A new book: Fethullah Gulen and The Gulen Movement in 100 Questions


Date posted: November 6, 2012

Professor Doğu Ergil’s two-and-a-half-year study on the Gülen movement inspired by Fethullah Gülen is in English now. Ergil met with Gülen twice while writing the book. The 100 questions Ergil asked consist of those the general public is curious about. Ergil’s analysis accompanies Gülen’s answers to these questions. Gülen gave both verbal and written replies to Professor Ergil’s questions. An important part of the written replies consists of Gülen’s writings and texts of the information he provided to other people. These texts are endorsed by Gülen. The rest is the outcome of conversations between Gülen and Ergil.

Understanding both Fethullah Gülen as a moderate Turkish Muslim scholar, and the Gülen Movement, a global network of volunteers, teachers, students, intellectuals and business people who are inspired by Gülen’s philosophy based on dialog and peaceful coexistence, is vital to making any sort of predictions about the direction that Turkey might be headed in the next years. Who is Fethullah Gülen? What is Gülen’s world view and what are his fundamental ideas about society and the state? How does Gülen view history and what does he consider the most important events? What are the basic principles of the Gülen Movement? These questions and more are posed and answered in detail in this book.

Doğu Ergil served as a professor of Political Sociology at Ankara University for long years; he is currently teaching at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Fatih University in İstanbul. Ergil has worked with various NGOs on developing more effective leadership, conflict management, and creative problem solving. He has won awards for his work in international organizations promoting peace and democracy.

The book is available at Ant Stores. Click the link to order it.

dogu-ergil-book-2Below is excerpt from an interview with Profesor Ergil.

As you were working on Gülen and the movement inspired by him, were there things that surprised you?

Several. Observing how a civil society organization can grow so powerful and evolve into a global phenomenon. As people who tend to expect support from the state for every initiative, we have difficulty understanding how our own people can create a national, and then international, movement, all from their own resources. Then we find out that we do not like the weakness with which we imprison ourselves. We nurture doubts and worries about the people who combine their resources to create a strong movement. Actually, we are not blaming them but ourselves and our “adopted helplessness.”

It is a contradiction for us to try to attribute the opposite to a movement which takes pains not to be in conflict with the state and which does not demand anything from it and which categorically refrains from taking part in politics.

It is extraordinary that an imam from rural Anatolia has emerged to become an opinion leader who influences large social groups and leads them in their search for modernization, improving their quality of life and secularization.

To interpret wealth as a reward from God to the people for their hard work and for being useful to others, something that paves the way for the accumulation of capital and encourages the businessmen to turn into investors.

To ensure that religion and science go together and that science penetrates not only individual lives, but also social life. To create educational institutions on an international scale and take them everywhere.

To understand that while many religious communities or clerics derive justifications for violence and hatred from the Quran and hadith, Gülen can spread peace, solidarity and all-inclusive common values, and he exerts great humane efforts to this end, accompanied by the impressive accomplishment of his followers to spread his efforts.

To observe that the Gülen movement has achieved secularization from the bottom up, contrary to the previous efforts by state authorities to achieve it. To see that with an increase in their welfare, education and effectiveness, people can make more rational decisions and experience the coexistence of religion and science, or life on Earth and the Hereafter, without separating or compartmentalizing them in their daily lives. This has happened without political choice or compulsion, but as a sociological and cultural process.

Click here to read the entore interview with Professor Ergil.


Related News

Gülen extends condolences to Egypt victims

Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen has extended his condolences to victims of the violence in Egypt that resulted after a military crackdown on two camps housing supporters of the country’s ousted president. The Egyptian Health Ministry put the latest death toll at 638 and said the number of injured in the Wednesday’s violence also has […]

The Gülen Movement and human rights values in the Muslim world

ÖZCAN KELEŞ* Fethullah Gülen is many things at once and it is this combination of characteristics, abilities and qualifications, some of which have hitherto seemed mutually exclusive, that marks him out from the rest and has provided him with a transformative edge. It is the combination of three particular characteristics that have enabled Gülen to […]

Zephyrs from the Presence, the latest book by Ahmet Kurucan…

The book, Huzurdan Esintiler (Zephyrs from the Presence), published by Işık (Light) Publications in 2012, is a total of 216 pages. The author collected the articles he had previously written for Zaman, a Turkish daily newspaper, and his new articles in this book. The shared subject of these articles written in various occasions is Fethullah Gulen. In this article of both presentation and criticism I will attempt to underline these two matters: Firstly, how does Kurucan describe the conversational environment with Gulen, and secondly, how exactly does the author illustrate Gulen’s portrait?

Turkey’s post-revolutionary civil war

What does this corruption investigation has anything to do with the AKP-Gülen Movement tension? Well, the prosecutor who apparently led this investigation in big secrecy, Zekeriya Öz, is believed to be a member of the movement. Corruption is a serious matter and the real best defense would be to help bring those who are charged to justice. Meanwhile, the Gülen Movement, normally a civil society group, should help save itself from the image of secrecy and infiltration that it has been drawn into in the past decade.

On Gülen vs Erdogan – “And not equal are the good deed and the bad”

Martin Luther, the Christian leader who is called “the Father of the Reformation,” described two kingdoms: the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of heaven. In the contrasts between Erdoğan and Gülen, we surely see examples of this distinction.

Fethullah Gülen: President Erdogan is suffering from power poisoning

Mr. Erdogan’s witch-hunt in Turkey accelerated with the globalization of the Hizmet movement. When he closed the doors to activities such as language and culture festivals, other countries welcomed them. When Mr. Erdogan urged Turkish ambassadors to lobby their respective foreign governments to help close down schools started by Hizmet participants, those governments refused to go along.

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

A strong message for Erdogan

Brazilian Intellectuals and Artists Defend Turk against Demands for Extradition to Turkey

Ramadan Tent brings faiths together in Virginia

GYV warns on provocative remarks, urges respect for peaceful protests

WSJ: Turks fleeing Erdogan fuel new influx of refugees to Greece

Turkish citizens keen to return to Yemen after conflict settled

What do people say about corruption, gov’t and Hizmet?

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News