the legacy of Fethullah Gulen

The legacy of Fethullah Gülen

“A person is truly a human if he or she learns, and teaches, and inspires others. It is difficult to regard as truly human someone who is ignorant and has no desire to learn”.
“To defeat terrorism, we must acknowledge that we are all human beings. It is not our choice to belong to a particular race or family. I believe that dialogue and education are the most effective means to surpass our differences”.

Sometimes good men and women slip out of sight and mind because those with a megaphone have used it to wrongly portray them negatively. Also, because those who should have spoken up have lacked the courage to do so.

This is the case with Fethullah Gülen who died in exile from his native Turkey on October 20 aged 83.
Gülen was a devout Muslim who longed for his country, its politics, its institutions, its people, to be formed by and in the Islamic faith. Nothing particularly noteworthy about that you might think. The context in which he formulated his ideas was what he observed as a growing secularism in Turkey accompanied not simply with a loss of spiritual identity but with a growing materialism focussed on what he considered to be a diminished version of what it means to be human.

Thus, he began a movement he and his followers called Hizmet which means service. He considered the true nature of Islam to be known and expressed not as a system of beliefs but as life lived in service, nurtured by the five pillars of Islam.

The movement was never a highly structured organisation, least of all a political party, but a loosely connected network of people who were inspired to follow this path. Gülen, living in Izmir until1999, did not directly oversee the work.

Over many years, more than 1000 schools were established globally as well as universities.  Graduates were encouraged to take roles in the public service judiciary and other positions of influence.
Technical and scientific advances of modernity were embraced.   Students received what might be described as a liberal education. Democracy was taught, tolerance and respect for others expected. Interfaith dialogue encouraged.  Politicisation of religion condemned.  Students and teachers were imbued with a strong code of moral and ethical behaviour.

Margaret and I were guest of the Hizmet movement on a visit to Turkey in 2012. We were overcome by the kindness, generosity and openness we experienced. Our Christian faith was honoured and respected. The manner in which the Islamic faith shaped the quality of living in the lives of all we met was truly inspiring.

Take away the institutionalised dogmas and historical layers of fear and suspicion, in both Christianity and Islam, I was struck by the reality that the heart of both religions springs from the same root – love.
In 2013 the movement in Turkey began to fall out with the AKP, the party of President Tayyip Erdogan, over its increasing authoritarianism and corruption.  The Hizmet movement’s activity was restricted and then overtly linked (blamed) for the attempted coup in 2016 which led to the arrest of thousands of teachers, professors, judges, police and public servants, and the permanent exile of Gülen. (He had moved to the US for medical treatment in 1999 and lived in Pennsylvania). What the ‘attempted coup’ was really about there is much speculation but no definitive answer.  That Gülen and the Hizmet movement were responsible simply does not make any sense, given their philosophy of non-violence and their lack of any necessary organisational structure.  Türkiye was never able to provide evidence to the US to warrant an extradition order.

It is desperately important that Gülen’s legacy lives on, not simply in Islam but as a feature of religion worldwide. Whether in Russia, India, Pakistan, Israel, or the US, religion is a politicised tool of nationalism, its fundamental character as an instrument of service in personal and public life is lost. As a consequence, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism in these countries have not been agents of inclusivity and tolerance, unfortunately, quite the reverse.

On the other hand, in countries like Australia, faith generally lives in the margins, with little impact upon public policy let alone ethical life.
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The inspiration behind founding the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture on the edge of the parliamentary triangle in Canberra was to openly and publicly engage the Christian faith, indeed all faiths, with Australian public life.   It was in this context that I first encountered the Hizmet movement.