This extensive analysis of the Mardin conflict in southeast Turkey considers the likelihood that socioreligious movements, such as the popular Glen movement, could effect positive change in ethnoreligious disputes, even those decades old. By focusing specifically on how Glen volunteers helped minimize the support of terrorist organizations in Anatolia, this guide illustrates how potent nonpolitical solutions to ethnic conflict can be.

Presents entries A to L of a two-volume encyclopedia discussing religion around the globe, including biographies, concepts and theories, places, social issues, movements, texts, and traditions.

The Diyanet, the official face of Islam in Turkey, is the `Presidency of Religious Affairs', a governmental department established in 1924 after the break-up of the Ottoman Empire and the abolition of Caliphate. In this book, Emir Kaya offers an in-depth multidisciplinary analysis of this vital institution. Focusing on the role of the Diyanet in society, Kaya explores the balance the institution has to strike between the Muslim traditions of the Turkish population and the secular creed of the Turkish state. By examining the various laws that either bolstered or hindered the Diyanet's budgets and activities, Kaya highlights the institutional mindsets of the Diyanet membership. He also evaluates its successes and failures as a state department that must consistently operate within the context of the religiosity of Turkish society. By situating all of this within the two competing - but often complimentary - concepts of religion and secularism, Kaya offers a book that is important for those researching the interplay of Islam and the state in Turkey and beyond.

The exploration of the contributions is made with regards to the title in hand by the thought and practice of the global movement associated with the Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen. The importance and distinctiveness of teaching of Gulen and the practice of the movement is that it is rooted in a confident Turkish Islamic heritage while being fully engaged with modernity. It offers the possibility of a contextualised renewal of Islam for Muslims in the modern world while being fully rooted in the teachings of the Qu'ran and the Sunnah of the Prophet. It advocates the freedom of religion while making an Islamic contribution to the wider society based on a commitment to service of others.

This scholarly book presents a case study of some of the London-based work of a social movement known as Hizmet, or the Gulen Movement. This transnational faith-inspired movement represents a rising trend of philanthropic social activism around the world and increasingly now in the Muslim world. This book grew out of the author's deep interest in Muslims' interaction with modern society, their social activism, and their response and contributions to global transformation. The author provides a unique insight into the Hizmet Movement, how it draws on Islamic resources, how it should be classified, and how it differs from other social movements.

In a world that is too often seen as a cloash of civilizations, some believe there is another way, a path that involves engagement, dialogue, and respect. In Thomas Michel's new book, Peace and Dialogue in a Plural Society, he explores how Fethullah Gulen is one of those speaking most vocally in favor of a world community, where different faiths and nations can come together at one table to solve the multitude of problems facing today's world. Exploring the spiritual roots of Gulen and the Hizmet Movement, as well as drawing parallels between his own work as a Catholic priest, Michel shows how Hizmet has helped build a blueprint for intercultural communication in a time when too many voices are trying to stoke the fires of discord. Through education, dialogue, and a respect for basic human dignity, Michel finds a foundation in Gulen's faith and Hizmet's service upon which a healthy, diverse society can be built.

The Hizmet Movement and Peacebuilding assesses the peacebuilding implications and societal impact of the Hizmet Movement, characterized as a pacifist and inclusive expression of Islam. With a range of both supporters and critics, the studies of the Hizmet Movement presented in these cases provide a counter to negative stereotypes with examples of positive educational institutions rooted in Islamic values. The book includes contributions from scholars and practitioners around the world that critically explore the intersection of the movement and peacebuilding in countries such as Northern Iraq, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.

This book presents findings from research into one of the world's most influential Islamic movements, the Gülen Movement, from the perspective of social transformation through adult education. At the core of research questions lies how the movement enrolls volunteers from all walks of life and transforms them to adopt its aims at the expense of their individual ideals. The book reveals the socio-psychological mechanisms that make such transformation possible by looking at how followers integrate weekly lectures and discussions on the theory and practice of Islam into their personal and social lives. The Gülen Movement offers a moderate interpretation of Islam and stresses the vitality of establishing communication with the members of all faiths. This book provides a window into how and why religion may roll into extremism by presenting findings from an opposite perspective: the participants in the research all define themselves as truly pious but do not even imply an act of violence in tens of hours of interviews. In short, the book weaves the strands of "Islamic," "movement," and "adult education" into a unified whole and limns the snapshot of a social movement, offering a comprehensive discussion of the role of adult education within the movement, as well as its transformative potential and its wider social and political implications.

"The existence of social conflicts and the lack of social cohesion are at the center of public debates in many societies. In recent years, these issues have often been linked to Muslims and their religious beliefs. The Islamic response to these allegations and the social problems evoking them has been diverse: this book concerns the reply of a transnational movement of volunteers inspired by the teachings of Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish Muslim scholar. This study represents an attempt to incorporate the Gülen Movement--also called the Volunteers Movement--into a social movement theory approach. In pluralist societies, there are different communication structures and different ways of conflict resolution. The Gülen Movement proposes and practices dialogue and education as two means to establish peace, by maintaining social cohesion and mending the social cleavages dividing Muslims and non-Muslims. It is not only Gülen's spiritual message that has inspired people to pursuit [sic] these ideals, but also his leadership. By focusing on its spiritual, intellectual, and practical dimension and its social background, this book contributes to a comprehensive understanding of one of the most promising contemporary social movements"--Publisher's description, back cover.

“Hizmet”—or the Gülen Movement referring to name of the renowned Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen—originated in 1970s’ Turkey as a faith-inspired initiative to improve educational opportunities for a local community; since then, it has grown into a transnational educational, inter-cultural and interfaith movement. This book is intended to summarize and represent the conclusions of much of the academic work on Hizmet in a manner more easily accessible to the lay person or non-specialist.