Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe

ANALYSIS September 15, 2010

Print Email Share AAAText Size

Gülen Movement

The Gülen movement refers to a cluster of religious, educational and social organizations founded and inspired by Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish Islamic scholar, author and speaker now in his late 60s. The movement strives to give faithful Muslims the secular education they need to thrive in the modern world. At the same time, it also emphasizes the importance of traditional religious teachings. To this end, the movement has inspired the creation of a worldwide network of schools and other centers of learning that focus on secular subjects in the classroom but also offer extracurricular programs that emphasize religious themes.

By some estimates, there are now more than 1,000 Gülen-inspired schools and centers in more than 100 countries around the world.¹¹  In Germany, the European country with the strongest Gülen presence, there are at least a dozen of these schools and more than 150 smaller educational and cultural centers. While open to students of all backgrounds, Gülen-inspired schools in Europe typically cater to Turkish immigrants and their offspring.  Many of the schools charge tuition, but it is generally low because the schools are subsidized by wealthy supporters of Fethullah Gülen.

Snapshot: Gülen Movement

Origin
Began in Turkey in the late 1960s under the leadership of Islamic thinker Fethullah Gülen, who now lives in the U.S.

Stated Purpose/Goals 
Strives to show Muslims that they can live modern lives while remaining faithful to Islamic traditions; also encourages intercultural and interfaith dialogue.

Method/Activities
The movement spreads its vision mainly through Gülen-inspired schools that offer a modern, secular curriculum in a religious milieu. It also organizes conferences and other outreach activities, often with intercultural groups affiliated with the movement as well as with non-Muslim groups.

Representative Organizations/Key Figures 

• Fethullah Gülen is the founder of the movement.
• The Dialogue Society is a Gülen-affiliated outreach and research center in London.
• Forum Für Interkulturellen Dialog is a Gülen-affiliated outreach and research center in Berlin.

The Gülen movement lacks a centralized organizational structure, describing itself as a global cemaat, or “community,” whose primary mission is to reinforce the idea that Muslims can be both modern and faithful to Islamic traditions. It is perhaps best understood as an extensive and well-coordinated network of supporters, many of whom make sizeable donations to Gülen-linked foundations.¹²  The group’s priorities are set by Gülen, who entrusts a relatively small group of deputies to carry out his broad plans.

At the local level, the movement’s activities are coordinated by a network of “elder brothers,” who preside over the various centers affiliated with the movement.  Additionally, the movement sponsors a number of Turkish business associations in Western Europe, which play an important role in networking and facilitating communications among Gülen’s followers.

Gülen himself has been living in the United States for the past decade. He came to the U.S. for medical treatment in 1999 at a time when Turkish religious groups were under mounting pressure from the country’s secular military establishment. He decided to stay in the U.S. and eventually was granted permanent residency status. He now lives in a secluded compound in the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania.

Origins of the Gülen Movement

The movement emerged in Turkey in the late 1960s when Fethullah Gülen began organizing reading groups in the homes of his closest followers in the western port city of Izmir. After establishing a presence throughout Turkey during the 1970s and ’80s, Gülen and his followers expanded their educational operations internationally, first to the Muslim-majority regions of what was then the Soviet Union and then, in the mid-1990s, to Western Europe.

The most direct intellectual inspiration for Gülen’s work came from the early 20th-century Turkish religious reformer Said Nursi, who combined aspects of traditional Islamic scholarship with modern scientific knowledge in the pursuit of social and political reform in and outside of Turkey.

Like Nursi, Gülen argues that a better understanding of the secular world deepens religious faith. Moreover, he believes that promoting Islam using traditional religious institutions, such as mosques andmadrasas (religious schools), is unlikely to work in a modern world in which success and social mobility are tied to the mastery of scientific and technical skills. Instead, he calls for an educational program that combines the rigorous study of modern, secular subjects with an extracurricular focus on spirituality and conservative religious values.

The Gülen Movement: a modern expression of Turkish Islam - Interview with Hakan Yavuz

Religioscope
21 Jul 2004

On first looking at the volume edited by M. Hakan Yavuz and John L. Esposito entitled "Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement" (Syracuse University Press, 2003), many people are likely to wonder who the man is pictured on the cover of the book. They will discover that he is Fetullah Gülen (b. 1938), an important figure in contemporary Turkish Islam. The book is a well-informed introduction by Western and Turkish experts to the Gülen movement – a movement that, as we shall see, sometimes looks more like a network.


This movement is one of the eight major groups derived from the work of the reformer Said Nursi (1873–1960), author of several volumes of Qur'anic exegesis known as Risale-I Nur. Nursi made an attempt to respond to the debates of his time (emergence of the new republic and Kemalist secularization efforts): he became the source of a powerful movement active in Turkey. Hakan Yasvuz explains:

"The Nur movement (also known as Nurculuk) differs from other Islamic movements in terms of its understanding of Islam and is strategy of transforming society by raising individual consciousness. As a resistance movement to the the ongoing statist modernization process in Turkey, it is forward looking and proactive."

Regarding the Gülen community, its impact is not limited to Turkey: putting into practice Nursi's educational ideals, the community has created more than 300 modern, high-quality schools (including high schools), not only in Turkey, but also in several other parts of the world (primarily in Central Asia and the Balkans, but also in more exotic places, such as Mongolia or Bangladesh as well as in some Western cities). The curriculums of these schools do not have any explicitly Islamic content. Gülen aspires to create an educated elite and does not see any conflict between reason and revelation. His schools also contribute to the development of Turkish influence abroad.