New Book – The House of Service: The Gülen Movement and Islam’s Third Way (New York: Oxford University Press)

Turkish Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gülen. (Photo: Cihan)
Turkish Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gülen. (Photo: Cihan)


Date posted: May 12, 2014

by David Tittensor

 

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the publication of my new book with OUP entitled The House of Service: The Gülen Movement and Islam’s Third Way, which may be of some interest. The blurb reads:

David Tittensor offers a groundbreaking new perspective on the Gülen movement, a Turkish Muslim educational activist network that emerged in the 1960s and has grown into a global empire with an estimated worth of $25 billion. Named after its leader Fethullah Gülen, the movement has established more than 1,000 secular educational institutions in over 140 countries, aiming to provide holistic education that incorporates both spirituality and the secular sciences.

Despite the movement’s success, little is known about how its schools are run, or how Islam is operationalized. Drawing on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey, Tittensor explores the movement’s ideo-theology and how it is practiced in the schools. His interviews with both teachers and graduates from Africa, Indonesia, Central Asia, and Turkey show that the movement is a missionary organization, but of a singular kind: its goal is not simply widespread religious conversion, but a quest to recoup those Muslims who have apparently lost their way and to show non-Muslims that Muslims can embrace modernity and integrate into the wider community. Tittensor also examines the movement’s operational side and shows how the schools represent an example of Mohammad Yunus’s social business model: a business with a social cause at its heart.

The House of Service is an insightful exploration of one of the world’s largest transnational Muslim associations, and will be invaluable for those seeking to understand how Islam will be perceived and practiced in the future.

For more information please visit the OUP website at:

http://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-house-of-service-9780199336418;jsessionid=E4169…

Best regards,

David Tittensor

Deakin University

Source: networks , May 11, 2014


Related News

Turkey After the July Coup Attempt – Alan Makovsky’s testimony before Committee on Foreign Affairs

The vastness and persistence of the purge of the civil service, arrests of journalists, and closure of media outlets—many seemingly having nothing whatsoever to do with the exiled Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen or his Gülenist movement that the Turkish government blames for the coup attempt.

Students from 32 countries participate in international cultural festival in Cambodia

The second annual international language and cultural festival in Cambodia on March 23rd has drawn the participation of students from 32 countries who are studying at Zaman International School in Cambodia.

Book Review: A Hizmet Approach to Rooting out Violent Extremism

The violent extremist ideology cannot be rooted out until an effective, coherent, comprehensive and well-reasoned counter-narrative is evolved. For that, all the theological, religious, political, historical, instrumental and socio-psychological underpinnings of the global jihadism have to be counter-argued and dismantled.

Why is Erdoğan hostile to Turkish schools?

The Hizmet movement has had considerable successes in the field of education. While its share in the Turkish education sector is not colossal, the quality of its services stands out.

Erdogan’s corruption defense falls flat

Denying the corruption accusations that brought his party under a disconcerting spotlight, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been lamenting press attempts to “throw the mud and see if it sticks.” He indirectly accused the judiciary of being taken over by the Fethullah Gulen religious movement, as well as acting as a subcontractor to foreign powers who, out of envy for Turkey’s political and economic success, manufactured this corruption plot to finish him off just as they tried to do at the Gezi Park protests in June.

Fethullah Gulen’s poetry in songs calls for Peace

A new song album of Fethullah Gulen’s English-translated poems has been released. The album titled “Rise up-Colors of Peace,” featuring poems by Gulen composed into songs, has been released jointly by Nil Production and Universal Music after two years of recording. According to Kaynak Publishing press release, 12 poems out of 50 that were previously translated […]

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Main opposition deputy head slams gov’t for targeting Hizmet Movement

An Interfaith Trip to Turkey: A Lesson in History

Australian Relief Organisation feed thousand in Philippines and Sri Lanka in Qurban

Not appearing in the worst selfie in history

AK Party gov’t spokesman confirms National Intelligence Organization profiling of faith-based movements

Leaked photo shows 11 hijabi women, 2 babies in Bursa prison on terror, coup charges

Consultation from Gülen’s perspective: The relationship between the ruler and the ruled

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News