The Muslim World and Politics in Transition: Creative Contributions of the Gulen Movement

As a leading movement in contemporary Turkey with a universal educational and inter-faith agenda, the Gülen movement aims to promote creative and positive relations between the West and the Muslim world and to articulate a critically constructive position on such issues as democracy, multi-culturalism, globalisation, and interfaith dialogue in the context of secular modernity.
Many countries in the predominantly Muslim world are in a time of transition and of opening to democratic development of which the so-called “Arab Spring” has seen only the most recent and dramatic developments. Particularly against that background, there has been a developing interest in “the Turkish model” of transition from authoritarianism to democracy.

The Muslim World and Politics in Transition includes chapters written by international scholars with expertise in relation to the contexts that it addresses. It discusses how the Gülen movement has positioned itself and has sought to contribute within societies - including the movement's home country of Turkey - in which Muslims are in the majority and Islam forms a major part of the cultural, religious and historical inheritance.

The movement and initiatives inspired by the Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen began in Turkey, but can now be found throughout the world, including in both Europe and in the 'Muslim world'. Bloomsbury has a companion volume edited by Paul Weller and Ihsan Yilmaz on European Muslims, Civility and Public Life: Perspectives on and From the Gulen Movement.

As a leading religious movement in contemporary Turkey with a universal educational and inter-faith agenda, the Gulen movement aims to promote creative and positive relations between the West and the Muslim world and to articulate a constructive position on such issues as democracy, multi-culturalism, globalisation, and inter-faith dialogue in the context of secular modernity.

Many countries in the predominantly Muslim world are in a time of transition and of opening to democratic development of which the so-called "Arab Spring" has seen only the most recent and dramatic developments. Particularly against that background, there has been a rising amount of interest in "the Turkish model" of transition from authoritarianism to democracy. The Muslim World and Politics in Transition discusses how the Gulen movement has positioned itself and sought to contribute within societies - including its home country of Turkey - in which Islam forms a major part of the cultural, religious and historical inheritance and Muslims constitute the majority of their populations.

Greg Barton is the Herb Feith Research Professor for the Study of Indonesia, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Australia.

Paul Weller is Professor of Inter-Religious Relations at the University of Derby and Visiting Fellow in the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford, UK.

Ihsan Yilmaz is Associate Professor of Political Science at Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Author and editor biographies \ Acknowledgments \ Fethullah Gülen, the movement and this book: an introductory overview \ Part I: The Gülen movement in the public sphere \ 1. Preaching by example and learning for life: understanding the Gülen hizmet in the context of religious philanthropy and civil religion Greg Barton \ 2. From Ghandi to Gülen: the habitus of non-aggressive action Mustafa E. Gurbuz and Bandana Purkayastha \ 3. Organizing civil society: the Gülen movement's Abant Platform Etga Ugur \ Part II: Muslim politics beyond post-Islamism \ 4. Beyond post-Islamism: the transformation of Turkish Islamism to non-Islamism Ihsan Yilmaz \ 5. Muslims and liberalization: the case of the Gülen movement Ramazan Kilinç \ 6. The influence of the Gülen movement in the emergence of a Turkish cultural 'Third Way' Marie Elisabeth Maigre-Branco \ 7. Fethullah Gülen, Turkey and the European Union Paul Weller \ Part III: The contexts of the Muslim world \ 8. The relevance of Fethullah Gülen's thought for democratic reforms in the Muslim world Leonid R. Sykiainen \ 9. Turkish in the language of the Qu'ran: Hira Paul L. Heck \ 10. Central Asia's hizmet schools Victoria Clement \ 11. The Gülen movement as a Civil-Islamic force in Indonesia Muhammad Nawab Osman \ 12. A Gülen-inspired school in South Africa Yasien Mohamed \ 13. The Gülen movement and promoting human rights values Ozcan Keles \ Towards a conclusion: Fethullah Gülen, the hizmet and the changing 'Muslim world' Greg Barton, Ihsan Yilmaz and Paul Weller \ Bibliography \ Indexes