For the Sake of Allah: The Origin, Development and Discourse of The Gulen Movement

by Anwar Alam

Overview

For the Sake of Allah explores the Gülen Movement, also known as Hizmet, a religio-social movement inspired by Fethullah Gülen, one of the most prominent Islamic scholars of Turkish origin in the modern world. Notwithstanding the current purge of Hizmet under the Erdoğan regime, it is one of the most interesting faith-based movements to arise from a Muslim society in the twentieth century. Since the late 1960s, Hizmet has opened thousands of schools around the world and has also contributed to relief efforts in Turkey and abroad. In this book, Anwar Alam shares a decade of research and field work based on the religious, educational, political, and social contexts that have shaped the essential dynamics of both Gülen and the Movement. At a time when the Gülen Movement has been primarily analyzed and debated through the “state prism” and “security discourse,” especially following the failed Turkish military coup of July 2016, this book takes a longue durée perspective and provides a holistic treatment of Hizmet as essentially a postmodern phenomenon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682060223
Publisher:	Blue Dome Press
Publication date:	03/05/2019
Pages:	385
Product dimensions:	6.17(w) x 9.15(h) x 1.21(d)

About the Author

Anwar Alam, PhD, is Senior Fellow with Policy Perspectives Foundation, New Delhi. Earlier he served as Professor of International Relations at Zirve University, Gaziantep, Turkey, and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi; Director of Centre for West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, and Associate Professor at School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is a recipient of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, Germany, and specializes in West Asian and South Asian Studies.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements i

Glossary xiii

Chapter 1 Introduction and Preliminary Observations 1

Chapter 2 Literature on the Movement: A Dialogue 17

Chapter 3 Locating Gülen and the Movement: Beyond Traditional and Modern 49

Chapter 4 Islamic Modernism/Reformism: Revisiting the Debates 59

Chapter 5 Gülen's Approach to Islam 78

Chapter 6 Gülen's Life Trajectory and Emergence of the Movement 104

Chapter 7 Gülen Movement: Context, Agencies and Micro Structures 138

Chapter 8 Gülen Movement in Action: The Educational Discourse 165

Chapter 9 Gülen Movement in Action: Dialogue and Interfaith Dialogue 194

Chapter 10 The "Political" in the Movement 223

Chapter 11 In Lieu of Conclusion: Future Challenges for the Movement 261

Postscript: The Predicament of the Gülen Movement in the Aftermath of the July 15th Coup Attempt 271

Notes 295

Bibliography 341

Index 357