Social backgrounds of the people in the Gülen Movement and those who support "externally"

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What social backgrounds do people in the Gülen Movement come from?

People are attracted to the Gülen Movement by exemplary friends from the Gülen Movement, by people in their immediate environment, neighbors, and relatives and by their conduct and sincerity, by reading Gülen's works and listening to his lectures, by the overall meaning and the message of the altruistic services, and by the worldview of the Gülen Movement.

The overwhelming majority of participants are young university students. The next largest group (almost as numerous) consists of university graduates. The average age in the Movement is 25–30. Most of the students or people in the service-networks are middle or upper-middle class. They are from better integrated backgrounds, urban, with a high level of academic achievement.

The volunteer–participants are educated and urban middle class, relatively privileged and better integrated: they hold the technical and cultural competence or an economic-functional position that makes them more likely to mobilize because they see the contradictions of the system, and their educational level and intellectual milieu foster egalitarian and anti-authoritarian values.

Participation among university students and educated newcomers from a wide variety of social experiences and backgrounds has grown, but this has not radicalized the Gülen Movement, nor caused cleavages to emerge either in it or Turkish society. The participants in fact prioritize individual achievement in private, and expansion of freedom of expression, and democratic participation.

What is the socio-economic background of those who do not belong to the Gülen Movement but support its collective action?

They are highly diverse and widespread. It is difficult to identify specific social categories within the varied and widespread socio-economic groups who maintain a co-operative (but not participatory) relationship with the Movement. They belong to an increasing number of roles and professions.

However, it is possible to say that the overwhelming majority of educated participants in the Movement do not work in religiously-oriented occupations but in education, engineering, the sciences and business. They support a moderate faith-inspired initiative to build a network of schools, universities, hospitals, media and businesses. This is interpreted as a ‘third way’ between the forces of militant secularism and radical Islamism. That too is a factor encouraging more co-operative support for the Movement from non-participants or ‘third parties’. A good example is the book, Barış Köprüleri: Dünyaya Açılan Türk Okulları (“Bridges of Peace: Turkish Schools Opening to the World”), a compilation of twenty-seven articles written by ‘third-party’ statesmen, politicians, scholars, thinkers and journalists. The articles discuss more than 300 educational institutions and other efforts of the volunteers of the Gülen Movement in ninety countries.

Related Article:
Nature of participation and membership in the Gülen Movement