Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement

By the mid 1990s, Hodja Effendi’s reached a large enough number to be labeled a social movement, often referred to as “The Gulen Movement” or “The Fethullah Gulen Community” in the media. The movement funds all of its activities by donations from members of the community from the general public and does not accept any help support from governments in any form. This approach has helped the Movement stay away from corruption and politics.

Click here to read Fethullah Gulen's Biography

Muhammed Çetin's thoroughly referenced study provides an excellent introduction to the movement by someone who knows it inside and out. The Introduction presents an overview of developments in social movements theory, which helps to locate this study precisely in its disciplinary context. The second chapter provides a valuable overview of key figures and events in recent Turkish socio-political history and explains the rise of the Gulen movement against that background. In chapters 3 and 4, Çetin applies the various theoretical paradigms he discussed in the first chapter to the Gulen movement, situating it in the necessary social, political, cultural, and theoretical context. He also analyzes and explains the motives, methods and rationale of the opposition to the movement. This approach will be helpful for Western readers who may be coming from a tradition of activist, or "protest" movements, from which Gulen's spiritual movement is quite different. Çetin subtly and persuasively draws out the important comparisons and contrasts, without which we cannot understand the extraordinary success of the Gulen movement. The fifth chapter presents the results of questionnaires and interviews with members of the movement.

Professor Akbar S. Ahmed

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