Gulen Movement : Transnational Religious Nationalism

An  (a little dated but interesting) conversation at Baker Institute, Rice University on Gulen/Hizmet movement. Transnational Religious Nationalism in Turkey: Gulen Movement 

Some points by Joshua D. Hendricks, whose book Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World came out in 2013: 

1. Gulen is a collective identity movement that very much relies upon the effective support of loyal supporters that constitute the upper echelons of the movement. They are what Max Weber has called 'charismatic aristocracy'.
2. Movement is more about social mobility than about religion or spirituality. Strategies incorporated to reproduce a sense of community and purpose in the Gulen movement is a very instructive case by which we can observe how the teachings of a charismatic leader can become routinized and institutionalized as an avenue for social mobility.
3. As a collective actor is Turkish context, the Gulen movement's preference for ambiguity, while discussing its organizational model, is perfect understandable. However, the US public sphere is very uneasy with this ambiguity when it comes to organizational capacity and this is likely to continue to be an Achilles heel for the movement here. 
4. AKP has been very successful in Turkey and it claims to be a conservative and not an Islamist party. AKP's success has a lot to do with its own actions but other groups have also contributed to it. The civil society coalition supporting the AKP is much broader and Gulen movement is a very important part of that coalition.
5. Gulen movement started from Izmir from a few student dormitories, Many of these dormitories later became colleges/high schools. The first two such colleges were Fateh college, Istanbul and Yamanlar college, Izmir. Later there were hundreds of such schools.
6. The focus of these schools was sciences and math. These subjects are central to their curriculum as Gulen teaching have argued that sciences and math is another way to talk about Creation. It is argued that Quran and science are two versions of the same story.
7. As students of these schools outperformed others educationally, it became difficult for Gulen's critics to claim students are brainwashed/Islamized in these schools. Ss schools first expanded to different part of Turkey and then to numerous countries of the world. The US now hosts most Gulen-inspired schools in the world, outside of Turkey.   
8. These schools provide a starting point for Turkish businesses and serve as informal Turkish embassies. Every time an AKP minister/official visits abroad, they visit these Turkish schools and praise them.
9. In addition to schools, Gulen sympathizers control banks, NGOs, media (TV stations, newspapers, journals etc.), educational supplier companies, publishing companies, an ICT firm, a thinktank, and many interfaith dialogue institutes throughout the Western world.
10. Islam in the 'other', the 'alien' in the West. The popular conversation about Islam in the West is very static, very uniform and very essentialist. More than one point seven billion people are talked about as they are all the same.  
11. Gulen teachings are similar to teachings of other revivalist charismatic leaders. 
12. Gulen 'aristocrats' talk about the exponential spread of Gulen movement but then they also claim there is no Gulen movement because there is no organic connection between its different parts (or what are claimed to be its different parts). So what is it?
13. Most of the people did not come to the movement because of Gulen or his teachings, although now they consider him to be the most learned person in the world (Gulen is called Hoja Effendi --- the esteemed teacher) and their principal inspiration. They came to the movement through their schools, their teachers, the subsidized housing assistance they received etc. So, at least for recruitment, motivation to participate is far from spiritual.
14. Recruitment is based on a market process where student/parents are first attracted to the Gulen movement because of its excellent entrance exam preparation for universities and then students are offered subsidized housing in cities. This subsidized housing units are called 'houses of light' and most student first come to know about Gulen teachings at these units. Most probably, in these units, students also come to know about all these Gulen inspired companies and possibly jobs/employment opportunities there. So, this is actually a social mobility movement in a society, like Turkey, where there are not many avenues of social mobility. 
15. Success leads to conspiracy. One of the main criticisms is that Gulen movement is taking over the state. Classical Islamist groups were about seizing the state but now there are many types of Islamic movements and many are not focusing on capturing the state and Gulen is one of them. 
16. But why Gulen movement is popular outside Turkey? Similar model as in Turkey. It is the excellent education provided or the 'teach to the test' methods or the promise of social mobility that attracts people rather than the Gulen teachings. Secondly, there is a demand for 'moderate' Islam here in West and Gulen is packaged for that.
17. Gulen movement maynot be all about selfless service to humanity or Islam. There are visits, conferences, awards, dialogue etc. arranged to popularize a specific view of Gulen. Gulen movement, in the words of its leaders here, presents a specific view of Turkish foreign policy. 
18. There is already a backlash against the movement in Russia, Holland and here in the US. Main reason for this backlash is ambiguity. Gulen inspired institutions are linked but these links are denied publicly.
19. Although there are are no legal links, Gulen schools in the US are linked with ideational, social, clientele networks etc. and these links are denied again and again. There are denials by schools and Gulen himself but his legal team in his US immigration application claimed that he is linked to hundreds of similar schools around the world.
20. Why this secrecy and contradiction? This is mind-boggling for parents and others here in the US, although understandable in Turkey.
21. Conclusion: Gulen movement is a successful non-violent Islam-inspired movement and it is important for not only Turkey but also for the world. So, they should come clean and not be ambiguous.

Y. Alp Aslandogan , President of Interfaith Dialogue, an organization linked with Gulen Movement, responded:

1. I accept that Gulen personality and teaching have something to do with the movement success, but not everything is related to Gulen. Similarly, it would not be correct to say that test-preparing schools or hostels are the biggest attraction.
2. Alternative theory about movement success- the sugar crystallization process. Gulen was the crystal that was dropped from outside, the other political, social, economic circumstances were already there. Turkish people were disillusioned by their leadership for decades and Gulen and his friends got their trust, through their work/service and are still successful because of their service/hizmet.
3. Spirituality plays a large part but this is not to deny the economic aspect of Gulen movement. Maybe somebody can do a study to locate where is the balance.
4. Gulen movement is not presented as but is actually an antidote to Al-Qaida. Gulen position against violence is decades-old and he is against Al-Qaida from the very start.
5. Conferences and visits are for social scientists/ people to learn about the movement. Movement does not know what the researchers are going to write. And there is no attempt to hide. For example, Joshua lived with movement members for months and movement did not know what he was going to write but still there was facilitation. If this is not transparency then what is. Similarly, there are other  researchers who were facilitated by the movement and then praised and criticized movement, without any reaction from the movement. 
6. There is not much backlash against the movement but some backlash against schools in some countries? This backlash is much more complicated then anger against the movement and its practices. For example, in Russia, backlash had something to do with contracts of military equipment.
7. Criticism by some parents (9 emails to Joshua) in the US has to be balanced by the vote of confidence of thousands of families who send their kids to these schools even today. Who is right, you decide?
8. There is also a phenomenon of 'guilt by association'. As Joshua said, people associate Islam with Khomeini and so any movement linked with Islam is also associated with Khomeini and then criticized or thought of as part of a conspiracy.
9. Movement has done a lot for Kurdish citizens and other minorities. Thousands of free schools/academies are working in Kurdish areas to get Kurdish children to become lawyers, doctors, engineers etc.  There is also village gatherings to educate illiterate villagers. Gulen affiliated TV channels were also the first to broadcast in Kurdish language after Turkish government decriminalized the Kurdish language broadcasting.