June 3, 2011

A Universal Islamic Phenomenon in Turkish Religious Practice: the Gülen Case

Maimul Ahsan Khan*

Fethullah Gulen
Fethullah Gulen
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 him a household name in modern Turkey and increasingly around the world for several decades now. In 2008 he was recognized as the most influential intellectual in the world in a prestigious survey by Foreign Policy journal.

Gülen and those inspired by him have presented a new kind of Islamic intellectualism and altruism coupled with a deeper sense of activism and spirituality that has been missing from many contemporary Muslim movements of the twentieth century. The failure of many politically oriented Muslim movements around the world finds no reflection in the preaching and writing style of Gülen. The revival of other religious groups or non-Islamic religious traditions has not discouraged Gülen in any way from shaping his own ideals of spreading value-based education and people-oriented spirituality and cultural activities.