December 2, 2014

[BOOK REVIEW] ‘Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World’

Jessica Rehman*

Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the WorldIn “Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World” Joshua D. Hendrick, writing as a religious economist, seeks to contextualize the rise of Hizmet (the movement affiliated with Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen) within the historical economic market expansions and contractions of Turkey. The religious and economic theoretical context of his work claims to diverge from typical approaches that understand the rise of Hizmet as a reaction to neoliberal globalization. Instead, Hendrick sees Hizmet as a successful supplier of a premier and alternate Turkish Muslim identity.