An Interview With Fethullah Gülen

[Darvesh]

Bugun "Muslim World" jurnalining arhivini qarab chiqayotgan edim, Volume 95 July 2005 nashrida Fethullah Gьlenning zamonamizning bazi bir dolzarb masalalari haqidagi fikrlarini chop etishibti. Balkim, sizlarga ham qiziqarlikdur degan umitda...
Quydagi savollarga javob bergan.

Question: What is the relationship between an individual and the state, according to the teaching of Islam? What is the place and function of an individual within a state?

Question: What is the Islamic understanding of “state”? What is the place of “state” in the Quran? Many contemporary Muslims have spoken out about the establishment of an Islamic state based on the principles of Shariah— could you kindly give me your thoughts on the subject?

Question: Is it possible to reconcile Islam with
democracy? How do you see the lack of democracy
in many Muslim countries, and do you see this lack
of democracy as a deficit for Muslim nations?

Question: In a time when political Islam has become
very popular, what are your thoughts on the
relationship between Islam and politics?

Question : After the abolishment of the Caliphate
(Khilafah) in Turkey, many new movements to
restore this institution arose, especially in India.
Thinking of the fast development in our world, do
you think that the Caliphate could be re-established?
Or is the Caliphate an unattainable utopia? What are
your thoughts?

Question: Many writers in the United States and the
West relate the development of the West to the
Renaissance. Is it possible for there to be a
renaissance in the Islamic world? Is a renaissance
necessary? What are your thoughts?

va hokazo. Javoblar uchun PDFni qarang.

[studentaou]

Kim o'zi Fathullah Gulen? Ozgina malumot bervoring iltimos.

[Abdug'ofur]

Kim o'zi Fathullah Gulen? Ozgina malumot bervoring iltimos.

Fethullah Gülen (born 27 April 1941 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1941)) is a former Islamic preacher, writer, and leader of the eponymous group alternatively known as Gülen's movement. His critics accuse him of undermining the secular (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular) roots of the Republic of Turkey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Turkey) by advocating Islamization, while his supporters hail him as an open-minded Islamic scholar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_scholar) who has been subject to a long-lasting hate campaign.

Davomi... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fethullah_G%C3%BClen)

[Darvesh]

Kim o'zi Fathullah Gulen? Ozgina malumot bervoring iltimos.

In addition to wikipedia:

Fethullah Gülen, founder of a worldwide Islamic education movement, regards morality and education as the engine for a contemporary Islam that is compatible with laicism. By Bekim Agai.

Gülen's Islamic concepts – the "Gülen discourse"

This commitment to education, Gülen's own attitude toward Islam and politics, as well as the positions of the media within his network manifest new impulses originating in Turkey's Islamic milieu.

We are seeing many positive ripple effects arising from Gülen's set of values and the activities of his followers. But does that make him an Islamic reformer? In order to answer this question, we first have to take a closer look at the world of ideas propagated by Fethullah Gülen.

A distinction must be made between reformist theology and innovative Islamic thinking. The "Gülen discourse" consists of numerous elements that can only be touched on briefly here. One feature of this discourse is the ambiguity of his statements, the way in which his ideas are "packaged" in different ways depending on the audience.

Here, his achievement is not to be found in the reinterpretation of religious texts, but rather in the way in which he recombines various generally acknowledged elements into new theses. The basic principles of this discourse are:

Preservation of Islam in the modern age

1. This tenet is based on the ideas of the Turkish activist Said Nursi (d. 1960). His view of Islam was shaped by several basic assumptions:

- The modern secular state is a powerful opponent. Direct confrontation can only harm one's own Islamic interests, since the state will inevitably respond with repression. It is clear for Nursi that God judges each individual separately for how he leads his own life. An Islamic reform movement would thus need to concentrate on guiding individuals along the right path; the state order must be accepted as the framework for one's own dealings, in order to devote attention to more important tasks.

- Man is living in an age of science and technology, for which there is no alternative. Either one helps to shape one's age in a religious way, or one forfeits the power to exert any influence at all. Fethullah Gülen elaborates on this point with the remark: "The dissatisfied have never shaped history." He thus disavows a revolutionary approach. He counters the idea of a retreat from secular society with active engagement (as a contribution to social reform).

- Nursi and Gülen view modern science as a means for attempting to rationally comprehend God by studying His creation. This is therefore the only way to preserve religion in the modern age. This concept endows the rational study of the world, the foundation of which is provided by the secular school, with a religious significance. Science likewise forms the basis for economic prosperity, social harmony, and national independence: all goals necessary for the survival of both the modern state and modern Islam.

- Theological debates have no place in an era in which the very continued existence of religion is at risk. Theology should thus emphasize those areas in which there is consensus and gloss over the more detailed issues.

Turkish nationalism and Islam

2. A crucial factor in Fethullah Gülen's ascendance in Turkey is the synthesis of Turkish nationalism and Islam for which he stands. This has been adopted by his adherents in other countries as well, with the nationalism principle expanded to suit local conditions.

Gülen and his followers view the world of nation-states as just as much of a given as globalization. They no longer believe (although this was a different story for Gülen in the 80s) that their own Islamic identity can be preserved by cutting themselves off from the outside world.

Gülen is confident that his views can be realized and therefore advocates open borders, in order to regain validity for Islam. Since there is no way to halt globalization, it must instead be harnessed as an opportunity.

In his opinion, theology is not the key to shaping the modern world, but rather secular educational institutions, along with the targeted use of (modern) media, and participation and influence in the business world.

Gülen sees the obligations Islam places on its followers as being very clearly defined, and in this respect he is well within the conservative consensus. However, Muslims must continue to pursue further knowledge in order to cast off both their material and ideological dependency on the West (with its materialistic, positivistic orientation). This dependency is just as much the focus of Fethullah Gülen's critique as is political Islam.

National and cultural independence can only be preserved if the Muslims succeed in shaping the modern world in accordance with their own beliefs rather than rejecting modernity out of hand.

Morality and education before politics
3. In accordance with these views, Fethullah Gülen's sermons are not theologically innovative. He preaches classic Islamic behavioral maxims: cihad (jihad = "exertion" on the path to God), irşad ("guidance"), tebliğ ("dissemination" of Islam), and above all hizmet (peaceful "service" in God's name). He substantiates these using theologically well established argument patterns.

Conspicuous here is how conventional his reasoning is when it comes to persuading listeners of what is right according to Islam, while at the same time he proposes entirely new ways of implementing these convictions. The schoolteacher here becomes a prophet, who fulfills the above-named Islamic principles by imparting knowledge.

The key point for Gülen is that the Islamic principles are themselves unchanging, and yet must be given concrete form in each new era. Once, a Koran course might have been the best way to invest Islamic donations. But in times in which "there is a mosque on every corner," other Islamic activities take precedence, according to Gülen and his devotees.

He succeeds at gaining power in conservative Islamic circles for new Islamic fields of action, using traditional Islamic terminology and defining his terms absolutely conventionally, but at the same time furnishing them with extremely innovative implications for the present day.

Gülen's strategy for circumventing critical objections, or contradictions between Islamic and secular law or Islamic concepts of state, does not involve taking recourse to Turkish, Iranian, or Arab reformist scholars, who reinterpret history and the Koran.

Instead, he simply argues that questions of morality and education are more essential for today's Islam than are political issues, and that present-day Muslims are confronted with entirely different problems than the question of whether or not to introduce the Sharia.

4. Gülen has developed an ethic of good works that both opens up new fields of society for Islamic activities and elevates work and efficiency to maxims to live by. In this context, work dedicated to reaching an Islamic goal (even if only a portion of the earnings are donated to the cause) becomes an act in the service of God. Educational work and support of education in particular are endowed with the highest Islamic value.

5. The vision of how to best implement the Islamic maxims organizationally is driven by the attempt to avoid frictional losses or inefficiency at all costs.

Inefficiency thus takes on a reprehensible flavor within Islam. In addition, strategies are prescribed for how the believer can best fulfill his duties toward God. These strategies revolve around the efficient implementation of Islamic undertakings, concrete projects, and individual piety.

Gülen first and foremost propagates the forms of organization espoused by his own adherents (the cemaat) as the tool that can help us today to tie individual salvation to the concerns and goals of the group and of all of society.

He thus "Islamicizes" the organizational forms of his followers and their strategies. Both must be flexible, so that as many people as possible can contribute to realizing the goals of the cemaat. For Gülen, a society can only be changed through its individuals. The cemaat are dedicated to educating this "new generation."

"Islamicized" pragmatism

6. Fethullah Gülen and his religious following pursue a very classic interpretation of Islam. In dealing with others, however, it is more important to them to convey at least a portion of their own values (even if they must keep their Islamic motivation in the background), than to come on too strongly and be too openly Islamic, and thus forfeit any influence beyond Islamic circles.

Decisive for the success of Gülen's ideas is this combination of conventional and conservative arguments couched in new methods of implementation that allow them to reach new target groups.

People can readily identify with Gülen's Islamic scope of argumentation. He has succeeded in interesting people in his goals who could not be moved through the state-propagated reformist Islam to change their attitudes, but who were ready instead to put the more individual daily questions of how to raise their children and how to practice their religion before the broader issues of political Islam.

This sheds new light on the question of what reformist Islam consists of. Is it Islam that needs to be reformed, or do we have to change people instead? Fethullah Gülen shows that, when analyzing innovative processes in the Islamic world, we must not neglect the latter approach, even though his ideas cannot be termed reform theology in the narrower sense.

And one more scholarly article "Discoursive and organizational strategies of the Gülen movement" by Bekim Agai.