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Fethullah Gülen a former Islamic preacher, and the foremost leader of the Gülen's movement in Turkey. His supporters hail him as an important Islamic scholar with liberal ideas, while detractors accuse him of illegal activities aimed at undermining the secular republic and replacing it with an Islamic state. His followers are sometimes referred to as Fethullahci (Supporters of Fethullah), while they choose to refer themselves as "Hizmet Insani" (Those devoted to service to others). His influence extends over much of Central Asia and Caucasus.

Biography

Born in Erzurum, in eastern Turkey, in 1941. He did not have a formal education, completed primary education at home, and instead focused on an Islamic education. He joined the Nur movement before he was 18 . In 1959 was awarded a state preacher’s license (in Edirne). In 1966 he was moved to a post in Izmir. It was here that Gülen's recurring themes began to crystallize and his audience base began to expand. He also traveled around the provinces in Anatolia and gave sermons mosques, town meetings and coffee houses among other places. From Izmir on, he placed a special emphasis on promulgating his ideas to high school and college students and recruiting them for the movement he was heading.

The range of his speeches was more versatile than that of other Islamic preachers; he talked about education, science, Darwinism, the economy and social justice. More broadly, he envisoned a society of devout Muslims who nevertheless would adopt methods and technical knowledge that led to West's superiority over the Muslim world. As such, he succedded in recruiting large sections of the society who felt alienated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's reforms at the founding of the Turkish Republic. His popularity was aided by the emotional intensity of his sermons; at the climax he would display great emotion, often burst into tears. His sermons were taped and distributed by a network of followers at a time when Islamic activities were viewed with suspicion and proved instrumental in raising money for the movement.

In 1971 he was convicted to 3 years for his pro-Islamic activities. By the end of the 1970s, he broke ranks with the mainstream Nurcu movement, which was governed by a council of elders, and instituted his own where he was the sole leader. He leveraged the support of Necmettin Erbakan, the leader of the first party with an overtly islamic agenda in Turkey, in doing so. Gülen retired from formal preaching duties in 1981. Later, between 1988 and 1991, he gave a series of sermons in popular mosques of major cities. His long career had made him a well know figure in Islamic circles, and in particular, within the Nurcu movement, however, it was the Islamic political activism and his courtship with the center-right political parties in the 90s that made him a public figure.

In 1998, a scandal developed in which Gülen was believed to have been urging his followers in the judiciary and public service to "work patiently to take control of the state." At this time, Gülen moved to the USA, allegedly due to health problems and/or to avoid standing trial in person, and he is still living in Pennsylvania. In 2000, Gülen was prosecuted for inciting his followers to plot the overthrow of Turkey's secular government. He was acquitted in 2006.

Philosophy and activities

Gülen's published works in the 1990s championed dialogue among communities and faiths, tolerance, and acceptance of others.

According to Gülen, his theological views solidly within the Turkish Sunni mainstream while being more responsive to modern world than other islamic movements. It should be noted, however, he has also adopted the views and mystical tradation of founder of the Nur (light) movement, Said Nursi, as evident in his highly emotional sermons.

Gülen claims the modern world is plagued by individual's lack of faith, and in particular, the failure adopt sceintific methods while preserving moral values and belief in God. Gülen argues that faith can be scientifically proven, and science benefits from or requires a moral foundation from religion. He argues that theological debate about detail has no place in a time where the survival of faith itself is endangered.

He has guided his supporters to open about 500 educational institutions in more than 90 countries in Eurasia, Africa and North America. Gülen is also known with his interfaith dialogue activities. He personally met with religious leaders, including Pope John Paul II, the Panahriot Greek Patriarch Bartholomeos, and Israeli Sephardic Head Rabbi Eliyahu B. Doron.

Gülen's movement

Gülen's movement consists of hundreds of legally autonomous units, personally and ideologically connected by the leadership of Gülen. Most parts of the movement are run by volunteers, who were in turn educated or received support from previous members of the group. The movement explains the emphasis on education by the belief that only through education a better future for humanity can be achieved. The movement runs several hundred schools, mostly in Turkey and Central Asia. In these schools children from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are educated by mainly Turkish educators who are graduates from Turkish universities. The movement has a TV and radio station, several newspapers and magazines and publishers. These are financed through huge donations collected publicly at dinners and events where rich members of the movement financially support Gülen's cause.

Works

Gülen has authored over 30 books and many articles on a variety of topics: social, political and religious issues, art, science and sports, and recorded thousands of audio and video cassettes. He contributes to a number of journals and magazines owned by his followers. He writes the lead article for the Fountain, Yeni Ümit, Sızıntı, and Yağmur, Islamic and philosophical magazines in Turkey. Some of his books are available in English, German, Russian, Albanian, Japanese, Indonesian, and Spanish.

Bibliography in English

Pearls of Wisdom, Emerald Hills of the Heart, Prophet Muhammed as Commander, Questions and Answers, Essentials of the Islamic Faith, The Infinite Light vol 1-2, Towards the Lost Paradise, Truth Through Colors, Muhammad: The Messenger of God, Questions and Answers about Faith, Towards the Lost Paradise, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism

Controversies

Gülen became a highly controversial figure in 1997, when a number of videocassetes with his sermons were broadcast on TV. While he was always viewed with suspicion among certain secular groups, it was the accesible nature of the tapes that made the controversy reach the general public. In them, he appeared to be urging his supporters in the state bureaucracy to lie low and continue to undermine the government from within:

Posts in the home and justice ministries that we managed to capture, have to be expanded. These entities are a safeguard of our furure. Our members should not be content with being county judges or mayors, but aim for the highest offices. You must proceed without being detected and find the system's decisive positions. To a certain degree you must not enter into open dialogue with our political opponents, but you must not fight them openly either. If our friends came out prematurely. the world would crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer the same fate as in Algeria. The world is very freightend of Islamic development. We must tread carefully. Those among us who are involved in this mission must still behave like diplomats, like they ware caretakers of the whole world - until you have collected enough power, and fill all those positions in the framework of the constitutional Turkish apparatus with our own. Any other step would be premature.

Gülen allegedly made deragatory remarks about the founder of the secular Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal, such as "concrete Mustafa", an allusion to his statues in provincial towns. Shortly before the tapes surfaced, Gülen left Turkey and settled in the US, allegedly for health reasons. Within weeks, he was charged with conspiring against the republic, but he did not attend the trials. In 2003, the trial was postponed, subject to reprocessing if he is indicted with a similar crime in the following 5 years. Turkish courts in 2006 acquitted Gülen on these charges.. Gülen has since been living in the US, but his popularity among his supporters has not waned.

The authenticity of the tapes are debated. Some of Gülen's supporters claim that the tapes were fabricated. Gülen himself explained that the footage in question was completely taken out of context (he was giving advice to a group of official employees who felt marginalized by other groups within the state system that wanted them gone), and that he can't be judged for intents, only deeds. Accordingly, he advised them that they should not relinquish their careers out of religious fervour but that they should remain in order to do good for the people, even if this meant not practicing their religion in the open. However, critics of Gülen argue, Gülen's own writings, some of which is quoted below, are in accordance with the ideas mentioned in the tapes; he pushes to make Islam the guiding principle in society while at the same time advising his followers caution and an embracing attitude until the conditions are ripe.

Gülen's appeal to various ideological strands in Turkey differs. His supporters probably constitute the most influential Islamic movement in Turkey both for its human and financial capital. Various other shades of the Islamic movement and conservative segments of society are generally sympathetic to him. His detractors are mostly in the nationalistic wing of the secularists, critical of his alleged affinity for a theocratic society and his ties to the US. For the elites, the ranks are broken by certain liberals, who point out that Gülen's group, at least in its public representation, has proven to be most willing to evolve and most open to international influence.

Specifically worthy of mention is the ongoing tension between the Turkish army and Gülen's supporters. Due to its spearheading westernization and secularization since the late Ottoman era, and later founding the secular republic under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the army has always viewed Islamic movements with suspicion and since the 1980s has identified Gülen's group as a threat to the republic.In 1986, a military court revealed Gülen's supporters had infiltrated the military academy and the group was purged. From then on, the Turkish army has repeatedly alleged that Gülen tries to infitrate its ranks and pressured politicans to take action against Gülen. In response, Gülen has praised the army publicly various times and attempted to allay its fears about the group's intentions, but the tension remained . Recently, in the controversy surrounding the promotion of Yasar Buyukanit to army's chief of staff, a hawk on preservation of the secular nature of the state, Gülen's group was listed as a possible participant in the campaign against him.

See also

• Islam in Turkey

Notes

1. Gülen's answers to various claims made against him
3. wwrn.org
4. Yeni Aktüel Weekly Magazine, 11-17 October 2005, No:13.
5. M. Hakan Yavuz and John L. Esposito, eds. Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement (Syracuse University Press, 2003)
6. news.bbc.co.uk
7. www.ceyhun.de
8. www.guardian.co.uk
9. Gülen acquitted of trying to overthrow secular government
10. Gülen's answers to claims made based on the video tapes taken from some of his recorded speeches

External links

Gülen's movement

• Fethullah Gülen's official website
• The Journalists and Writers Foundation

Other sources

• Fethullah Gülen Conference
• Islam in Contemporary World: The Contribution of Fethullah Gülen
• Fethullah Gülen and his Liberal "Turkish Islam" movement
• Turkish Islam's Moderate Face
• The Gülen Movement: a modern expression of Turkish Islam
• BBC News: Army chief demands Islamist purge

• Islamic politics and Islamic world studies
• Living people
• Turkish people