In a previous post (1) on this site, recent literature on the economic aspect of the Gülen Movement was presented for readers interested in following up this theme from a variety of approaches and perspectives. As indicated in that post, from here on we will look more closely at the concepts that underpin the Gülen Movement’s financial structure. We begin with the wakf tradition in Anatolian culture and how it has shaped and motivated financial contributions to the Movement.
Almost all the voluntary institutions in Turkey, including the Gülen Movement, have been influenced by the Islamic institution of wakfs or charitable foundations. Historically, these wakfs were extraordinarily extensive and effective during the Ottoman period. They met local needs and looked after the poor and the less well-off across the vast Ottoman Empire, accounting in their heyday for nearly 15% of the empire’s whole budget. Cizakca has stated that “throughout Islamic history wakfs organized and financed schools, universities, hospitals and public kitchens as well as innumerable other services that contributed to economic development”. (2)
Aydin (3) has drawn up a list of characteristics that are typical of a wakf, which is helpful in understanding the administrative structure of Gülen-inspired organizations (like schools, media outlets, dialogue centres), (4) which are modelled on the wakf. These characteristics are:
- Property that is legally defined;
- Meaningful and continuous institutional structure;
- Privately owned and funded, i.e. not part of the state system,
- Autonomous, i.e. with authority to make and implement decisions;
- Not profit distributing (i.e. there are no share-holders);
- Reliant on the principle of voluntary service;
- Supportive of public goals, or goods in the public interest;
- Not dependent on membership (as is the case with associations).
In the eighteenth century, nearly 20,000 foundations were operating within the boundaries of Ottoman Empire, yet only 5,859 of them were inherited by the new Turkish Republic. (5) Before the establishment of the Republic, the wakfs enjoyed tax-exempt status on the revenue they generated. By contrast, only 215 charitable foundations (4% of all foundations) enjoy tax-exempt status in Turkey at the present time. Ottoman policies towards wakfs, particularly before the nineteenth century when modernizing reforms began, were quite liberal and supportive in terms of taxation and administrative procedures. This might be explained as a great empire willing to be decentralized, to leave important public services in the hands of trustworthy wakfs, which complemented and fulfilled state responsibilities in places and circumstances that central government could not easily or efficiently reach.
With the centralization polices that were part of the modernizing reforms of the nineteenth century, the wakf system declined dramatically and lost its influence. The emerging Turkish Republic, the culmination of the reforms, was committed to a nation-building project and regarded wakfs as a potential threat to that project. Professor Leeman was asked to prepare a set of rules and procedures for regulation and supervision of wakfs: the Foundation Law came into force in 1935. Over time, centralization and modernization of the state undermined the civil society organizations that had formed the backbone of social welfare provision in the pre-reform Ottoman era. However, the culture of wakf, so deeply rooted in the Islamic tradition, still inspires Turkish people to set up benevolent organisations to serve fellow citizens who are disadvantaged. (6) Eventually, this motivation to give, so embedded in Anatolian culture, would help produce one of the most successful philanthropic movements in the world.
People who are puzzled by the scale of the Gülen Movement and its grass-roots fund-raising do not usually take the wakf tradition into account, even though this tradition was, for nearly seven centuries, part and parcel of the experience of the people of this land. The existence of absurd and contradictory conspiracy theories – like the Movement is financially supported by the USA through the CIA, or that the Iranian government is transferring funds to the Movement so as to establish an “Islamic state” – is evidence of a failure to understand that giving and commitment for the benefit of others is integral to Anatolian culture, which had been the locus of philanthropic efforts for centuries. The enthusiasm of the people for supporting well-run charitable institutions by giving of their time and/or of their wealth is what lies behind the level and scale of grassroots support that the Gülen Movement mobilizes so effectively. Fethullah Gülen himself was clearly aware of it: “Our people would like to donate more and more. If you say to them ‘Do not donate’, they become sad and moan because deprived of giving.” (7)
Published on A Thought, 03 August 2011, Wednesday
