Distinguished guests, honorable friends and respected audience members, I thank you for the opportunity to be here with you today and to share my thoughts with you on an important topic of study that has theoretical, practical and policy implications and outcomes worthy of academic consideration and evaluation.
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| Fethullah Gulen |
Let me start by three provisos. A great deal of what I have to say is based on the two years or so I have been living and travelling in Turkey, and while I have been working at Fatih University in Istanbul as a sociology professor. It is therefore anecdotal, observational and experiential rather than at this stage empirical, analytical or in any way socially scientific. Second, I want to explain what I mean by ‘Islamism’. It is a term that is bounded about a great deal in the present climate, but it is also clear that it is a somewhat loaded and misused concept. I am taking it simply mean the idea of how Islam is utilized by Muslims to deliver forms of social, cultural and economic outcome shaped by the practice, ethics, morality and spirit of Islamic thinking. Thus, for me, it remains a broad all-encompassing term that has wide application, and I certainly take it to mean more than the negative connotations associated with political violence, extremism and even anti-integrationism that are often the subject of much discussion of ‘Islamism; today per se. Finally, I wish to elaborate on the term ‘movement’. The movement inspired by Fethullah Gülen has been ascribed as a movement by analysts and thinkers who regard it as possessing the characteristics of other formal social movements tend to have a political ethos. However, followers of the Gülen movement prefer the term hizmet, which effectively means ‘service’, taking attention away from Fethullah Gülen himself and from the idea that this movement is a social or political movement per se. It also potentially the limits falling into the trap of providing Fethullah Gülen mythical cult status, given how Turkey has been prone to eulogizing its leaders since the emergence of Kemalism. In my paper, I continue to use the term ‘Gülen movement’, although I am aware it is not always explicitly seen in these terms by its many members, followers, advocates, associates or sympathizers.
During the last two decades, the ‘Gülen movement’ has made tremendous attempts to spread a ‘dialogue of civilizations’ across the globe through various means and methods, largely through exchange and interaction, but also through education. The creation of over two thousand high schools, especially in the USA, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, has become an important development opportunity for young people to help them gain a valuable educational experience that would otherwise have remained unavailable. This education encompasses a wide range of pedagogical and educational content that attracts upwardly mobile groups. Combined with the promotion of Turkish language and culture it creates a unique framework in which a form of ‘progressive Turkish Islamism’ is able to counter the negative effects of Islamophobia and xenophobia that characterizes Muslim experiences, especially in the west, and certain underdevelopment issues, especially in the east.
There is much that has been said about Fethullah Gülen during the last two days by scholars far more qualified than I. Suffice to say, his moral philosophy, his ethical guidelines and his historiography of Islam have drawn in a growing body of committed Muslims inside of Turkey, suggested by commentators to be as many as up to 6m followers, members and activists. There is also a growing number outside of the country that have come to learn of the many positives associated with a form of bottom-up ‘progressive’ Islamism that emerges from this experience which de jure is apolitical but de facto has political impacts. Emerging in greater strength and force in the last two decades in particular, the movement captures the essence of an existential Islamic experience which for many Turks has remained subdued during the more suppressive phases of secularism that historically limited the roles of Islam in public life. Gülenist philosophy taps into the cultural fabric of a Sufi-orientated Islamic perspective on humanity which is bold but at the same time quite simple. Part of the reason why the movement has gained such popularity and how it has reached into various aspects of life in Turkey, including in education, the social welfare model, civil society in general as well through forms of economic activity and cultural influence, is because this Islamic ideological force aims to reach out to every man, woman and child across the land. These Turkish groups seek greater meaning to their lives, and ones which inform not just the material or the organizational but also the spiritual and the cultural.
There are many kinds of Islamic tariqa across the world. All of which have their own forms of practice rooted in ethno-national and sectarian essentialisms, but the Gülen movement aims to displace such notions and replace it with a more extra-national dimension. One specific element of the work of the Gülen movement is to focus on dialogue and coexistence. This is an attempt to reach out to others in the form of civilisation-building. It encourages the move away from underdevelopment and dependency and towards development and independency, which is achieved through knowledge and research, and based on an Islamic ideological framework. It is in an effort to reach the pinnacle of human existence by removing the obstacles, processes and means that have prevented such outcomes from being achieved. This internationalization of the Gülen movement further appeals as part of its attempts to remove inequalities, barriers, faithlessness, discrimination and corruption in all of its forms. To achieve these outcomes, humility and justice are important drivers in determining the essence of humankind. In the process, the Gülen movement seeks to challenges the deleterious outcomes of post-enlightenment European rationalism, and the subsequent global divisions that tend to be functions of individualism, consumerism and immediate gratification. This is the ethical, moral, psychological, cultural, intercultural and scientific basis of the aspirations behind the Gülen movement. The Gülen movement argues that has been able to achieve its success through the realization of these defining principles in thought but crucially also through action.
Theologically, The Gülen movement is underpinned by Turkic-Sufi theology through the writings of Said Nursi, but it is also culturally-orientated in actively promoting a sense of Turkishness. It is true that since 2002 there has been the significant emergence of the ‘Islamic bourgeoisie’ in Turkey, helping the country to become one of the strongest economies in the Muslim world and one of the most stable polities in the Middle East. A growing body of upwardly-mobile people wish to retain aspects of the cultural, spiritual and theological heritage at the same time as taking part in a network of like-minded others who share the same aspirations for the future of Turkey. In many ways the Gülen movement is inspired by classical Islam but it is also an economic and socially-orientated project that aims to remain inclusive and outward looking.
There are nevertheless many different criticisms leveled at the movement, some of which focus on the idea that it is male-dominated, hierarchical, lacks transparency or is wholly ideological. Staunch Kemalists pour scorn on the movement and regard it as political in how it ‘places’ people into society, whereas many traditional and conservative Muslims argue that they are able to find positivity in being able to take part in an organization that supports their entire social, economic and cultural outlook. These are external criticisms, but there are also internal challenges. Social capital theory is important in understanding the building of forms of social collectivism in relation a whole host of institutions, from the family to a religious community to how an entire nation might wish to organize itself. Notions of trust and reciprocity are at the heart of this social capital theory in the current period. However, too great a set of social linkages with people too much like ‘ourselves’ is potentially a source of negative social capital. That is, immediate within-group self-interests become dominant and risk wider aspirations in relation to outreach, inclusiveness and toleration. As group members are supported, it is difficult for non-members to enter into the group due to barriers to entry. Group members have certain freedoms, but there are also rites and obligations that tie the individual to the group which may or not appeal in the long-run. Certain localized group formations may well be bounded by even more localized ethno-cultural and socio-political interests which could jeopardize the aims of the wider movement. Narrow ethnic, cultural and political motivations have the potential to submerge the essence of the message. It can negate the potential for creative individualism or independent critical inquiry, which is potentially damaging for all. It leads to various struggles for authenticity and authority, and the issues of power and representation that emerge from such challenges.
There is a great deal to remain positive about, but there are always risks, and I have finished my paper by focusing on some of these concerns. Although the evidence of success is some proof of success, it is important to remain aware that strategic thinking, foresight and planning are essential for the success of any organization however large or small. To maintain a positive legacy, to keep the enthusiasm alive and nurtured, to ensure the vibrancy of intellectual and scientific development among the young and the old, ongoing change and development is a must.
It is clear that in any understanding of time and the importance of time for how people appreciate their existence, it is necessary to think in present and future time, not just past and present time. For devout Muslims, much of the idea of predestination and an afterlife is the result of a test in this life, but it is necessary not to lose sight of the everyday contestations that remain. The success of civilization-building is understanding that these challenges are also opportunities that have yet to be realized, rather than some form of immediate gratification, or those that exist only in metacosmic future time.
I hope some of these thoughts have been interest, and I thank you for your time!
Note: this is a working paper that was originally delivered to the conference, ‘The Essential Philosophy of Civilization Building: perspectives from Fethullah Gülen and Malek bin Nabi – From Theory to Action’, University of Algiers, Algeria, 20-21 November 2012
* A professor of sociology, Dr. Abbas Associate Editor of Sociology of Islam (Brill); on the Editorial Boards of Conflict and Peace Studies (Pak Institute for Peace Studies, Islamabad), Middle East Studies Online Journal (ISSN 2109-9618, Paris) and the European Journal of Economic and Political Studies (Istanbul); and a Consulting Editor to East West Affairs (Chicago). He is a Fellow of the Muslim Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, both in London. More on his bio.
Published on author's own blog, 23 November 2012, Friday
