The Muslim World and Politics in Transition: Creative Contributions of the Gulen Movement

Description

As a leading movement in contemporary Turkey with a universal educational and inter-faith agenda, the Gulen movement aims to promote creative and positive relations between the West and the Muslim world and to articulate a critically constructive position on such issues as democracy, multi-culturalism, globalisation, and interfaith dialogue in the context of secular modernity. Many countries in the predominantly Muslim world are in a time of transition and of opening to democratic development of which the so-called "Arab Spring" has seen only the most recent and dramatic developments. Particularly against that background, there has been a developing interest in "the Turkish model" of transition from authoritarianism to democracy. The Muslim World and Politics in Transition includes chapters written by international scholars with expertise in relation to the contexts that it addresses. It discusses how the Gulen movement has positioned itself and has sought to contribute within societies - including the movement's home country of Turkey - in which Muslims are in the majority and Islam forms a major part of the cultural, religious and historical inheritance. The movement and initiatives inspired by the Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen began in Turkey, but can now be found throughout the world, including in both Europe and in the 'Muslim world'. Bloomsbury has a companion volume edited by Paul Weller and Ihsan Yilmaz on European Muslims, Civility and Public Life: Perspectives on and From the Gulen Movement.

Greg Barton is the Herb Feith Research Professor for the Study of Indonesia, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Australia. Paul Weller is Professor of Inter-Religious Relations at the University of Derby and Visiting Fellow in the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford, UK. Ihsan Yilmaz is Associate Professor of Political Science at Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey.

The topics of the book are particularly relevant since Islam's relationship with the intellectual and political aspects of modernity bears directly on events of epochal significance in the Arab world and elsewhere, as exemplified by the Arab Spring. -- Emad Bazzi, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE * Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies * Over the years, the issue of Islam, Muslim communities and the Muslim world's relationship with the West has been discussed, explored and written about by a number of scholars and academics. The way this book has tackled various topics relating to the Muslim world is not only worth reading but refreshing, thoughtful and balanced - just as the Islamic principle of the "Golden Middle Rule". This book will go a long way to better the understanding of Islam in the West. -- Bashy Quraishy, Secretary General, European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion (EMISCO), Strasbourg, France This collection of articles is probably the best introduction available to one of the most dynamic movements influencing the Islamic world today. The hizmet community, inspired and guided by the thoughts of Fethullah Gulen, has played a key role in Islamic renewal. In the words of one contributor to the volume, the movement "allowed Muslims, once fearful that democracy, secularism, pluralism and human rights discourse would threaten their religious identity, to engage with full sincerity in political life and debate. -- Thomas Michel, Senior Fellow, Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University, USA