Evolution of the Fethullah Gülen Movement (Hizmet) скачать в хорошем качестве

Evolution of the Fethullah Gülen Movement (Hizmet)

A Brief History and Overview of the Gulen Movement Dr. Alp Aslandogan I would like to begin by thanking the Center for Strategic and International Studies for hosting this presentation and in particular Dr. Aliriza for his invitation and organizing this gathering. I also have a couple of disclaimers: First, I will not be speaking on behalf of any institution. The views presented here belong solely to me personally and do not represent in any way the official position of any institution or the movement in general. Secondly, I do not come here as an expert on but as a keen student of Turkish history, politics and society, and also as a person whose cultural understanding has been influenced by the service ethics of the Gulen movement. Let me start with an attempt at description of the movement. Description and Historical Background of the Gulen Movement The so-called Gulen Movement is a civil society movement. It started out as a local service group of students, teachers, parents, and small business owners around the Turkish scholar and preacher Fethullah Gulen in the city of Izmir, Turkey. For ease of reference, it is now mostly referred to as the Gulen Movement, especially by western scholars because of its main source of inspiration. By its participants, however, it is often called Hizmet, or Volunteer Services (movement). As far as Gulen is concerned, he prefers to refer to it as "The movement of humans united around high human values." The Movement originated in late 1960s Turkey as a faith-based (or Islam-inspired) initiative around creating educational opportunities in the form of scholarships, dormitories, schools and tutoring centers. Over the four decades since then, it has grown into a transnational educational, intercultural and interfaith movement, with participants numbering in the millions, comprising of hundreds of foundations, companies, professional associations, formal and informal, but legal, associations of various kinds. The first group of people who associated with Gulen were college students, local mosque-goers, audiences who attend open-to-all question and answer sessions, seminars, and café meetings. The students at the Kestane Pazari dormitory/tutoring center in Izmir where Gulen served as the director were also very important at the early stages of the development of the movement. In this stage, in addition to public speeches, Gulen attended conversation circles around tea. There people discussed the values and ideals such as promoting and investing in sound education. The next stage is when institutions were established by educators and business owners inspired by Gulen's constant encouragement for investing in education. Example institutions include dormitories, K-12 schools, and tutoring centers. In the following stage, media organizations were encouraged and established. At this stage we see the media as a continuation of the educational initiative for the masses. In the next stage professional associations and intellectual/cultural organizations were formed in different locations by like-minded individuals. After the collapse of the iron curtain in the late 1980s, with the educational institutions established and run there, the movement became transnational, expanding particularly into the Central Asian states with Turkic cultural background. In parallel to the institutionalization and transnationalization, the movement heavily engaged in interfaith dialog, in anticipation and prevention of the so-called clash theories that would be promoted by others after a while. Today, as there is no central headquarter of registry, yet based on the media coverage, it is estimated that hundreds of schools exist in Turkey in addition to a similar number of such institutions in five continents. They all are inspired by Gulen's peaceful life and works. In every city and town of Turkey, it is possible to encounter some educational facility or other cultural activity that can be associated with or inspired by the movement. The Movement grew from a handful of individuals around Gulen in the late 1960s to millions in the 2000s, most of whom are impossible for Gulen to meet or know. How did this happen? What was so attractive to the Turkish people who came in contact with the movement? ... http://www.gulenmovement.us/a-brief-h...