Arif Dirlik. Religious Enterprise: Thoughts on the Gülen Movement in a Global Perspective

Because of its Islamic faith, it may seem “natural” to view the Gülen movement as a Turkish version of the Islamic resurgence of the last four decades. There is no doubt that it is that. In its heyday during the years of alliance with the Justice and Development Party (JDP) in the first decade of this century, the movement also sought regime change in Turkey, at its most utopian something along the lines of the restoration of Ottoman rule to replace or radically transform the secular republic established in 1923. The Gülen movement appears somewhat different from a global perspective where its promises, however unique in their derivation and formulation, appear as commonplace promises of other contemporary, and comparable, religious or religion-informed movements with which it also shares commonalities in organizational activity and practice: such as the Soka Gakkai from Japan, the Unification Church from Korea, and the Falun Gong from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). A global perspective is most important in order to release analysis from the particular historical legacies these movements claim, and parochialism in their interpretations. This is not to deny their unique historical origins and inspirations, but to draw attention to their ideological and strategic affinities with one another as well as other so-called “new religious movements.”