| Full name | Muhammed Fethullah Gülen |
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| Born | 27 April 1941 Erzurum, Turkey |
| Era | Modern era |
| Region | Muslim scholar |
| School | Hanafi, Sufi |
| Main interests | Sufism, Mainstream Islamic thought, education, interfaith dialogue among the people of the book. |
| Notable ideas | service (hizmet); interfaith dialogue; civil society |
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Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (* 27 April 1941 in the village of Korucuk in the Pasinler district, Erzurum province) is a Turkish preacher, author, educator, and Sufi Muslim scholar living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, USA. Gülen is characterized in the media as one of the world's most important Muslim figures.[1]
Gülen teaches an Anatolian version of traditional mainstream Islam,[2] deriving from Said Nursi's teachings and modernizing them. Gülen supports interfaith dialogue among the people of the book, and has initiated such dialogue with the Vatican and some Jewish organizations.[3]
Gülen is actively involved in the societal debate concerning the future of the Turkish state, and Islam in the modern world. In the Turkish context Gülen appears relatively conservative and religiously observant. For example, he supports the view that women should wear headscarfs,[4] and his female followers usually wear them.[5]
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Gülen was born in the village of Korucuk, near Erzurum. His father, Ramiz Gülen, was an imam. Gülen started primary education at his home village, but did not continue after his family moved, and instead focused on informal Islamic education.[6] He gave his first sermon when he was 14.[7] He was influenced by the ideas of Said Nursi and Maulana Jalaluddeen Rumi.[8]
Comparing Gülen to leaders in the Nur movement, Hakan Yavuz said, "Gülen is more Turkish nationalist in his thinking. Also, he is somewhat more state-oriented, and is more concerned with market economics and neo-liberal economic policies."[9]
His pro-business stance has led some outsiders to dub his theology an Islamic version of Calvinism.[10] Oxford Analytica says:
Gülen retired from formal preaching duties in 1981. From 1988 to 1991 he gave a series of sermons in popular mosques of major cities. These activities elevated him to a public figure. In 1994, he participated in the founding of "Journalists and Writers Foundation"[12] and was given the title "Honorary President" by the foundation.[13] He did not make any comment regarding the closures of the Welfare Party in 1998[4] or the Virtue Party in 2001.[14] He has met some politicians like Tansu Çiller and Bülent Ecevit, but he avoids meeting with the leaders of Islamic political parties.[14]
In 1998 Gülen emigrated to the United States, ostensibly for health problems (he suffers from diabetes and heart disease) but arguably in anticipation of being tried over remarks (aired after his emigration to US) which seemed to favor an Islamic state.[15] In June 1999, after Gulen had left Turkey video tapes were sent to some Turkey TV stations with recordings of Gulen saying, "the existing system is still in power. Our friends who have positions in legislative and administrative bodies should learn its details and be vigilant all the time so that they can transform it and be more fruitful on behalf of Islam in order to carry out a nationwide restoration. However, they should wait until the conditions become more favorable. In other words, they should not come out too early."[16] Gülen complained that the remarks were taken out of context,[17] and questions were raised about the authenticity of the tape, which he accused of having been "manipulated". Gülen was tried in absentia in 2000, and acquitted in 2006.[18] The Supreme Court of Appeals later rejected an appeal by the Chief Prosecutor's Office.[19]
Gülen does not advocate a new theology but refers to classical authorities of theology and takes up their line of argument. His understanding of Islam tends to be conservative and mainstream.[20][21] Though he has never been a member of a Sufi tarekat and does not see tarekat membership as a necessity for Muslims, he teaches that Sufism is the inner dimension of Islam and the inner and outer dimensions must never be separated.[22]
His teachings differ in emphasis from those of other mainstream, moderate Islamic scholars in two respects, both based on his interpretations of particular verses of the Quran: (1) he teaches that the Muslim community has a duty of service (Turkish: hizmet)[23] to the “common good” of the community and the nation[24] and to Muslims and non-Muslims all over the world;[25] and (2), the Muslim community is obliged to conduct interfaith dialogue with the "People of the Book" (Jews and Christians).[26] Although this does not extend to other religions and atheists. In fact he appears to be intolerant of atheism, as in 2004 Gülen commented to the effect that terrorism was as despicable as atheism.[27] In a follow-up interview he explained he did not intend to equate atheists and murderers; rather, he wanted to highlight the fact that according to Islam both were destined to suffer eternal punishment.[28]
The Gülen movement is a transnational civic society movement inspired by Gülen's teachings. His teachings about hizmet (altruistic service to the "common good") have attracted a large number of supporters in Turkey, Central Asia and increasingly in other parts of the world.[29]
Gulen movement participants have founded a number of institutions across the world which promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue activities. While Gülen's earlier works are (in Bekim Agai's words) "full of anti-missionary and anti-Western passages",[30] during the 1990s he began to advocate interreligious tolerance and dialogue.[3] He personally met with leaders of other religions, including Pope John Paul II, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos, and Israeli Sephardic Head Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.[31] In the late 2000s, the movement also initiated dialogue with those of no faith. For example, the Dialogue Society in London, which is inspired by Gülen’s teaching, has more atheist and agnostic members of its Advisory Board than it has Muslims.[32]
Similar to Said Nursi, Gülen favors cooperation between followers of different religions (this would also include different forms of Islam, such as Sunnism vs. Alevism in Turkey) as well as religious and secular elements within society. He has been described as "very critical of the regimes in Iran and Saudi Arabia" due to their undemocratic, sharia-based systems of government.[4]
Gülen has authored over 60 books[33] 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. Several of his books have been translated into English (see: Books by Gülen Books on Gülen and the Gülen Movement).
Gülen’s Islamic teaching and practice was developed in the forge of Turkey’s 20th century project to create a secular state, as initiated by the Turkish nationalist revolution of Atatürk. That project became an ideologically “secularist” one, locked in symbiotic conflict with an “Islamist” reaction. Arising from that context, Gülen has criticized a politics rooted in a philosophically reductionist materialism. But he has also argued that Islam and democracy are compatible and he encourages greater democracy within Turkey. He also argues that a secular approach that is not anti-religious and allows for freedom of religion and belief is compatible with Islam.[32]
Gulen favors Turkey's bid to join the European Union and argues that neither Turkey nor the EU have anything to fear, but have much to gain, from a future of full Turkish membership in the EU.[32]
Gülen says the coming of Islam saved women, who "were absolutely not confined to their home and...never oppressed" in the early years of the religion. He feels that western-style feminism, however, is "doomed to imbalance like all other reactionary movements...being full of hatred towards men."[34]
Gülen condemns any kind of terrorism.[35] He warns against the phenomenon of arbitrary violence and aggression against civilians, that is terrorism, which has no place in Islam and which militates against its very foundational tenets of reverence for human life and for all of God's creation. Fethullah Gulen was the first Muslim Leader to openly condemn the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He wrote a condemnation article in the Washington Post on September 12th, 2001, just the day after the attack, and stated that `A muslim can not be a terrorist, nor can a terrorist be a true muslim`[2],"[36] Gülen lamented the deplorable hijacking of Islam by terrorists who claimed to be Muslims and acting out of religious conviction. He counseled that "One should seek Islam through its own sources and in its own representatives throughout history; not through the actions of a tiny minority that misrepresent it.[3]
Gülen criticized the Turkish-led Gaza flotilla for trying to deliver aid without Israel's consent. He spoke of watching the news coverage of the deadly confrontation between Israeli commandos and Turkish aid group members as its flotilla approached Israel's sea blockade of Gaza. "What I saw was not pretty," he said. "It was ugly." He continued his criticism. The "organizers' failure to seek accord with Israel before attempting to deliver aid "is a sign of defying authority, and will not lead to fruitful matters."[37]