The himmet gathering is an important gathering and women came in their finest clothes ready to contribute in the names of their families. Such fundraising events are numerous in hizmet, but are not necessarily new, but rather are a function of charity that is required of all Muslims. As women may miss days of fasting during Ramadan due to menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth, and nursing their children, they look for extra opportunities to give to charitable causes to make up for the days they were not able to fast. This in part explains the long tradition of Muslim women’s charitable traditions, and in Turkey Ottoman women commissioned many important civic sites such as mosques, public fountains, parks and resting places16. More research should be done specifically on the fundraising initiatives of women to gain a better understanding of how women both contribute financially and otherwise17.

16 See leslie Pierce’s work on the lives of Ottoman women. The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman empire. Oxford University Press, 1993.

17 Some of Gülen’s writings on women:Gülen, Fethullah. “Women Confined and Mistreated” http://www.fethullahgulen.org/recent-articles/2897-womenconfined-and-mistreated.html

Gülen, Fethullah. The Ideal Husband. IslamOnline.net. http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1165327535980&pagename=Zone-english-living_Shariah/lSelayout

There are an increasing number of researchers focusing on women in the Gülen movement. Below is a partial list of some published articles and book chapters, and unpublished conference papers:

Özdalga, e. (2003) Three Women Teachers Tell Their Stories, in: M.H. Yavuz & J.l. esposito (eds) Turkish Islam and the Secular State. The Gülen Movement, Syracuse University Press. New York. 85-114.

Women and men both often comment that to formally work inside

Turam, Berna. The politics of engagement between Islam and the secular state: ambivalences of ‘civil society’. In The British Journal of Sociology, 55 (2), 259-281, June 2004.

Özdalga, elisabeth , Redeemer or Outsider? The Gülen Community in the Civilizing Process. In The Muslim World, 95 (3), 429-446 July 2005.

Saritoprak, Zeki. The Relationship Between Men and Women in Islam is One of the Controversial Topics Debated in the Modern Day. What are Your Thoughts of The Place of Women in Society? In The Muslim World, Special Issue, July 2005 - Vol. 95 Issue 3 Page 325-471. http://en.fgulen.com/press-room/an-interview-in-the-muslim-world/2006-the-relationship-between-men-and-women-in-islam-is-one-of-the-controversial-topics-debated-in-the-modern-day-what-are-your-thoughts-of-the-place-of-women-in-society.html

Curtis, Maria. The Women’s Side of the Coin: The Gülen Movement in America, a New Turkish American Community Taking Root, Gülen Conferece at Rice University, 2005. http://www.fgulen.org/conference-papers/the-fethullah-gulen-movement-i/2136-the-womens-side-of-the-coin-the-gulen-movement-in-america-a-new-turkish-american-community-taking-root.html

Andrea, Bernadette. Women and Their Rights: Fethullah Gülen’s Gloss on lady Montagu’s “embassy” to the Ottoman empire, in Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World, edited by Robert Hunt and Yuksel A. Aslandogan. New Jersey: The light, 2006.

Stephenson, Anna. leaving Footprints in Houston: Answers to Questions on Women and the Gülen Movement, in Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World, edited by Robert Hunt and Yuksel A. Aslandogan. New Jersey: The light, 2006. http://www.fethullahgulenconference.org/dallas/proceedings/AJStephenson.pdf

Kimmel, Jessica. Turkish Women and Headscarves: A Feminist Issue. Gülen Conference in San Antonio, 2007.

Kirk, Martha Ann. Second Rabia’s: Women’s Gratitude, Compassion, and Altruism, . Gülen Conference in San Antonio, 2007.

Küçüksarı, Gülsüm Gürbüz. Unresolved Concerns of Women in Modern Age: How Does the Gülen Movement Contribute to the Woman Question? Gülen Conference in Washington, D.C., 2008. http://www.fethullahgulen.org/conference-papers/gulen-conference-in-washington-dc/3108-unresolved-

of the hizmet with like-minded individuals with similar values is a nimet, is a true blessing. Though Gülen himself has not dedicated himself to specifically to women’s issues, his emphasis on education and the cultivation of a life of the mind through higher education18 and in developing a manevi, or spiritual, life opens new doors for women’s participation in the societies in which they live.Gülen has said the following about the choice between the headscarf and education in Turkey19, “Gülen said that if these women face a

concerns-of-women-in-the-modern-age-how-does-the-gulen-movement-contribute-to-the-women-question.html

Rausch, Margaret J. Progress Through Piety: Sohbetler (Spiritual Gatherings) of the Women Participants of the Gülen Movement, Gülen Conference in Washington, D.C., 2008.

Yavuz, Sait. Women in Islam: Muslim Perspectives and Fethullah Gülen. Gülen Conference in Washington, D.C., 2008. http://en.fgulen.com/conference-papers/gulen-conference-in-washington-dc/3112-women-in-islam-muslim-perspectives-and-fethullah-gulen.html

Hällzon, Patrick. The Gülen Movement: Gender and Practice. Gülen Conference in Washington, D.C., 2008. http://en.fgulen.com/conference-papers/gulen-conference-in-washington-dc/3091-the-gulen-movement-gender-and-practice

Rausch, Margaret J. Gender and leadership in the Gülen Movement: Women Followers’ Contributions to east-West encounters. Gülen Conference in los Angeles, 2009. http://gulenconference.net/index.php/component/content/article/34-general-content/214-rausch

ebaugh, Helen Rose. The Gülen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam. New York: Springer, 2010.

18 Albayrak, Ismail. The Gülen educational Movement and Its Contribution to Global Peace and Tolerance. In International Handbooks of Religion and education, 2010, Volume 4, Part 3, 743-75. http://www.springerlink.com/content/u331075l6242862j/Woodhall, Ruth. Fethullah Gülen’s Philosophy of education in Practice. Fethullah Forum for a Better Understanding. http://www.fethullahgulenforum.org/articles/5/fethullah-gulen-s-philosophy-education-practice

19 Yilmaz, Ihsan. Jane’s Gülen Movement Analysis: An Orientalist Misreading (2). Today’s Zaman, February 9, 2009. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/yazarDetay.do?haberno=166433

dilemma between getting an education and uncovering their hair, he would say that education is important and that although covering the hair is still obligatory, it is not one of the essential pillars of Islam such as believing in one God”. From this statement, we can understand Gülen’s commitment to women’s education. Access to higher education and the social rewards that come along with it, as well as a sense of commitment and resolve in one’s spiritual well being are very powerful tools that women have at their disposal as they decide how to serve humanity and take part in hizmet. Institutions related to the Gülen movement offer important employment opportunities to women who wear the scarf who may not be able to work elsewhere. Perhaps more important is the fact that such institutions are also experienced as an oasis by other women who lead more secular lives, and who may not necessarily consider themselves formal adherents. This realization set in on a visit to Zaman newspaper in Istanbul in 2007. A contact that works there had been trying to set up interviews with me with various women writers. He was not sure of one woman’s knowledge of the Gülen movement and suggested that she might not be able to comment on how she encountered the movement as he thought she was “just working at the paper”. This woman wrote and edited material that was meant to appeal specifically to women readers. When I asked her about her knowledge of the Gülen movement, it became apparent immediately that she did in fact consider herself “in the movement”. She distinguished between her job at the paper and her personal spiritual experiences, as did others at the paper. She explained that she was grateful to work in a place where she could pray comfortably and where she could be assured that she would be treated justly in the workplace. I asked her if the Gülen movement indirectly served the goals of women’s advancement, and she argued that it absolutely did because it made jobs available to all kinds of women. On visits to other Gülen related institutions I also noticed the presence of women who seemed to not consider themselves formally in the movement, or who wanted to make firm distinctions between their professional lives and their

spiritual lives. They believed the Gülen movement does offer real career opportunities to women of all backgrounds precisely because of its Islamic principles of equal and fair treatment. The religious values that frame the movement, though not articulated as such in workplace settings, did serve to create safe zones where women of all religious persuasions felt a sense of security in their jobs.

There have been several academic studies that have focused on women’s participation in the Gülen movement to date. Most of them note the deep sense of personal satisfaction and very profound sense of attachment that all adherents, including women, feel as members of this movement. Some prior studies on women in the Gülen movement have also concluded that women are not as likely to ascend to the highest levels of participation in the Gülen movement, for instance Gülen does not formally train women in the same fashion as his male students. Gülen has compared male and female participation in hizmet as the two sides of a coin; one without the other leaves the coin with no value at all20. Men and women with whom I have spoken have acknowledged that some inequalities exist, but claim that it is not because the movement itself is less open to women so much as the fact that inequalities in gender that are seen in Turkish culture, and indeed everywhere in the world, and because of this inequality is also at times manifest in this movement as well. In 2005 while speaking with a Turkish woman journalist who resides in the U.S., she commented that “those who are inspired by Gülen are sometimes not emotionally mature enough to live up to his broad mindedness”. While speaking with another woman at a conference held for women to encourage them to write for The Fountain Magazine, one participant stated that “sometimes the men do not know what to do with us. We’ve received all the education and

20 Quoted from ertuğrul Özkök, Hoca effendi Anlatiyor, Hurriyet, 1/23-30-95. This quote is taken from the front cover of a promotional booklet that summarizes Gülen’s interfaith efforts. Not meant to be a book per se, it was distributed at various Turkish cultural centers and bears no title. It was printed by The light, Inc., and printed in Rutherford, N.J.

spiritual training the movement has to offer; now Turkish society and Turkish men will be required to catch up with our progress and us. They’ll need to read Gülen again more closely”. Another young woman who immigrated with her family when she was nine years old to the U.S. who calls herself a Turkish-American says, “I anticipate great things for women. This place is my country and great things are going to happen here, I know it. It will happen when Turks and Americans start to build the next generation of hizmet right here in America”. A young newly wed commented on the different gender expectations of different Turkish men in hizmet: “My husband was influenced by some of the older abis21 [brothers] in hizmet. They are kind of sert [stern]. My husband and the younger guys who were his roommates are different, they are more gentle with their wives, they do things like celebrate birthdays and buy little gifts now and then to let their wives know they care for them”. In many instances women seemed to anticipate new gender dynamics within families, both as a result of spiritual progression as well as Turkish norms changing when couples lived on their own outside Turkey. Others seemed to think that the change in gender relations has already happened, as evidenced in the following statement:

“Igrewupinasecularfamily.Mydadwasauthoritarian,whathesaidwealllistenedto.Thingsaredifferentwithmyhusband.IsupportTurkeyandsecularism,butIwantedtowearthescarfas it felt likewhatI shoulddo.Myhusbandunderstands this need. He’s my husband, and he is myconfidant.Weshareconversationsasequals,hehelpsmewithourchildren.Whenwedonotknowwhatdecisiontomake,togetherweconsultİlm-iHalbooksanddecidetogetherwhatchoicestomake.Weliveawayfromourfamiliesnow,andImissthem.Myhusbandfeelsthistoo.Heismyhusbandandfriend,whenIgavebirthwithoutmyfamily,hewaslikeamom,orasister,helpingmeandsometimeslosingsleepmorethanme”.

21 Abiler in Turkish, “Abis” is an Anglicized form.

In my travels and conversations over the years, I have met many women who do occupy leadership roles and are often very surprised to be characterized in the academic literature as otherwise. They willingly acknowledge that the movement cannot completely eradicate gender inequalities, just as other previous social movements have not done so either. Many women feel the writings of Gülen have the potential to make men and women the best people they can be, to be a person mature in one’s spirituality so as to act on the choices that are the most just. Gülen’s writings are more directed towards just marriage, and he has written in criticism of abusive husbands going so far to say that if women are abused they should feel supported in defending themselves22. He has also written against the idea that marriage and family be a “baby making factory23”, saying it is more important to raise children well than in great number. He has even questioned the Turkish ideal that everyone marry, by asking the question in a very straightforward way-“Should everyone really marry?” While finding support in Gülen’s writings, women note that Gülen cannot offer a “magic bullet” to gender inequality and that individuals are ultimately responsible for their spiritual development and in their treatment of the opposite gender. While much of hizmet’s values are built on traditional Turkish values, hizmet itself often goes against the grain of the traditional Turkish family, asserting that working for the good of society, rather than just one’s own nuclear family, is the cause that is most important to aspire to.

When I began research in Istanbul in 2007, I wanted to write about women in leadership positions. I was encouraged by all women I interviewed, particularly the most high profile and publically

22 Kurucan, Ahmet. Intra-Family Violence and Islam. In Today’s Zaman. October 28, 2008. http://www.fethullahgulen.org/press-room/columns/3072-intra-family-violence-and-islam.html

23 Gülen, Fethullah. evlilik, evcilik Oyunu Değildir. 1-16-2009. http://www.m-fgulen.org/content/view/16566/18/

well known who occupied what would typically be thought of as leadership positions in a western sense, to look for those women who donated their time and their acts of “adoptive motherhood”. While western notions of leadership often give priority to visibility, the Turkish understanding of hizmet looks for leadership in one’s sense of commitment and integrity, not in a woman’s ability to share the same roles and demeanors as her male counterparts. One very successful journalist, Fatma Dişli who writes for Today’s Zaman told me, “without the support of those women who helped pay for my scholarships, who came to visit me on the bayrams [holidays] when I could not see my parents, or who brought me food while I was preparing for exams, I have to thank them. They are the most important women in this movement. Without their hard work, I would not be where I am today. They are the real heroes, the real leaders in this movement”.

I interviewed women writers, journalists, and TV writers and producers in Turkey and the U.S. who are inspired in some way by the teachings of Gülen and who integrate his perspectives in their work. While most do not write about Gülen per se, they are inspired by his writings and ideas and what they called “social reconciliation”. In their work in the media, they wanted to send out positive messages that helped in building a sense of social solidarity and also offer television programs that offered education and integrity. I asked one Samanyolu editor if 9/11 had impacted the way she saw her work. She commented that 9/11 was a wound that had to heal on American soil, and that the divide between secularism, or laicism and the public display of one’s religious life was the Turkish problem she most wanted to help solve. She said, “I want to engage in work that builds solidarity, that emphasizes our human similarities rather than our differences”. Women’s programming on Samanyolu, and its American equivalent ebru T.V., is widely available and feature all manner of programs from cooking shows, to discussions about current politics to shows that discuss family life and reproductive

health, to children’s programming. Also, there are very rich female characters in serials such as “Mavi Rüya” or Blue Dream, which featured a dedicated schoolteacher, Zeynep Öğretmen, who endured all manner of hardships in the effort to save her family members from a group out to damage the image of Islam. In short she was a Turkish Muslim Charlie’s Angel, jumping off of hydroelectric dams, and landing neatly at the bottom, every hair in place, stiletto heels in tact.

Another interesting female character named Zeynep appears in the wildly popular Tek Türkiye. She is a woman of Kurdish descent who stands up to her own male relatives and puts her life in harm’s way in order to open a school. In any given episode, she may be seen falling deeper in love, challenging the PKK, and teaching local children. She is the counter image of the young Kurdish girl who becomes a PKK terrorist who is tricked into a joining a cell after the cell’s leader gives her addictive drugs. In another long running show “Büyük Buluşma”, or “Big Meeting”, essentially a show about who gets to go to heaven and who gets to go to hell, we regularly see women encouraged to seek education, and we see many an unredeemed male family members fall through the big white door that leads one to the flames of hell. They scream “No!” as their fate is sealed for eternity.

It is my sense that we are going to see very surprising forms of participation in hizmet from young women in the future. More often the trend seems to be for women to have careers and to pursue graduate degrees. A number of them I have known since they were small children who are adolescents on their way to university. It will be very interesting to see where they take this movement in the future as they take the mantle into their hands. The various layers of women’s participation that I have outlined here are loosely configured, but effective in the powerful impact they have over public perception of pious, and practicing Muslim women. The multiple public spheres that are opened up by women taking part in the Gülen movement offer incoming women and girls unique opportunities to participate

in public life. My thinking is very much indebted to Nilüfer Göle’s discussion of women and Turkish notions of modernity and national identity, as well as to Jenny White’s emphasis on the often-overlooked forms of women’s participation at what she calls the “vernacular” level.

Whereas Göle’s work dealt with “the new veiling movement” of the 1980s ad 90s, and White’s work focused on lower middle class neighborhoods in Istanbul, my research has followed the development of the Gülen movement as it has moved squarely into a very large, publically recognized mainstream transnational movement that operates at every socio-economic level. At the final completion of this research project, it is my hope that in book form it will offer many portraits of women who have benefited from participation in the Gülen movement, and that non-Turks who are less familiar with Middle eastern societies may come to replace such dichotomies as “public vs. private” and “male vs. female”, with more subtle understandings of dynamic Muslims public spheres that Muslims themselves experience as fulfilling, and rewarding.

In conclusion, to ask “where are the women in the Gülen movement?” is a question that yields some important answers and dispels many incorrect assumptions about women in cosmopolitan “socially active observant Muslim” spheres24. However, we should also be asking a more general question, “how does the Gülen movement improve the lives of women?”, and conducting broader research that examines the multiple public spheres that the Gülen opens to a wide array of women, both those who self-identify with hizmet, as well as those that benefit directly and indirectly from its existence.

24 Yilmaz, Ihsan. Jane’s Gülen Movement Analysis: An Orientalist Misreading (2). Today’s Zaman, February 9, 2009. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/yazarDetay.do?haberno=166433

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