http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2675-9344
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ABSTRACT
The Gülen movement, led by the Turkish cleric and philosopher Fethullah Gülen, has been in the past years the subject of extensive scholarship, also as a consequence of its spreading in the west through dozens of dialogue and education institutions. While the literature has covered the Gülen organizations in many European countries, the Italian case was however still uncharted, although in the country existed, in the late 2000s, Gülen-related institutions in seven different cities. The research outlined in this paper—based on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and second-hand sources—originally aimed at filling this gap, by charting the Italian organizations in the context of the broader Gülen network. However, the current political and judiciary events inside Turkey and abroad—together with economic factors—have recently implied a significant downsizing of the organizations and a change in their scope and activities, which the paper will also try to describe, trying to sketch some reflections about the future of the movement in the west.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Luca Ozzano is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Turin. He is also the Convenor of the ECPR ‘Religion and Politics’ Standing Group and the Chair of the IPSA ‘Religion and Politics’ Research Group He has published (with Alberta Giorgi) European Culture Wars and the Italian Case (Routledge 2016).
ORCID
Luca Ozzano http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2675-9344
Notes
1 In this paper, the movement will be always referred to as ‘the Gülen movement’, which is the name adopted throughout the special issue. The members of the movement commonly refer to it as Hizmet (service) movement, while in Turkey, it was also often called—especially by its opponents—the cemaat (the brotherhood) and, more recently, FETÖ (Fethullahist Terrorist Organization), the label officially adopted by the Turkish government after the 2016 attempted coup.
2 Emre Demir, ‘The Emergence of a Neo-Communitarian Discourse in the Turkish Diaspora in Europe: The Implantation Strategies and Competition Logics of the Gülen Movement in France and Germany’ in Paul Weller and Ihsan Yilmaz (eds) European Muslims, Civility and Public Life. Perspectives on and from the Gulen Movement (London: Continuum, 2012), pp. 101–112; Jill Irvine, ‘The Gülen Movement and Turkish Integration in Germany’, IslamOnline, 2009, http://www.fethullahgulenforum.org/inpress/12/the-gulen-movement-turkish-integration-germany/.
3 Paul Weller, ‘Robustness and Civility: Themes from Fethullah Gülen as Resource and Challenge for Government, Muslims and Civil Society in the United Kingdom’ in Paul Weller and Ihsan Yilmaz (eds) European Muslims (London: Continuum, 2012), pp. 143–159.
4 Martin van Bruinessen, ‘The Netherlands and the Gülen Movement’, Sociology of Islam, 1:3–4 (April 30, 2014), pp. 165–187.
5 Jonathan Lacey, ‘Fethullah Gülen through the Activities of a Gülen-Inspired Religio-Cultural Society Based in Ireland’ in John L. Esposito and Ihsan Yilmaz (eds) Islam and Peacebuilding. Gülen Movement Initiatives (New York: Blue Dome Press, 2010), pp. 249–272; Jonathan Lacey, ‘An Exploration of the Strategic Dimension of Dialogue in a Gülen Movement Organization in Northern Ireland’ in Paul Weller and Ihsan Yilmaz (eds) European Muslims (London: Continuum, 2012), pp. 127–139.
6 ISTAT, ‘Stranieri Residenti Al 1° Gennaio–Cittadinanza’, 2017, http://dati.istat.it/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=DCIS_POPSTRCIT1.
7 The author has carried out 10 interviews, mainly with prominent member of the movement in Italy (including: the Gülen coordinator for Italy, the president of the Tevere Institute, the president of Alba, and two high-ranking members of Milad Modena and Milad Venice). The research plan originally included more interviews, also with rank-and-file members of the movement in Italy, especially women and students. However, as a consequence of the harshening of the political crisis in Turkey, most of the author's contacts have started to refuse to be interviewed, usually without explaining the reason (although it is reasonable to suppose that they were either afraid of publicity as a consequence of the repression in Turkey, or had taken a distance from the movement, for the same reason). The names of the interviewees are omitted to protect them from unnecessary exposure. The interviews were carried out in Rolo during a ‘Turkish festival’ gathering Gülen followers in Italy, in Rome, at the headquarters of the Istituto Tevere, and in a couple of cases by phone or Skype.
8 ISTAT, ‘Stranieri Residenti Al 1° Gennaio–Cittadinanza’.
9 ISTAT, ‘Cittadini non comunitari: presenza, nuovi ingressi e acquisizioni di cittadinanza’, 2016, http://www.istat.it/it/archivio/129854; comuni-italiani.it, ‘Turchi in Italia’.
10 Jeffrey Cole, Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), p. 367.
11 http://www.albassc.org/chi-siamo/ (accessed on 16 May 2016). All the translations from Italian have been made by the author of this article.
12 Most of the information included in this paragraph, where not otherwise declared, is based on my interview to Alba's president, released to the author in Rolo in May 2015.
13 Berna Turam, Between Islam and the State: The Politics of Engagement (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007); Nancy Gallagher, ‘Hizmet Intercultural Dialogue Trips to Turkey,’ in Sophia Pandya and Nancy Gallagher (eds) The GülenHizmet Movement and Its Transnational Activities: Case Studies of Altruistic Activism in Contemporary Islam (Boca Raton, FL: Brown Walker Press, 2012), pp. 73–93; Jonathan Lacey, ‘An Exploration of the Strategic Dimension of Dialogue in a Gülen Movement Organization in Northern Ireland,’ in Paul Weller and Ihsan Yilmaz (eds) European Muslims (London: Continuum, 2012), pp. 127–139.
14 http://www.albassc.org/chi-siamo/ (accessed on 16 May 2016).
15 Berna Zengin Arslan, ‘The Gülen Community Schools: The Politics of Science and Education’ (Conference of the Italian Political Science Society (SISP), Perugia, September 2014); Bekim Agai, ‘The Gülen Movement's Islamic Ethic of Education’ in M. Hakan Yavuz and John L. Esposito (eds) Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gülen Movement (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003), pp. 48–68; Yüksel A. Aslandoğan and Muhammed Çetin, ‘Gülen's Educational Paradigm in Thought and Practice’ in Robert A. Hunt and Yüksel A. Aslandoğan (eds) Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World: Contributions of the Gülen Movement (Somerset, NJ: The Light, 2007), pp. 34–61.
16 Hakan Sükür can be regarded as a paradigmatic example for the evolution of the Gülen movement's relation with the AKP. After retiring from professional football, he was elected as an MP for Erdogan's party. Then, in late 2013, he abandoned the party becoming an independent MP. In 2016, the Turkish prosecutors investigating the failed coup have issued an arrest warrant for him on charges of being member of a terrorist organization (the Gülen movement).
17 Elisabeth Özdalga, ‘Worldly Asceticism in Islamic Casting: Fethullah Gülen's Inspired Piety and Activism’, Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 9:17 (2000), pp. 83–104; M. Hakan Yavuz, ‘The Gülen Movement: The Turkish Puritans,’ in M. Hakan Yavuz and John L. Esposito (eds), Turkish Islam and the Secular State (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003), pp. 19–47; Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh, The Gülen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam (Dordrecht: Springer, 2009).
18 Where not otherwise specified, the information included in this paragraph is based on my interviews to a high-ranking official of Milad and to the president of Istituto Tevere.
19 http://www.milad.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=2&lang=it (accessed on 29 September 2016).
20 This practice, also adopted by Gülen organizations in other European countries, is not only focused on food sharing per se, but also aims at highlighting the common Abrahamic roots of the three monotheistic traditions.
21 http://gazzettadimodena.gelocal.it/modena/cronaca/2016/07/17/news/modena-attentato-a-circolo-turco-anti-erdogan-in-4-danno-fuoco-alla-sede-1.13830293 (accessed on 29 September 2016).
22 Interviews of the author to the President of Istituto Tevere, Rome, 21 May 2014 and 17 June 2016.
23 In the case of the Director of the Turin branch of Alba, however, I received a different answer, since he stated he is paid for his work in the organization.
24 In the interest of full disclosure, the author must declare that, although the academic programme of the conference was entirely funded by academic institutions and independent foundations not related to the Gülen movement, a dinner and a music exhibition organized a latere to the conference were organized by the Istituto Tevere. The conference sponsors can be found at the page http://turin-rel.blogspot.it/p/sponsors.html.
25 He was evidently a recent immigrant in Italy and did not even speak Italian, so I have no reason to refute that claim.
26 Joshua D. Hendrick, Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World (New York: NYU Press, 2013), p. 122; Turam, Between Islam and the State.
27 Turam, Between Islam and the State; Bruinessen, ‘The Netherlands and the Gülen Movement’.
28 David Tittensor, ‘The Gülen Movement and the Case of a Secret Agenda: Putting the Debate in Perspective’, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 23:2 (2012), pp. 163–179.
29 Turam, Between Islam and the State, 59–63.
30 Turam, Between Islam and the State; Sophia Pandya, ‘Creating Peace on Earth through Hicret: Female Gülen Followers in America’ in Sophia Pandya and Nancy Gallagher (eds) The Gülen Hizmet Movement (Boca Raton, FL: Brown Walker Press, 2012), pp. 97–116; Fran Hassencahl, ‘Framing Women's Issues in The Fountain Magazine’ in Sophia Pandya and Nancy Gallagher (eds) The Gülen Hizmet Movement (Boca Raton, FL: Brown Walker Press, 2012), pp. 117–132.
31 See: http://www.albassc.org/relatori/.
32 An exodus which is only partly confirmed by the numbers, since Turkish nationals have indeed slightly decreased in the regions where Alba and Milad are based, but they have increased in other regions, with the overall figure substantially stable in the past five years (http://dati.istat.it/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=DCIS_POPSTRCIT1).