- Interreligious Dialogue as a Spiritual Practice
- Defining Ethos in Global Values Education
- Fethullah Gülen and the Concept of Responsibility
- The Gülen Movement: Gender and Practice
- Fighting Poverty with Kimse Yok Mu
- Women in Islam: Muslim Perspectives and Fethullah Gülen
- Islamic Himmah and Christian Charity: An Attempt at Inter-Faith Dialogue
- Seeds of Peace: Solidarity, Aid, and Education Shared by the Gülen Movement in Southeastern Turkey
- Gülen-inspired Schools in the East Africa: Secular Alternative in Kenya and Pragmatist Approach to Development in Uganda
- Redefining "Us" and "Them": Gülen's Approach to Transformation of Perceptions between Muslims and Non-Muslims
- Unresolved Concerns of Women in the Modern Age: How Does the Gülen Movement Contribute to the Women Question?
- Gülen's Dialogic Sufism: A Constructional and Constructive Factor of Dialogue
- M. Fethullah Gülen: A Preacher of Piety and Integrity of Action: A Study in Analogy Between the Gülen Movement and the Clapham Circle
- An Alternative Approach to Preventing Ethnic Conflict: The Role of the Gülen’s Schools in Strengthening the Delicate Relations Between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds with Particular Reference to the "Kirkuk Crisis"
- Fethullah Gülen as a Transformational Leader: Exemplar for the "Golden Generation"
The Statue of Our Souls
In the recent past, the Islamic world as a whole has lived through its most depressed periods, whether considered from the point of view of faith, morality, modes of thought, education, industry, customs, traditions, or practices.
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The world is floating away as it spins into its real orbit… but are the rightful "inheritors of the Earth" ready to retake and restore the inheritance that has been snatched from their hands? The initial rights were granted as a gift and, as such, are different from the rights acquired by effort and...
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Since the day we were deprived of the inheritance of the Earth, the Islamic world has been in a heart-breaking plight, trapped between the weaknesses of the Muslims and the ruthless assaults of its enemies. Wrong, injustice, and oppression may be the signs of the aggressors, but the weaknesses of the...
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For centuries now the Islamic world has squirmed in the vicious grasp of error and has remained unable to turn for succor in any way to its own spirit and essence. Whenever it has broken free and succeeded in taking two steps forward, it has immediately taken several steps back and lost itself in the...
Read More...Analysis of the Gülen Movement
- Fethullah Gülen
- Basic Dynamics
- Cultural Foundations
- Dialogue and Tolerance
- Religious Order
- Own Values
Gülen was born in 1941 into a traditional family of five boys and two girls in the Pasinler district of Erzurum. His father, Ramiz Efendi, was a government-employed imam who performed his duties in various regions. Erzurum lies in the northeast of Turkey, and it is socio-culturally very conservative. It is a town that has, for long centuries, reflected the basic religious and national values in its social make-up.
Analyzing the internal dynamics of a movement is important for two reasons. First, it allows others to perceive the structure by which the movement is organized. Second, it prevents others from falling into the trap of overlooking the totality of the movement, as they focus on partial analyses. I use dynamics here to mean the key concepts of the movement. Intellectual and social attitudes of a movement are shaped by the movement's dynamics.
Because modern states are built upon urbanized societies, problems pertaining to humanity, society, and democratic values are complex and differentiated. All of our acts—be they political, economic, social, or cultural—work toward getting our share of the cake. Our minds cannot fathom acting without expecting recompense, of giving without taking. We are at the threshold of an age where "service to humanity" is facing extinction.
Tolerance and dialogue are among the most basic and broad dynamics of the Gülen movement. These two concepts, first developed on a small scale, have turned into a search for a culture of reconciliation on a world scale. Today, the idea of different groups peacefully living together is a philosophical issue that modern states are trying to formulate. The international relations of past empires were founded on conflict and war.
Even though the essential dynamics of the Gülen movement look similar to those of the classical Islamic tradition of spiritual orders in certain aspects, its organization is different with regard to producing civil initiatives and its way of acculturation. Max Weber's concept of "worldly asceticism" can help analyze the Gülen movement only to a certain degree. Instead, it is a movement that has been organized by civil dynamics.
The Gülen movement did not rise upon the values of a past movement or period of crisis. The movement has produced its own appearance, structure, social and moral values, and institutions. No school of thought has had a dominant influence on the structural and religious-spiritual dynamics of this movement.
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A Universal Islamic Phenomenon in Turkish Religious Practice: The Gülen Case Fethullah Gülen started his professional career as a traditional imam, trained and certificated by the governmental authorities in Ankara. His innovative ideas of educational and social reform have made...
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Why do the Military's Statements Fall Short of Being Convincing? The developments concerning the document titled the "plan to finish off the AK Party [Justice and Development Party] and [Fethullah] Gülen," disclosed by the Taraf newspaper, have entered a new phase...
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News
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President of Mali Praises Success of Turkish Schools Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure has praised the quality of education offered at Turkish schools in Mali, saying the schools allow Malian children to be successful.
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Melbourne Conference A new conference entitled "From Dialogue to Collaboration: The Vision of Fethullah Gulen and Muslim-Christian Relations" will be held on 15-16 July 2009 at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne....
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