The Gülen Movement in Ireland: Civil Society Engagements of a Turkish Religio‐cultural Movement

Abstract

In recent years there has been a growing interest among sociologists regarding the transnational engagements of migrant communities and organizations. This paper contributes to this body of knowledge by focusing on a Turkish religio‐cultural society in Ireland, namely the Turkish Irish Educational and Cultural Society (TIECS). This society is affiliated with the Turkey‐based transnational Gülen movement. Drawing on ethnography and qualitative interviews conducted with members of TIECS, the study examines their contribution to the discourse on Islam and integration in Ireland and shows how they exploit global opportunity spaces in order to expand the Gülen movement’s presence in Europe.

Notes

1. Steven Vertovec, “Conceiving and Researching Transnationalism,” Ethnic & Racial Studies, Vol. 22, No. 2 (1999), pp.447–62; Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller, The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

2. See Alejandro Portes, Luis E. Guarnizo and Patricia Landolt, “The Study of Transnationalism: Pitfalls and Promise of an Emergent Research Field,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 22, No. 2 (1999), pp. 217–37.

3. Talip Küçükcan, “The Making of Turkish‐Muslim Diaspora in Britain: Religious Collective Identity in a Multicultural Public Sphere,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2004), pp. 243–58; Susanne H. Rudolph, “Introduction: Religion, States, and Transnational Civil Society,” in Susanne H. Rudolph and James Piscatori (eds.), Transnational Religion and Fading States (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997).

4. Fethullah Gülen was voted among the world’s “Top 100 Public Intellectuals” by the Washington‐based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Foreign Policy Magazine (May/June 2008) (see www.foreignpolicy.com). From this list, over half a million people voted in a poll to select the top public intellectual. To much surprise Fethullah Gülen topped the poll. The Gülen‐inspired newspaper, Zaman, ran a feature article alerting the public to Gulen’s name on the list. This intervention is seen as the key to Gülen’s success in the poll. See Tom Nuttal, “How Gülen Triumphed,” Prospect Magazine, No. 148 (July 2008).

5. See M. Hakan Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); M. Hakan Yavuz “Islam in the Public Sphere: The Case of the Nur Movement,” in M. Hakan Yavuz and John L. Esposito (eds.), Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement (New York: Syracuse University, 2003), pp. 1–18; M. Hakan Yavuz, “The Gülen Movement: The Turkish Puritans,” in Yavuz and Esposito (eds.), Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement, pp. 19–47; Mucahit Bilici, “The Fethullah Gülen Movement and its Politics of Representation in Turkey,” The Muslim World, Vol. 96 (2006), pp. 1–20.

6. See Berna Turam, “National Loyalties and International Undertakings: The Case of the Gülen Community in Kazakhstan,” in Yavuz and Esposito (eds.), Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement, pp. 184–207; Bayram Balci, “Fethullah Gülen’s Missionary Schools in Central Asia and their Role in the Spreading of Turkism and Islam,” Religion, State & Society, Vo. 31, No. 2 (2003), pp. 151–77.

7. See Muhammad Anwar, Pakistanis in Britain: A Sociological Study (London: New Century, 1985); Küçükcan, “The Making of Turkish‐Muslim Diaspora in Britain.”

8. See Ronit Lentin and Robbie McVeigh (eds.), Racism & Anti‐Racism in Ireland (Belfast: Beyond the Pale, 2002); Ronit Lentin and Robbie McVeigh, After Optimism? Ireland, Racism and Globalisation (Dublin: Metro Eireann Publications, 2006); Bryan Fanning, Racism and Social Change in the Republic of Ireland (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002).

9. Piaras MacEinri and Paddy Walley, Labour Migration into Ireland: Study and Recommendations on Employment Permits, Working Conditions, Family Reunification and the Integration of Migrant Workers in Ireland (Dublin: Immigrant Council of Ireland, 2003), p. 18.

10. Fintan O’Toole, After the Ball (Dublin: New Island, 2003) p. 4.

11. Ibid, p. 6.

12. However, a recent decline in the house building sector coupled with problems in the global financial markets means that in the short term Ireland is likely to experience recession for the first time since 1983. See Alan Barrett, Ide Kearney and Martin O’Brien, Quarterly Economic Commentary, available at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) website, www.esri.ie, Summer Edition 2008.

13. O’Toole, After the Ball.

14. Lentin and McVeigh, Racism & Anti‐Racism in Ireland; Martin Ruhs, Managing the Immigration and Employment of Non‐EU Nationals in Ireland (Dublin: The Policy Institute, Trinity College, 2005).

15. See Tom Inglis, Moral Monopoly: The Rise and Fall of the Catholic Church in Modern Ireland (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1998); Hilary Tovey and Perry Share, A Sociology of Ireland (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2003).

16. Central Statistics Office (CSO), 2007, www.cso.ie.

17. Over two thirds of Muslims in Ireland are non‐Irish nationals, CSO, 2007.

18. Exceptions include Kieran Flynn, “Understanding Islam in Ireland,” Islam and Christian‐Muslim Relations. Vol. 17, No. 2 (2006), pp. 223–38; Tuula Sakaranaho, Religious Freedom, Multiculturalism, Islam: Cross‐reading Finland and Ireland (Boston: Brill, 2006); National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI), The Muslim Community in Ireland: Challenging some of Myths and Information (available at www.nccri.ie, 2007); Jonathan Lacey, “Exploring the Transnational Engagements of a Turkic Religio‐cultural Community in Ireland,” in Translocations: The Irish Migration, Race and Social Transformation Review, Vol. 2 (available at www.imrstr.dcu.ie/firstissue/, 2007); Jonathan Lacey, “Reflecting on the Gülen Movement’s Interfaith Dialogue Work through the Activities of NI‐TECA, a Gülen‐inspired Society Based in Northern Ireland,” in Ihsan Yilmaz et al. (eds.), pp. 608–19, Muslim World in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement (London: Leeds Metropolitan University Press, 2007); Jonathan Lacey, “Investigating the Contribution of Fethullah Gülen through the Activities of a Gülen‐inspired Religio‐cultural Society Based in Ireland,” in Ihsan Yilmaz et al. (eds.), pp. 313–28; Peaceful Coexistence: Fethullah Gülen’s Initiatives in the Contemporary World (London: Leeds Metropolitan University Press, 2007).

19. Ireland witnessed positive net immigration in the 1970s for the first time. See Ruhs, Managing the Immigration and Employment of Non‐EU Nationals in Ireland, p. 7.

20. Ibid, p. 9.

21. National Economic Social Council (NESC) Migration Policy (Dublin; NESC, 2006) p. 7.

22. Ruhs, Managing the Immigration and Employment of Non‐EU Nationals in Ireland, p. 9.

23. Central Statistics Office (CSO), 2002, www.cso.ie.

24. Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS), Quarter 4, www.cso.ie (2007), p. 4.

25. Ibid, p. 4.

26. The EEA is made up of the European Union and Iceland, Lichtenstein, and Norway. Switzerland is not part of the EEA but its citizens have the same access rights as EEA members. See NESC footnote (2006), p.10.

27. Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS), Quarter 4, www.cso.ie (2007).

28. Central Statistics Office (CSO), 2007, www.cso.ie.

29. Ibid.

30. See Ruhs, Managing the Immigration and Employment of Non‐EU Nationals in Ireland, pp. 7–29; NESC, pp.10–20 for detailed descriptions of these different routes.

31. Castles and Miller, The Age of Migration; Gundus Atalik and Brian Beeley, “What Mass Migration has Meant for Turkey,” in Russell King (ed.), Mass Migration in Europe: The Legacy and Future (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993).

32. Mick Barry, We Are Workers Not Slaves: The Story of the GAMA Struggle (Dublin: The Socialist Party, 2006).

33. Lentin and McVeigh, Racism & Anti‐Racism in Ireland; Steve Garner, Racism in the Irish Experience (London: Pluto Press, 2004).

34. Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 184.

35. Ibid.

36. Yavuz, “Islam in the Public Sphere,” p. 3.

37. Bilici, “The Fethullah Gülen Movement and its Politics of Representation in Turkey.”

38. www.gyv.org.tr/

39. Bilici, “The Fethullah Gülen Movement and its Politics of Representation in Turkey,” p. 8.

40. Yavuz, “Islam in the Public Sphere,” p. 16.

41. For a more comprehensive discussion on the origins of the concept of Turkish Islam, see Etga Uğur, “Intellectual Roots of ‘Turkish Islam’ and Approaches to the ‘Turkish Model,’” Journal of Minority Affairs, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2004), pp. 327–45; Ünal Bilir, “‘Turkey‐Islam’: Recipe for Success or Hindrance to the Integration of the Turkish Diaspora Community in Germany?” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2004), pp. 259–83; Küçükcan, “The Making of Turkish‐Muslim Diaspora in Britain.”

42. Cited in M. Hakan Yavuz, “Is There a Turkish Islam? The Emergence of Convergence and Consensus,” Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2004), p. 218.

43. Ibid, p. 222.

44. Bilir, “‘Turkey‐Islam.’”

45. Cited in Ali Ünal and Alphonse Williams, Advocate of Dialogue: Fethullah Gülen (Virginia: The Fountain, 2000).

46. This point is supported by the historian Bernard Lewis, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), p.11.

47. Bilir, “‘Turkey‐Islam,’” p. 267.

48. Cited in Ünal and Williams, Advocate of Dialogue, p. 56.

49. Cited in Hasan Kösebalaban, “The Making of Enemy & Friend: Fethullah Gülen’s National Security Identity,” in Yavuz and Esposito (eds.), Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement, p. 180.

50. See Bekim Agai, “The Gülen Movement’s Islamic Ethic of Education,” in Yavuz and Esposito (eds.), Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement, p. 59.

51. Cited in Helen Rose Ebaugh and Dogan Koc, “Funding Gülen‐inspired Good Works: Demonstrating and Generating Commitment to the Movement,” in Ihsan Yilmaz et al. (eds), Muslim World in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement (London: Leeds Metropolitan Universtiy Press, 2007), p. 548.

52. Erol N. Gulay, “The Gülen Phenomenon: A Neo‐Sufi Challenge to Turkey’s Rival Elite?” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1 (2007), p. 49.

53. Bill Park, “The Fethullah Gülen Movement as a Transnational Phenomenon,” in Ihsan Yilmaz et al. (eds.), Muslim World in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement. (London: Leeds Metropolitian University Press, 2007), p. 50.

54. See Balci, “Fethullah Gülen’s Missionary Schools in Central Asia and Their Role in the Spreading of Turkism and Islam”; Elisabeth Özdalga, “Following in the Footsteps of Fethullah Gülen: Three Women Teachers Tell Their Stories,” in Yavuz and Esposito (eds.), Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement, pp. 85–114.

55. Park, “The Fethullah Gülen Movement as a Transnational Phenomenon,” p. 51.

56. Bilici, “The Fethullah Gülen Movement and its Politics of Representation in Turkey,” p. 12.

57. Ihsan Yilmaz, “Ijtihad and Tajdid by Conduct: The Gülen Movement,” in Yavuz and Esposito (eds.), Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement, p. 235.

58. This organization has chapters in Basingstoke, Brighton, Bristol, Exeter, Kent, Oxford, Southampton, Reading, and Swindon (www.fellowshipdialogue.net).

59. Yilmaz, “Ijtihad and Tajdid by Conduct: The Gülen Movements,” p. 235; Hüseyin Gülerce, “Gülen’s Message to European Union,” in Today’s Zaman (17.12.2004).

60. This approach is adopted among Alevis in Germany. See James Helicke, “Turks in Germany: Muslim Identity ‘Between’ States,” in Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Jane I. Smith (eds.), Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible (Oxford: Altamira Press, 2002).

61. This festival commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, for the love of God.

62. The Gülen movements rely on a primordial understanding of ethnic affiliation that unites modern Turks to their pre‐modern attachment with Central Asian Turkmen. See Turam, “National Loyalties and International Undertakings” for further discussion.

63. The author has used pseudonyms in order to protect the identity of the participants.Though there are many benefits for those belonging to the Gülen movement, some Fethullaci (followers of Fethullah Gülen), claim to have experienced discrimination in Turkish universities and in the workplace due to their association with the Gülen movement.

64. Agai, “The Gülen Movement’s Islamic Ethic of Education,” p. 61.

65. Bilici, “The Fethullah Gülen Movement and its Politics of Representation in Turkey,” p. 10.

66. Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey.

67. Cited in Bilici, “The Fethullah Gülen Movement and its Politics of Representation in Turkey,” p. 13.

68. www.tiecs.org/.

69. This term was first introduced by Arnold van Gennep in The Rites of Passage (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960 [original 1909]).

70. See Jeroen Doomernik, “State Politics and Islamic Institutions: Turks in the Netherlands and Germany,” in Suha Taji‐Farouki (ed.), Muslim Communities in the Netherlands and Germany (Durham: Centre for Middle Eastern, 1995), pp. 7–19; Stephen Castles, Heather Booth and Tina Wallace (eds.), Here for Good: Western Europe’s New Ethnic Minorities (London: Pluto Press, 1987); Castles and Miller, The Age of Migration.

71. See Castles et al., Here for Good; Atalik and Beeley, “What Mass Migration has Meant for Turkey.”

72. Gökçe Yurdakul, “State, Political Parties and Immigrant Elites: Turkish Immigrant Associations in Berlin,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3 (2006) pp. 435–53.

73. Ibid, p. 444.

74. Peggy Levitt, “Between God, Ethnicity, and Country,” paper presented at workshop on Transnational Migration: Comparative Perspectives, June 30 to July 1, 2001, Princeton University, available at www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk, 2006, p. 17.

75. Yavuz, “Islam in the Public Sphere,” p. 43.

76. Religioscope, “The Gulen Movement: a Modern Expression of Turkish Islam: Interview with Hakan Yavuz, www.religion.info, July 21, 2004.

77. Ibid.

78. Ibid.

79. Groups elect instead to take the name of cultural or dialogue centres such as the Dialogue Society of Scotland, the Dialogue Society (London), and Interfaith Dialogue Society (Brighton).

80. Lacey, “Exploring the Transnational Engagements of a Turkic Religio‐cultural Community in Ireland.”

81. Ibid; Lacey, “Reflecting on the Gülen Movement’s Interfaith Dialogue Work through the Activities of NI‐TECA.”

82. Bilici, “The Fethullah Gülen Movement and its Politics of Representation in Turkey.”

83. Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey.

84. Bilir argues that the Gülen movement’s emphasis on Turkish culture is likely to prove a hindrance in attempts to integrate Turks into German society; see Bilir, “ ‘Turkey‐Islam.’”

85. The Baha’i faith was founded in nineteenth‐century Persia (modern day Iran) by Bahá’u’lláh. Though it has its origins in Islam it is considered a separate religion. It lays stress on the spiritual universalism of mankind and believes in prophets from all the worlds’ major religions. See Michael McMullen, The Bahá’i: The Religious Construction of a Global Identity (London: Rutgers University Press, 2000).

86. The Unification Church was founded by Sun Myung Moon in 1954 in Korea. Though Moon claims to be part of the Christian Church, his belief system is radically different from mainstream Christianity, with him claiming to be the Messiah. Among its many names, The Unification Church is also known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU). This name stresses the movement’s avowed commitment to universal peace in the world. See David V. Barrett, The New Believers: A Survey of Sects, Cults and Alternative Religions (London: Cassel & Co., 2001).

87. SGI is a lay Buddhist organization, which emerged from the Japanese Buddhist sect Nichiren Shoshu. SGI shares many similarities with the Gülen movement, as it is a world‐affirming, action‐oriented movement that promotes education and dialogue. See Philip E. Hammond and David W. Machacek, Soka Gakkai in America: Accomodation and Conversion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

88. Roland Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (London: Sage Publications, 1998).

89. James A. Beckford, Social Theory and Religion. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

90. The Dialogue Society was established in 1999 by second‐generation Turks living in Britain.

91. Thomas Robbins, “ ‘Quo Vadis’ the Scientific Study of New Religious Movements?” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 39, No.4 (2000), pp. 515–23.