Gülen-Inspired Hizmet in Europe

Gürkan Çelik, Professor of Cross-Cultural Entrepreneurship at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands.
Johan Leman, Emeritus Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Social Sciences at KU Leuven University, Belgium.
Karel Steenbrink, Emeritus Professor of Intercultural Theology at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

The Hizmet Movement initiated by Fethullah Gülen in Turkey in the 1960s is today active in more than 160 countries. The participants of Hizmet are often less visible among the Muslim minorities in Western societies. They do not build mosques or hold regular prayer meetings like institutional Muslims or Sufi masters, but establish emancipatory schools without religious instruction, cherish networks of business people, publish the newspaper Zaman in various national editions, and run dialogue charities for intercultural and interreligious encounters. Small groups come together in private houses to hold sohbets, that is spiritual talks on faith, religion and society, and to discuss Hizmet-related projects in the light of teachings articulated by Gülen in his books and talks.
This book provides a broad presentation of Gülen's thought and practice. These issues are discussed in the first part of this book. The second part presents six case studies from countries where the name of Gülen has been attached to a great variety of social activities in the field of education, media, business, dialogue, and the support of integration and defence of human rights. These countries are Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Albania as the centre of Muslims in the Balkans. Although the participants of Hizmet are quite small in number and work in an extremely decentralised way, they are among the best educated and most socially active of the Turkish-speaking communities in their countries. This is therefore an important study of a group of Muslims who cannot simply be categorized as «conservative» or «progressive», «pietistic» or «political».

This book discusses the Western journey of a contemporary Muslim movement initiated by Fethullah Gülen in Turkey in the 60s. Although its participants are a small and often less visible group among the Muslim minorities in Western countries, they are very active in social life. This study provides a broad presentation of a group of Turkish Muslims.

Contents: Karel Steenbrink: Fethullah Gülen, Hizmet, and Gülenists. A Bibliographical Essay - Pim Valkenberg: The Intellectual Format of the Hizmet Movement. A Discourse Analysis - Thomas Michel: Theological Keywords of M. Fethullah Gülen - Gürkan Çelik/Karel Steenbrink: Ethical Priorities of Gülen. The True Middle Road - Helen Rose Ebaugh: Financial Dimension of the Gülen-Inspired Projects - Dogu Ergil/Gürkan Çelik: The Socio-Political Dimension of the Gülen Movement - Maria F. Curtis: Diasporic Faith, Faith in Diaspora. Turkish Women's Public Spheres Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow - Johan Leman: Belgium's Gülen Hizmet Movement. History, Structures and Initiatives - Ercan Karakoyun/Karel Steenbrink: The Hizmet Movement and the Integration of Muslims in Germany - Karel Steenbrink: Gülen in the Netherlands between Pious Circles and Social Emancipation - Erkan Toguslu: Hizmet in France. Negotiation of Multiple Identities in a Secular Context - Paul Weller: The Gülen Movement in the United Kingdom - Bekir Çinar: Turkish Schools and More. Hizmet Networks in the Balkans - Gürkan Çelik/Johan Leman/Karel Steenbrink: Concluding Reflections.