The Gülen movement: perceptions of democracy, secularism, religion and public sphere

Abstract

This thesis aims to provide an investigation of the Gülen Community’s perception of the state, democracy and secularism as well as the public- private sphere distinction and to provide an evaluation of these perceptions with a theoretical framework, from a critical point of view. The main question for the thesis is whether the Gülen Community contributes to the transition to and the consolidation of democracy in Turkey. Thus, while the weak points in works done regarding this movement up until today will be brought out, its current socio-economic structure as well as the activities on the educational and political domains is going to be analyzed. Taking into consideration the fact that this movement should not be studied only by looking at Fethullah Gülen’s perceptions, the themes that have commonly existed in interviews made with the Gülen movement members among whom nine of them were teachers, three of them were craftsmen and two of them were women interviewees would be analyzed critically. Finally, thanks to these interviews, it would be looked at what kind of state model is desired by the movement and at how the concepts such as democracy, secularization and public sphere are perceived by the community with a critique based on a theoretical framework. Hence, this thesis further aims to find out whether the Gülen Community is a civic organization that promotes pluralism or not in Turkey which has a multicultural society and whether it contributes to the consolidation of democracy or not.|Keywords: Fethullah Gülen, Democracy, Civil Society, Secularism, Public Sphere.