Turkey: A Bridge
between Islam and the West - II
By Dr Muzaffar K. Awan
Michigan, USA
In recent decades,
Fetullah Gülen (born 1938) has emerged as one
of the manifestations of Said Nursi's legacy in
Turkey. Gülen very much represents this approach,
and he remains an agent of this newer societal transformation.
He has played a key role in transforming people’s
minds and has led them to a newer understanding
of bottom-up modernity. The Gülen movement
emerged very much out of the Nursi movement and
yet there are certain new characteristics that Gülen
has brought to the movement. I call this new movement
a Nursi-Gulen movement (8). In terms of nationalism,
Gülen is a bit more Turkish nationalist (in
a Pan-Turkish context) in his thinking. Also, he
is somewhat more state-oriented, and is concerned
with market economics and neo-liberal economic policies.
These are then the major characteristics of the
Gulen movement.
The Gülen movement has been moving from ideas
to practice. Practice was important and thus action
has been very significant. In its view, Islam was
not only about praying five times a day and reading
Islamic books, but included acting, doing and creating
institutions. In that sense, the Gülen movement
is worldlier as it wants to create heaven here and
now – education system, hospitals, institutions,
and so forth. So whereas Said Nursi stressed cognitive
understanding, Gülen is action-oriented. Gulen
has developed a tremendous network of such institutions
not only in Turkey but also in numerous other Muslim
and non-Muslim countries.
In Turkey, the pendulum has been swinging toward
a bottom-up conception of modernity and a new vision
of secularism over the decades has evolved.
This writing is an attempt to look at Turkey’s
islamization example of over half a century. The
most important link in this context has been the
Nursi-Gulen Islamic intellectual thought and movement.
Turkey has become increasingly interesting to scholars
of Islamic studies. It was the only Muslim nation
in NATO and has now started full membership negotiations
with the European Union, where it can certainly
bridge Islamic and Western civilizations. There
is no doubt that Islam constitutes one of the most
essential elements of Turkish culture---ninety-nine
percent of the Turkish population is Muslim. The
influence of Nursi-Gulen discourse on the Turkish
public sphere has been paramount.
However, the main subject of this writing is Fethullah
Gülen.He is an influential Islamic personality
in today’s Turkey and perhaps in the world.
His influence not only comes from his charismatic
personality and his intellectual wisdom but also
from the large number of educational and social
institutions that have been established by his numerous
admirers who take his advice and recommendations
very seriously. Recently, the Muslim World journal
(7), dedicated a special issue to Fethullah Gulen
and his civic movement that would contribute greatly
to the understanding of modernities in Turkish-Islamic
context. (To be continued)
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