Five global challenges: How might Hizmet respond?

Max Farrar

Hizmet, the social movement inspired by the neo-Sufi thinker Fetullah Gülen, is currently being dismembered by the autocratic president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He accuses Gülen of ordering a coup attempt on 15th July 2016, saying it was was led by Hizmet members in the army. This is strenuously denied by Gülen and Hizmet, but the crack-down has nevertheless been enormous in its range (see here for more information and for Hizmet’s response).

The Basis of Dialogue and Tolerance in Gülen's World

Enes Ergene

1. The Synthesis of Islam and the Turkish Approach

The most important values that prevailed in the twentieth century were modernization, plurality, and individualism. Because modernity invaded personal and social life as a whole, new forms of religious, cultural, and political plurality emerged. Although modernity has been defined in different ways, no one will contest that among its products is contemporary globalization. Ideological or not, globalization has radically changed the nature and dynamics of local economies, societies, modes of communication, and political organizations, and it has drastically altered the regulating fields of law, history, geography, and government. While economic globalization rendered the world a single market, globalization is not strictly an economic phenomenon. It has political, ideological, and cultural dimensions. It is true that globalization has resulted in increased wealth, technology, democratic pluralism, and production; however, such developments manifested alongside environmental degradation, increased poverty, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction. As knowledge, power, and technology were globalized, conflict theories came into the world's agenda. Some may consider this situation as an outcome of modernity, while others may think of globalization as the main cause. In either case, we have found ourselves discussing and redefining a series of concepts like humanity and the individual; freedom of expression and faith; political, social, and cultural tolerance; conflict or reconciliation; dialogue or fight; and so on.

Istighna and ithar: Two forgotten principles of da’wah from the perspective of the Hizmet Movement

Salih Yücel

Introduction

The world is in need of Islam and Islam is in need of representation (tamthil/temsil in Turkish). People’s ears are full but their eyes are hungry for role models[1] in all areas of life including da’wah. Istighna and ithar are two important but forgotten principles of da’wah. Da’wah is a form of worship undertaken for the sake of Allah alone, and its reward is to be expected in the Hereafter.[2] To expect any form of reward in this world can harm sincerity and open the path to lesser shirk. Verily Allah does not accept people holding any partners to Him in all deeds, including da’wah. While the word da’wah means ‘to call’ or ‘to invite,’ the best form of da’wah is living by the religion and values that one espouses. Da’wah through action comes before da’wah through words. As Khurshid Ahmad said, ‘Da‘wah is presented primarily through conveying the message, preaching you may call it, and by practicing it and as such presenting before the world its living example.’[3] Muhammad Sami’Allah defines da’i as the ideal person, [4] while Nayeefa Chowdhury defines a da’i as a role model.[5] Whether ideal or a role model, the da’i’s profile must include the practice of istighna and ithar.

Gülen’s Idea of Education for Peace

Prof. Dr. Maniruzzaman

Introduction

The religion Islam is currently perceived to be a dangerous faith to the civilized west. The people of the west see the irrationality of Islam considering its rigidity in incorporating others as an alternative belief system. The civilization Islam, because of its orthodoxy, is constantly facing ridicule by the non-Islamic world and scholars as well. Samuel Huntington, in his famous essay on the Clash of Civilization tried to portrait the irrationality of Islam and thus putting bar on human progress. In Foreign Affairs article Huntington conceived “Islam has bloody borders”. It is no exaggeration that some Muslims, in the name of political Islam, showing some kind of tenacity in committing destruction in the non-Muslim world. It does not represent the majority of Muslims behavior though. It is in this situation the study of Gülen would give us an alternative overview of Islam. Gülen of village korucuk in Turkey, born in 40’s in the last century, is regarded as one of the most influential Muslim thinkers of the present day world. He was supposed to be a follower of Said Nursi Bediuzzaman (died in 1960), whom he never met. He preached neo-Islamic ideas i.e., an “Anatolian version of traditional mainstream Islam”, deriving from Nursi’s teachings and modernized them. His institution finally took an independent shape of his own and stood as a safeguard of Islam from its misuse. However, his countrymen who alleged him for promoting insurrection and playing with Islam misunderstood Gülen. In the long run, he had to leave his own country for US, where he is living an unmarried life with a preaching zeal for establishing peace in the face of globalization and terrorism in particular, across the world. He thus built his fame abroad as a freethinker and lover of mankind but at the same time was also criticized as a conservative Muslim too. Since 1990, he began to advocate for tolerance and dialogue among the interfaith i.e., Abrahamic faiths. This colored him to be a preacher of Islam in Calvinist mixture. His critiques, therefore, takes the opportunity to generally look upon his preaching to be a misnomer. They blame him for Christianizing the Muslims.

Religious Freedom and Civil Liberties

Fulya Celik

What we have heard thus far indicates the enormous scope of the topic for this conference. Admittedly, I was overwhelmed by the challenging task of responding to the issue of religious freedom and civil liberties in a matter of ten or so minutes, but I will attempt to address a few pertinent points of consideration.

The Hizmet discourse of the Gülen Movement

Mehmet Kalyoncu

The concepts that constitute Fethullah Gülen’s outlook, and thus the vision of movement activists, in this analysis, are wrapped up in the overarching concept of hizmet (service to one’s fellow human beings). Each principle that underlies Fethullah Gülen’s teaching derives directly from the idea of living to serve. These principles include gaye-i hayal (the purpose of one’s life), diğergamlık (altruism) and başkası için yaşama (living for others), mes’uliyet duygusu (sense of personal responsibility) and adanmışlık ruhu (spirit of devotion). This chapter looks at how Fethullah Gülen elucidates these core concepts in his work and how they are put into practice in the conduct of the movement participants. Similarly, it tries to identify both the underlying philosophy and the operational concepts that are put into practice to analyze how the movement has spread, for looking at both structural and operational concepts provides a clearer picture of the conduct of the participants in the movement. These operational concepts include sohbet and hizmet (conversation and service), istişare and mütevelli (collective decision making and board of trustees), and himmet and verme tutkusu (personal commitment and passion for giving). Throughout the analysis, this chapter uses Fethullah Gülen’s original terms for these concepts, along with their English translations.

The Gülen Movement’s Initiatives in Britain

Fatih Tedik

The history of the Gülen Movement in the United Kingdom is fairly short compared to other Turkish faith-based communities or movements, such as Suleymanci, Sheikh Nazim and other Naqshibendiyya communities. Indeed, this fact could be deducted when the facilities and other services of respective communities are observed. For instance, each of the aforementioned community has its own an opus magnum in terms of religious architecture, such as Suleymaniye and Aziziye Mosques that both situated in Hackney. To meet religious necessities of the Turkish community during Ramadan, Gülen movement, however, hire small community centres for Ramadan activities.

The Gülen Movement in Germany and France

Emre Demir

Despite the large Turkish population in Western Europe, the movement took hold relatively late from other Islamic organizations and they have been present in Europe since almost 10 years. After a research on Fethullah Gülen’s old sermon records, we learned that Fethullah Gülen frequently visited some French and German cities at the end of 1980s. But the institutionalization process of the movement started after mid-1990s. Contrary to the other Islamic movements, the Gülen community did not follow the Turkish migratory flow. We can explain this late arrival by two essential reasons:

Rumi and Gülen’s Main Message and Acceptance of the Other

Ihsan Yilmaz

Social and political conjuncture was very turbulent when Rumi emerged. It was a period in which so many conflicts and disorders were being experienced one after the other. There was first a great deal of dissidence and anarchy as a result of the marginal Babai movement. People were also fed up with the continuous assaults, pillage and invasions of the Mongols and Crusaders. As to the administration, the Seljuks state was significantly weakened and getting deteriorated, fastened by the inability to cope with internal conflicts, divisions and mismanagements. The other powerful state, the Kharzamshahs, which once fought against the Genghis Khan’s armies and stopped them and defended the Muslims, then turned against and were fighting the Anatolian Seljuks and organizing territorial incursions and invasions. Benefiting from the chaotic atmosphere and lack of authority in the region neighbouring communities were exploiting the circumstances for their own material and political interests.

Is Fethullah Gülen a Threat to Democracy? ‎

Tineke Peppinck

It was astonishing then that in 1999 tapes came in at the Turkish television broadcaster ATV, in which this universally esteemed and respected teacher (‘Hoca Efendi’) seems to call his disciples to wait for the right moment to seize power in Turkey. The public prosecutor opened a lawsuit to investigate Fethullah Gülen on the basis of the charge of ‘founding an illegal organization aiming to change the structure of the secular state, in order to found a state based on religious laws’. (1)

The Roots and Praxis of Fethullah Gülen’s Educational Discourse*

Anwar Alam

Abstract

This paper attempts to locate Gülen’s thought beyond the framework of tradition and modernity and argues that his philosophy of education provides an alternative to both the classical Islamic educational system and the modern educational system. The key to the success of his educational discourse lies in his three formulations. First, he shifted the Muslim discourse from ‘seeking Islamic education’ to ‘education as the most noble Islamic value’ and an essential condition for securing one’s own Islamic faith. Second, Islam is essentially a discourse, not a matter of identity. Thus a Muslim can maintain his\her faith even while operating in the hostile secular milieu without bothering about the form in which Islam has to be practised. Third, by undertaking a very comprehensive but flexible understanding of Islam that makes God, Qur’an, the Universe and Humanity manifestations of the same, single Truth, and by emphasising Islamic value in terms of ‘good moral and ethical conduct’, he opens the door for the Muslim community to secure their faith in multiple ways.

Why do parents choose a Gulen-inspired school for their children: A case study in Belgium

F. Zehra Colak

This paper explores a Gulen-inspired school in Brussels, L’Ecole des Etoiles, as a choice that provides parents with opportunities to realize their dreams regarding the education of their children. Conducting semi-structured interviews and participant observation, I carried out fieldwork among Turkish-Belgian mothers and investigated their motivations for choosing to send their children to L’Ecole des Etoiles.

Fethullah Gulen’s educational philosophy as a core value of the Hizmet movement

F. Zehra Colak

Since the beginning of the second millennium, the Hizmet movement (aka Gulen movement) has become a global subject of interest to many scholars in the field of social and political sciences. The voluntary, apolitical, religion-inspired and transnational nature of the movement has inspired many books, conferences, seminars, workshops and scholarly articles.

The role of Turkish schools in the educational system and social transformation of Central Asian countries

Cennet Engin Demir, Ayse Balci and Fusun Akkok

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Central Asian countries have pursued nation-building; that is, the work of establishing political economic and social institutions, developing new national identities, and elaborating alternatives to communism as the ideological underpinnings of their new societies and policies.

Intersections of Ways Towards Tolerance and Coexistence: From Daoism and Sufism to Kant and Gulen

Richard K. Khuri*

Abstract

Fethullah Gülen's crucial insistence on the need to distinguish between the Hidden and revealed aspects of Oneness has favourable repercussions for the deepening of coexistence at many levels, especially between religion and secularism, and between the various world religions. The paper therefore makes a fourfold movement back and forth between emphasis on Oneness as Mystery and Oneness as revealed, for which Gülen uses the words Ehadiyet and Vahidiyet. It begins with the Daoist approach to Mystery, moves into the Sufi elaboration of this in conjunction with the Islamic emphasis on revelation, continues with the Kantian retreat back into Mystery in view of the modern aversion to religious authority and explicit religious discourse, and ends with Gülen's synthesizing thought in the light of lessons learned both from the distant past and from the increasingly apparent shortcomings of modernity. Both Kant and Gülen, each in his own way, demonstrate a renewed ability to express Transcendence, the first with almost complete emphasis on the Hidden (or noumenal), the second with a careful balance between the Hidden and the revealed. With both thinkers, we end up with an idiom that stresses the total openness of the Infinite/Eternal while sustaining the sense that one is guided through a life potentially full of meaning. With regard to coexistence, what results is that different religious paths, traditional and non-traditional, can each retain their character while sharing a deep recognition of their common pursuit.

Glocalization of the Gülen Education Model: An Analysis of the Gülen-Inspired Schools in Indonesia

Dr. Ali Ünsal

This paper examines the “glocalization” process of the implementation of the Turkish-based Gülen Educational Model within Indonesian society. We seek to answer the question of how the Gülen Educational Model is implemented and becomes transformed as it establishes itself within the Indonesian legal, cultural, and social environment. Methodology included in-depth interviews with school principals, school visits, meetings with teachers, and examination of relevant documents. In contrast to other research, instead of examining Gülen’s writings for his educational philosophy, we develop a Gülen Educational Model based on the insights and ideas of the principals. That is, we use their interpretation, understanding, and implementation of the Gülen Educational Model as our guide. We see in practice how the model manifests itself in the specific forms of the schools. Moreover, we assess the effectiveness of the schools and their broader impact on the educational system in Indonesia. We find highly successful Indonesian schools whose impact extends beyond their graduates to becoming a model for the reformation and revitalization of schools throughout Indonesia.

The Spread and Institutional Development of the Gulen Movement: Community Integrated Businesses

Sabine Dreher

The Gulen movement (aka Hizmet movement) slowly developed from the 1970s onward in Izmir where Fethullah Gulen was working as an Imam. He organized summer camps to study the Qur'an and dormitories for students, and became well known throughout Turkey due to his sermons that were widely distributed through cassettes and a magazine, Sizinti.

The Hizmet Movement and its contribution to the global peace and tolerance

İsmail Albayrak

This article will summarize some important features of globalization briefly, and then will provide the general description of the Hizmet Movement, its main characteristics in the formation of an ideal person who is capable of internalizing the qualities of self-discipline, dialogue and the notion of khidmah (service for humanity/hizmet). The question of how the formal and informal educational activities of the Movement contribute to the solution of local and global problems is the second concern of this article. Finally, as an extension of the Movement’s global educational activities, the article will deal with Gülen’s approach to cultural and religious diversity and their relationship in modern communities.

The Most Recent Reviver in the ‘Ulama Tradition: The Intellectual ‘Alim, Fethullah Gulen

Ali Bulaç*

In the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Islamic world underwent a deep crisis and two approaches emerged to offer potential solutions. One of these places emphasis on the state and politics and is committed to building a new society and political entity. The other is based upon social reform and intellectual transformation. The key words for the first perspective are politics and the state, whereas education and spiritual improvement are the key terms for the latter.

Gulen Movement, Civil Islam and Turkey’s Future

Uğur Kömeçoğlu

Over the last two decades, the Hizmet Movement has had a major influence on the ongoing transformation of Turkish political and religious life. The spread of Civil Islam has helped not only to usher in the post-Kemalist era, but it has also stimulated changes inside Turkish Islamism. Like the Muslim Brotherhood in Arab societies, the Turkish Islamist movement in the 1970s was hostile toward modernity, and it conflated religious belief with the need to struggle against the secular order and Western influences. The spread of Islamist ideology, therefore, has only sharpened the distinction between religious faith and loyalty to the modern Turkish state and its founding secularist ideology.