December 8, 2010

A global community: Gulen Movement

Kadri Gursel

I spent the week before the Kurban Bayram, or “Feast of the Sacrifice,” holiday in Chicago to follow a conference on the Gülen movement.

Today the community has reached the status of a transnational movement. Though it is not possible to identify the Gülen movement as a “political organization,” the movement is imbedded in politics today and is an unelected coalition partner of single-party rule in Turkey. This partnership renders the movement the natural partner of the suspicion and distrust some feel toward the party currently in power.