Hizmet (service) Movement, and the Golinistic Understanding of Islam in Modern Turkey; the Nature, Trends and Perspectives

Since the 1960s, the Islamist movement in Turkey has grown under titles such as the Hizmet(Service) Movement, the Norrchi Stream and the Jalta Gülen, which has presented a new model of social Islam based on the religious protestist Fethullah Gulen's thoughts. As one of the most important movements, the Hizmet(Service) Movement was influential not only in Turkey but also in the region and areas such as Central Asia and the Caucasus, the Balkans, Africa, and even the United States in recent years. The findings of this descriptive-analytic literature show that the Hizmet(Service) Movement is a product of Turkish historical conditions and a reaction to the secularist policies of governments and the media, a continuous effort to adapt Islam to modernity. Using Islamic morality based on teachings of Sufism, ideas of sanctification of collective effort, fighting against poverty, and attempts to reconciling tradition and modernity through elements of tradition of liberalism and Protestant morality, the congregation offered a kind of Islam which defends for social Islam against political Islam. Although activities and actions of this movement have been overshadowed by events occurred after unsuccessful coup of July 2016 and the Erdogan government which has started a massive struggle to eliminate this movement, it seems that the movement which has its deep roots in Islamic tradition and native culture and has shown to be capable of adapting itself to the existing conditions and updating Islamic thoughts, can not be eliminated or marginalized easily.