Overview

This volume covers the origins, historical development, and ideas of one of the largest and most influential Islamic movements in the world, the Gulen Hizmet Movement (GHM). Founded during the Cold War under the inspiration of M. Fethullah Gulen, the GHM expanded to over 130 countries by the first decade of the twenty first century. The movement's circumspect activism sheltered it from illiberal secular practices in Turkey and has guided it through the anxious post-Cold War process of globalization. This edited volume covers various characteristics of the movement from Gulen's unconventional oratory to his educational philosophy. In addition, the book covers Gulen's ideas on Islam and democracy and the GHM's indirect political engagement compared to the direct engagement of the Muslim Brotherhood. Other chapters in the book cover the role of women in the movement, the GHM's creation of an alternative public sphere for pious Muslims, and the tension this creation instills in light of Secularism Theory, which is analyzed comparatively with American religious pluralism. The last two chapters question the effectiveness of interfaith dialogue activities promoted by the movement's adherents. A concluding section seeks to synthesize this interdisciplinary scholarship in order to assess the GHM's overall gestalt as a social movement.

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9781443839891

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Tamer Balci is Assistant Professor of Middle East History at the University of Texas-Pan American. He received his BA in History from Istanbul University and his MA and PhD, also in History, from Claremont Graduate University. He teaches the history of the Ottoman Empire; the history of the Early Middle East, the Modern Middle East, and Women in the Middle East; and Theories of Nationalism, as well as World Civilizations survey courses. His general research focuses on the development of intellectual ideas in the post-WWI Middle East. Some of his most recent research subjects are the clash of Islam and nationalism, the Turkish-Islamic synthesis, and the Gulen Hizmet Movement. His last article, 'The Rise and Fall of Nine Lights Ideology,' was published in Politics, Religion & Ideology in June 2011.Christopher L. Miller received his bachelor's degree from Lewis and Clark College and his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently Associate Professor of History, Religious Studies, and Law at the University of Texas-Pan American. He is the author of Prophetic Worlds: Indians and Whites on the Columbia Plateau (1985). He is also co-author of Making America: A History of the United States, now in its sixth edition (2012). His articles and reviews have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and anthologies as well as standard reference works. He has been a Research Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, Harvard University and was the Nikolay V. Sivachev Distinguished Chair in American History and Culture at the Lemonsov Moscow State University, Russia.

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