The Turkish Government and Gülenism: Non-democratic Political Dimensions of the Gülen Movement

The Gülen movement as a religious movement rose in the early 1970s and has enormous resources, millions of fans and thousands of educational institutions, culture and numerous media outlets in Turkey and worldwide. In recent decades elements such as democracy, tolerance, inter-religious dialogue and market economy have been included in the discourse of the Gülen movement. Different researchers’ emphasis on civil and modern elements of movement caused the ignoring of its undemocratic and deeply political layers. In the past decade, these features have created major challenges for the Turkish government and the coup in July 2016 has been one of the main examples.
The main question of this paper is whether the movement can be a democratic and non-political Islamic movement. The hypothesis is that statist understanding of Islam, and the government's lack of preference for the rights of the individual, elitist tendencies, extreme centralization of organization, hierarchical structure, top-down decisions and absolute obedience and lack of accountability of the movement against criticism reveal the repressive policy, the authoritarianism and undemocratic nature of this movement.