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Notes
1 M. Hakan CitationYavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 202.
2 M. Hakan CitationYavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 202–203.
3 Specifically, in June 1999, the state produced an audio recording of a sermon in which Gülen said: ‘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 order words, they should not come out too early.’ See Filiz CitationBaskan, ‘The Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Turkey: The Role of Fethullah Gülen and Asya Finans,’ in: Clement M. Henry & Rodney Wilson (Eds) The Politics of Islamic Finance (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), p. 236. Gülen repeatedly has denied the authenticity of this tape.
4 Gülen insists his following constitutes a cem'at, or cemyet, which means ‘community’ or ‘gathering’ in Turkish. He once referred to it as a birlik, or union. See Olivier CitationRoy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), p. 222. He rejects the label tarikat, which denotes a Sufi order. See Zeki CitationSaritoprak, ‘Fethullah Gülen: A Sufi in His Own Way,’ in: M. Hakan CitationYavuz & John L. Esposito (Eds) Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003), p. 168.
5 By ‘public sphere’ and ‘civil society’ I mean the space of activities and institutions that exist independent from state control See further Serif CitationMardin, Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey: The Case of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989).
6 Kemalism, named after Turkey's first president, Mustafa Kemal ‘Atatürk’ (1881–1938), is the secularist, positivist ideology of the state. It represents ‘top-down, state-imposed political and cultural reforms’ that aim to create a unified society and secularized state; see CitationYavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 31. Kemalism's six foundational principles, nationalism, secularism, republicanism, statism, reformism, and populism, are protected by the Constitution; see Yavuz & Esposito (Eds) Turkish Islam and the Secular State, p. xxi.
7 On the notion of ideologies and symbols as social ‘master signifiers,’ see Bobby CitationSayyid, A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism (New York: Zed Books, 2003). For an overview of the decline of Kemalism in the 1980s, see CitationFaruk Birtek and Binnaz Toprak, ‘The Conflictual Agendas of Neo-Liberal Reconstruction and the Rise of Islamic Politics in Turkey,’ Praxis International, 13 (1993), pp. 192–212; and Ziya CitationOnis, ‘The Political Economy of Islamic Resurgence in Turkey: The Rise of the Welfare Party in Perspective,’ Third World Quarterly, 18 (1997), p. 751.
8 CitationYavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 5.
9 CitationYavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 5.
10 Kemal reserved Islamic practice and expression for the ‘private sphere,’ or the subjective realm of an individual's conscience, home, and mosque.
11 On the ‘deprivatization’ of religion, see Jose CitationCasanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1994).
12 On the ‘deprivatization’ of religion, see Jose CitationCasanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1994), pp. 65–66.
13 Bryan CitationTurner, ‘Towards an Economic Model of Virtuoso Religion,’ in: Ernest Gellner (Ed.) Islamic Dilemmas: Reformers, Nationalists, and Industrialization: The Southern Shore of the Mediterranean (New York: Mouton, 1985), p. 59.
14 For more on the ‘constructivist’ methodology, see Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey. Also, ‘contextual’ forces and analyses account for immanent social, economic, political, historical, and material factors; in other words, the particular societal forces of a given historical moment.
15 Yavuz (Citation2003b), p. 168.
16 Yavuz (Citation2003b), p. 270.
17 Mardin, Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey.
18 Gülen was raised in a ‘frontier’ Islamic idiom that stressed the example of the Prophet Muhammad, the fundamental scriptures of Islam, and the defense of the nation and faith against external enemies; see Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 180; and Yasin CitationAktay, ‘Diaspora and Stability: Constitutive Elements in a Body of Knowledge,’ in: Yavuz & Esposito (Eds), Turkish Islam and the Secular State, p. 132. According to Yavuz, Gülen received his initial religious education from a Sufi sheikh, Muhammad Lutfi; see Yavuz, ‘The Gülen Movement: The Turkish Puritans,’” ibid., p. 20. Gülen's birth date comes from Roy, Globalized Islam, p. 228.
19 Nur CitationYalman, ‘Islamic Reform and the Mystic Tradition in Eastern Turkey,’ European Journal of Sociology, 10 (1969).
20 Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 181.
21 Gülen was introduced to Nursi's writings in 1957 and became an active participant in his community prior to 1966. See Bekim CitationAgai, ‘The Gülen Movement's Islamic Ethic of Education,’ in: Yavuz & Esposito (Eds) Turkish Islam and the Secular State, p. 53.
22 For more on these early activities, see Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 182.
23 For more on these early activities, see Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 183.
24 Ihsan CitationYilmaz, ‘Ijtihad and Tajdid by Conduct: The Gülen Movement,’ in: Yavuz & Esposito (Eds) Turkish Islam and the Secular State, p. 224.
25 Aktay, ‘Diaspora and Stability,’ p. 132.
28 Fethullah CitationGülen, interview by M. Hakan Yavuz, Philadelphia, April 12, 2002, in Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 32.
31 CitationFethullah Gülen, Prizma, Vol. 2 (Istanbul: Zaman, 1997), p. 12.
33 Gülen, Prizma, vol. 2. p. 12.
26 Yavuz, ‘Islam in the Public Sphere,’ p. 19.
27 Agai, ‘The Gülen Movement's Islamic Ethic of Education,’ p. 48.
29 CitationYavuz, ‘Islam in the Public Sphere,’ p. 32.
30 CitationYavuz, ‘Islam in the Public Sphere,’ p. 32
32 CitationFethullah Gülen, Understanding and Belief: The Essentials of the Islamic Faith (Izmir: Kaynak, 1997), p. 12.
34 Fred CitationReed, Anatolia Junction (Burnaby, British Columbia: Talon, 1999), p. 82.
35 Fethullah Gülen, interview by Nuriye CitationAkman, ‘High-Ranking People Used the Cassette Incident as a Tool for Blackmail,’ Zaman, 27 March 2004.
36 Reed, Anatolia Junction, p. 87.
37 CitationFethullah Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism: Emerald Hills of the Heart, Vol. 1, Ali Unal (Trans), (Fairfax, Va.: The Fountain, 1999), p. xi.
38 For more on the ‘elder brothers’ see Saritoprak, ‘Fethullah Gülen: A Sufi in His Own Way,’ p. 168; and Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 189.
39 ‘Fethullah Gülen and his Meeting with the Pope,’ Citation The Fountain , 23 (1998), p. 16.
40 One of the ‘five pillars of Islam,’ zakat, obligates Muslims to donate a fixed percentage of their yearly income to charity. On Gülen's financial activities and pious endowments, see Sami CitationZubaida, ‘Trajectories of Political Islam: Egypt, Iran and Turkey,’ in: Bryan S. Turner (Ed.) Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology, Vol. 4 (London: Routledge, 2003), p. 302.
41 CitationFethullah Gülen, Essentials of the Islamic Faith , Ali Unal (Trans.), (Fairfax, VA: The Fountain, 2000), p. 146.
42 Zubaida, ‘Trajectories of Political Islam,’ p. 302.
43 See Agai, ‘The Gülen Movement's Islamic Ethic of Education,’ p. 48; and Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 193.
44 Agai, ‘The Gülen Movement's Islamic Ethic of Education,’ p. 48.
45 Agai, ‘The Gülen Movement's Islamic Ethic of Education,’, p. 55.
47 Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 233.
46 Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 100.
48 See Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 234; and Yilmaz, ‘Ijtihad and Tajdid by Conduct,’ pp. 233–234.
49 Yilmaz, ‘Ijtihad and Tajdid by Conduct,’ pp. 233–234.
50 Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 91.
51 Baskan, ‘The Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Turkey,’ p. 216.
52 Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 192.
53 Baskan, ‘The Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Turkey,’ pp. 218–219.
54 Yavuz, ‘Islam in the Public Sphere,’ p. 37.
55 CitationFethullah Gülen, Prophet Muhammad: Aspects of his Life, Vol. 2, Ali Unal (Trans.),(Fairfax, Va.: The Fountain, 1996), p. 171. On the community's business associational activities, see Baskan, ‘The Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Turkey,’ p. 223.
56 CitationDale Eickelman & Jon Anderson, ‘Redefining Muslim Publics,’ in: Dale Eickelman & John Anderson (Eds) New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), p. 2.
57 As further evidence of the expansion of Islamic media during the economic liberalization period, the number of religious books published in Turkey grew from 239 in 1973, to 359 in 1982, to 618 in 1986; in 1998 the number was 863. Religious periodicals have grown from 16 in 1973, to 18 in 1982, 20 in 1986, and finally as many as 40 in 1996; see CitationState Institute of Statistics, Prime Ministry, Statistical Yearbook of Turkey (Ankara: State Institute of Statistics Printing Division, 2001). For more on Gülen's media empire, see Baskan, ‘The Political Economy of Islamic Finance in Turkey,’ p. 223.
58 Ayse CitationOncu, ‘The Banal and the Subversive: Politics of Language on Turkish Television,’ European Journal of Cultural Studies 3 (2000), p. 310.
59 Gülen, Questions and Answers About Faith, p. 57.
60 Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 191.
61 Arthur CitationBuehler, Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of the Mediating Sufi Shaykh, (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1998), p. 228.
64 Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, p. 184.
62 Eickelman and Anderson, ‘Redefining Muslim Publics,’ p. 12.
63 See Elizabeth CitationÖzdalga, ‘Secularizing Trends in Fethullah Gülen's Movement: Impasse or Opportunity for Further Renewal?’ Critique, 12, 1 (Spring 2003), pp. 61–73.
65 CitationFethullah Gülen, Questions and Answers About Faith , Ali Unal (Trans.), (Fairfax, Va.: The Fountain, 2000), p. 7.
66 Eickelman & Anderson, ‘Redefining Muslim Publics,’ p. 13.
67 My particular study focuses on Gülen's works on Sufism, the Islamic faith, and the Prophet Muhammad, as well as his community's English language periodical The Fountain, and the Turkish daily Zaman.
68 By ‘subjectivity’ I refer to the idea of the autonomous, willful individual attempting to master the world through a program of ‘positive action.’ See further Farzin CitationVahdat, God and Juggernaut: Iran's Intellectual Encounter with Modernity (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2002), p. 2.
69 Gülen, Questions and Answers About Faith, p. 57.
70 Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 171.
71 Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 94.
73 For more on the notion of ‘mediated subjectivity, see Vahdat, God and Juggernaut, p. 134
72 For more on the notion of ‘mediated subjectivity, see Vahdat, God and Juggernaut, p. 134.
74 Gülen borrows this conception from Sirhindi-inspired Nakşibendi theology, which asserts: ‘The beliefs, actions and experiences of man are his own, not of God; though they are in virtue of the knowledge and power He has bestowed on him and operated within the limits He has imposed.’ Muhammad CitationAnsari, Sufism and Shari'ah: A Study of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi's Effort to Reform Sufism (Leicester: The Islamic Foundation, 1986), p. 114.
77 Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. Citation2, p. 122.
75 Hizmet is a Turkified word from the Ottoman era derived from the Arabic khidma, and means ‘a service rendered to someone.’
76 Katie CitationPlatt, ‘Island Puritanism,’ in: Ernest Gellner (Ed.) Islamic Dilemmas: Reformers, Nationalists, and Industrialization: The Southern Shore of the Mediterranean (New York: Mouton, 1985), p. 175.
78 Gülen, Prizma, Vol. 2, p. 37.
79 CitationFethullah Gülen, ‘A Brief Overview of Islam,’ The Fountain, 45 (2004): p. 6.
80 Gülen, Prophet Muhammad, p. 15; and ibid, p. 105.
81 Gülen defines ‘piety,’ or taqwa, as the ‘conscious performance of good and the avoidance of evil.’ Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 46.
82 Gülen defines ‘piety,’ or taqwa, as the ‘conscious performance of good and the avoidance of evil.’ Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 19.
83 CitationFethullah Gülen, Prophet Muhammad: Aspects of his Life, Vol. 1, Ali Unal (Trans.), (Fairfax, Va.: The Fountain, 1995), p. 87.
84 Mehmet CitationAydin, ‘The Problem of Theodicy in the Risale-i Nur,’ in: Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi (Ed.) Islam at the Crossroads: On the Life and Thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003), p. 222.
85 Sirhindi adds: ‘The object of … life is to perform duties of servanthood, to surrender and submit to the Lord, to express his lowliness and dependence, and constantly turn to God.’ Quoted in: Ansari, Sufism and Shari'ah, p. 230. Ansari's argues that Sirhindi focused on more than just ‘abdiyat in ibid., p. 17.
86 For more on ‘pietistic activism,’ see CitationÖzdalga, ‘Worldly Asceticism in Islamic Casting: Fethullah Gülen's Inspired Piety and Activism,’ Critique, 17 (2000), p. 88.
87 Gülen counts asceticism, or zuhd, as one of the essential principles of the Islamic faith, and of Sufism in particular Gülen, Key Concepts in Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 42. He defines it as an attitude of indifference to worldly appetites, and the renunciation of pleasure. Instead, the ascetic ‘directs others to the absolute Truth’ of Islam, in ibid., p. 42. On rationalization as a means to salvation, see Özdalga, ‘Worldly Asceticism in Islamic Casting,’ p. 88.
88 Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 26.
89 Özdalga, ‘Worldly Asceticism in Islamic Casting,’ p. 93.
90 Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 39.
91 Gülen, Essentials of the Islamic Faith, p. 151.
93 Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 40.
92 Gülen's appeal to the ‘contractual view’ of divinity finds support in Islamic scripture. Merchant concepts and vocabulary abound in the Qur'an. Charles CitationTorrey speaks of the ‘commercial relation between Allah and man’ in the Qur'an in his The Commercial-Theological Terms in the Koran (1892), p. 38.
94 Metin CitationKarabasoglu, ‘Text and Community: An Analysis of the Risale-i Nur Movement,’ in: Abu-Rabi (Ed.), Islam at the Crossroads: On the Life and Thought of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, p. 273.
95 Nasim CitationButt, ‘Disciplining Obesity: A Healthy Life-Style,’ The Fountain, 16 (1996), p. 7.
96 Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 6.
97 M. A. CitationSahin, ‘Discipline in the Home,’ The Fountain, 13 (1996), p. 18.
98 See M. CitationTemiz & E. Oz, ‘Effective Use of Time,’ The Fountain, 16 (1996), pp. 34–38.
99 See M. CitationTemiz & E. Oz, ‘Effective Use of Time,’ The Fountain, 16 (1996), p. 36.
100 Ibid.
101 Gülen (1996a), p. 123.
102 Gülen (1996a), p. 123
103 Max CitationWeber, The Sociology of Religion (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), p. 329; and Max CitationWeber, Economy and Society:,An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), p. 575.
104 Özdalga, ‘Worldly Asceticism in Islamic Casting,’ p. 88.
105 CitationGülen, ‘Action and Thought,’ The Fountain, 13 (1996), p. 2.
106 Gülen, Questions and Answers About Faith, p. 29.
107 Gülen, Questions and Answers About Faith, p. 30.
108 See Steven CitationKrauss, ‘The Destructive Force of Greed,’ The Fountain, 40 (2002), pp. 23–25; and CitationSelim Aydin, ‘Social Captial: An Important Power Resource for National Progress,’” The Fountain, 43 (2003), pp. 21–23.
109 Gülen, Prophet Muhammad, Vol. 2, p. 17.
110 Gülen, Prophet Muhammad, Vol. 2, p. 17
111 Gülen, Essentials of the Islamic Faith, p. 133.
112 Gülen, Essentials of the Islamic Faith
113 Mahmood CitationIbrahim, Merchant Capital and Islam (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), p. 132.
114 The accumulation and expenditure of wealth is recommended and regulated in the following Qur'anic verses: Qur'an 62:10; 73:20; 5:20; 24:22; 27:16; 30:33; 2:18, 215, 272–273; 11:84; 22:11; 38:32; 50:25; 68:12; 70:21.
115 Gülen, Questions and Answers About Faith, p. 29.
116 Jay CitationWilloughby, “Economic Globalization and the Quest for Profit,” The Fountain, 36 (2001), p. 29.
117 Gülen, Essentials of the Islamic Faith, p. 134.
118 Durkheim's notion of organic solidarity asserts that ‘each one of us depends more intimately upon society the more labor is divided up.’ See Emile CitationDurkheim, The Division of Labor in Society (New York: Free Press, 1997), p. 85; and Gülen, Prophet Muhammad, Vol. 2, p. 239.
119 Gülen, Questions and Answers About Faith, p. 159; and Gülen, Prophet Muhammad, Vol. 2, p. 16.
120 R. W. CitationTawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York: Penguin, 1926), p. 123.
121 Hikmet CitationIsik, “Questions and Answers,” The Fountain, 34 (2001), p. 47.
122 See Platt, ‘Island Puritanism.’
123 See Platt, ‘Island Puritanism.’, p. 175.
124 Gülen, Questions and Answers About Faith, p. 26
125 Gülen, Questions and Answers About Faith, p. 192.
126 Niko CitationKielstra, ‘Law and Reality in Modern Islam,’ in: Gellner (Ed.) Islamic Dilemmas: Reformers, Nationalists, and Industrialization: The Southern Shore of the Mediterranean, p. 15.
127 Roy, Globalized Islam, p. 225.
128 For more on the Gülen community as a ‘New Age’ movement, see Can CitationKozanoglu, Internet, Dolunay, Cemaat (Istanbul: Iletisim Yayinlari, 1997).
129 Yavuz, Islamic Political Identity in Turkey, pp. 19; 35.
130 See Ernest CitationTroeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981); and Roy, Globalized Islam.
131 Bryan CitationWilson, Religious Sects: A Sociological Study (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970), p. 36.
132 Bryan CitationWilson, Religious Sects: A Sociological Study (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970)
133 See Gülen, Key Concepts of Sufism, Vol. 1; and Gülen, Key Concepts of Sufism, Vol. 2.
134 On Sirhindi's conception of marju, see Ansari, Sufism and Shari'ah, p. 90. For Gülen's interpretation, see Gülen, Key Concepts of Sufism, Vol. 2, p. 247.
135 Gülen, Key Concepts of Sufism, Vol. 2, p. 73.
136 Ansari, Sufism and Shari'ah, p. 67.
137 Gülen, Key Concepts of Sufism, Vol. 2, p. 21.
138 Gülen, Essentials of the Islamic Faith, p. 106.
139 Gülen, Key Concepts of Sufism, Vol. 2, p. 243.
140 Gülen, Key Concepts of Sufism, Vol. 2, p. 243
141 Gülen's ascetic distaste for some Sufi practices recalls Weber's view of the ‘worldly ascetic,’ who rejects ‘everything that is ethically irrational, esthetic, or dependent upon his own emotional reactions to the world and its institutions.’ See CitationWeber, The Sociology of Religion, p. 168. Gülen's support of the dismantling of Sufi orders appears in Gülen, Key Concepts of Sufism, Vol. 2, p. 243.
142 Hikmet CitationIsik, ‘Questions and Answers,’ The Fountain, 47 (2004), p. 46.
143 Gülen, Prophet Muhammad, Vol. 1, p. 135.
144 Ernest CitationGellner, Muslim Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 61.
145 Gülen, Essentials of the Islamic Faith, p. 262.
146 See Yilmaz, ‘Ijtihad and Tajdid by Conduct,’ p. 223; and Etga CitationUgur, ‘Review of Turkish Islam and the Secular State,’ The Fountain, 46 (2004), p. 49.
147 Yavuz, “Islam in the Public Sphere,” p. 19.
148 Gülen, Key Concepts in the Practice of Sufism, Vol. 1, p. 154.
149 Michael CitationGilsenan, Saint and Sufi in Modern Egypt: An Essay in the Sociology of Religion (Oxford: Clarendon, 1973), p. 65.
150 Gilsenan defines modern tarikats as ‘voluntary associations’ in ibid., p. 66; for a sociological definition of ‘voluntary associations,’ Max CitationWeber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (New York: The Free Press, 1964), p. 151.
151 Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, p. 806.
152 Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, p. 806
153 Roland CitationRobertson, ‘On the Analysis of Mysticism: Pre-Weberian, Weberian and Post-Weberian Perspectives,’ Sociological Analysis, 36 (1975), p. 245.
154 Wilson, Religious Sects, p. 228.
155 Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World, p. 230.
158 Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World, p. 6.
156 Gilsenan, Saint and Sufi in Modern Egypt, p. 6.
157 Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World, p. 43.