Sacred, Secular, Twin Tolerations and the Hizmet Movement

Dr. Ihsan Yilmaz
Dr. Ihsan Yilmaz


Date posted: November 22, 2012

Dr. Ihsan Yilmaz

For me, the month of November is a month of conferences that I have to both endure but also enjoy. From New Orleans, I flew to Lahore to present a paper at another international conference titled “Ideal Human and Ideal Society in the Thoughts of M. Fethullah Gülen.” Scholars from many parts of the world presented their papers on the topic.

Several papers focus on the Hizmet movement’s (aka Gulen movement) activities in the Muslim world such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Egypt. My paper’s title is “Sacred, Secular, Twin Tolerations and the Hizmet.” It elaborates on Gülen’s society-centric understanding of Islam as opposed to the state-centric approaches of both Islamists and Kemalists.

Until the late 1970s and early 1980s, a relatively widespread consensus had existed in the sociology of religion discipline over the privatization of religion. Some scholars such as Jose Casanova have argued that during the course of the last few decades, a process of “de-privatization” of religion has taken place in the world and that institutional differentiation does not necessarily result in the marginalization and privatization of religion.

Jürgen Habermas underlines that “religious communities and movements provide arguments for public debates on crucial morally loaded issues and handle tasks of political socialization by informing their members and encouraging them to take part in the political process.” He then says that citizens must agree “that only secular reasons count beyond the institutional threshold that divides the informal public sphere from parliaments, courts, ministries and administrations.” Religious citizens too can agree to this “institutional translation proviso” without splitting their identity into a public and a private part when they participate in public debates and discourses.

A convergence between Gülen’s idea that passive secularism is compatible with Islam and the Habermasian understanding of religion in the public sphere can be observed. This convergence could even amount to an overlapping consensus, to use John Rawls’ concept. Here, a secularist (Habermas) agrees with an Islamic scholar (Gülen) that religion can be practiced in the public realm, that religious demands can be made in the public sphere and that the state is at equidistance from all religions.

Gülen’s conception of an Islam-friendly democracy is a key to understand his approach to sacred and secular relations. Gülen does not see a contradiction between Islam and democracy and says that Islam establishes fundamental principles that orient a government’s general character, leaving it up to the people to choose the type and form of government according to time and circumstances. With regard to state-society-religion issues, he has argued unlike the Islamists that passive Anglo-Saxon secularism that guarantees human rights and freedoms, including freedom of religion, could provide a framework for Muslims to practice their religion comfortably while other religious minorities also benefit from human rights. He has highlighted that Islam does not need a state to survive and that civil society or the civilian realm in liberal-democratic settings is sufficient for its individual and social practice.

This understanding of “Islamic secularism” or “twin tolerations” resonates with the Habermasian “religion in the public sphere” philosophy, which argues that the faithful can have demands based on religion in the public sphere and that in the final analysis it is the legislators’ task to translate these demands into a secular language and enact them accordingly.

Source: Today’s Zaman November 21, 2012


Related News

In Houston, a celebration: Silk road festival

“Yes, I am very pleased,” Annise Parker, mayor of Houston, told me. “The community of Turks, here in particular, are very outward, extroverted and curious in a sense of cultural understanding. I wish the others, too, would be like them. They contribute a lot to our prosperity and future and teach us a lot about where they come from, Turkey.”

Final declaration of the 33rd Abant Platform: “Turkey direction”

Participants in the 33rd Abant Platform, which ended on Sunday in the northwestern town of Akçakoca, agreed that Turkey has lost its direction in both its domestic and foreign policy, saying the way to rectify this is to restore its commitment to the accession process into the European Union and the rule of law at home.

Dr. Reuven Firestone Interviewed by Muslim Turkish Movement “Hizmet”

Rabbi Reuven Firestone, Ph.D., Professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam at the Jack H. Skirball Campus of HUC-JIR in Los Angeles, was interviewed by a Muslim Turkish Movement called Hizmet, which means “service.” Hizmet is active in interfaith dialogue in Turkey and many other countries, and has built private and charter schools in many countries, […]

President emphasizes importance of domestic peace for development

President Abdullah Gül has underlined the importance of domestic peace for Turkey to keep up its development, noting that the country should not waste its energy by focusing on “unnecessary rumors,” an almost open reference to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s defamation campaign targeting the Hizmet movement, a volunteer-based grassroots movement inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Turkish PM Erdoğan’s imagined enemies

Turkey is no longer the old Turkey. The affluent middle class, the young population and stronger civil society organizations, strengthened by the digital revolution with such tools as social media and Internet portals, will resist any attempts to turn the clock backwards on the development of Turkish democracy. People will simply ask why Prime Minister Erdoğan is not going after his people who have been sleeping with the enemy next door if he is really sincere in addressing external threats to this great nation.

Turkey’s post-coup crackdown moves overseas

In several cases, Turkey has offered to run the seized institutions, although it is expected to face legal challenges. Kimse Yok Mu, which had more than 200,000 volunteers in 100 countries before being forcibly closed after the coup attempt, is understood to be preparing to take the decision to international courts. Joshua Hendrick, an expert on the Gulen movement said Ankara faced a big challenge when it came to stepping into the shoes of its former allies.

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

Why does Öcalan need to approach the Gülen movement?

Ramadan Tent Dinner brings a flavor of the East to Bethlehem

MHP: Gov’t should not harass its citizens who open Turkish schools abroad

Philippine House speaker receives Turkish school delegation

Albanian parliament speaker visits Turkish school after Erdoğan calls for its closure

Ayse Bohurler says International Herald Tribune misquoted remarks on Gülen movement

Torture appeared widespread after Turkey coup: UN expert

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News