Contemporary Islamic Conversations: M. Fethullah Gulen on Turkey, Islam, and the West
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Contemporary Islamic Conversations discusses the ideas of Turkey's most significant Muslim figure, M. Fethullah Gulen. Originally published in Turkish by Nevval Sevindi, one of Turkey's top journalists, this edited translation makes Gulen's work and ideas accessible to the English-speaking world for the first time. It includes interviews conducted by the author with Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999. The book explores his ideas regarding Islam and the West, Islam and violence, and religion and the future of the nation-state in Turkey and the Muslim world.Gulen has worked hard to revive the religious tradition of the Turkish theologian Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960), and while his debt to Nursi's ideas is clear, he has a passionate interest in Islamic theology and Arabic and Turkish literature, and is also deeply interested in poetry, philosophy, sociology, and the classics in general. Gulen offers a moderate perspective on Islam, is open to interfaith and intercivilizational dialogue, and defends a notion of Islam in which Muslims are able to fully engage the world without any fear or prejudice. His community of followers has opened 500 high schools around the world, including the United States, and also owns seven universities in Central Asia and Turkey.About the Author:Nevval Sevindi writes for the daily Zaman and is based in Istanbul, Turkey. At the Hartford Seminary in ConnecticutAbout the Author:Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi' is Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim RelationsAbout the Author:Abdullah T. Antepli is the Coordinator of Islamic Chaplaincy and InterfaithRelations
Editor's Introduction viiPreface 1Fethullah Gulen's Life and Thought 15The Actual Source of Hope: The Duty of Humanity 27The Flowering of the Individual 43Islam, Violence, and the West 51Turkish Identity between Islam and Nationalism 79Turkey's Quest for Unification with Europe 93Reform in Islam and the Turkish Renaissance 105Iranian Islam 117Criticism and Countercriticism of the Gulen Phenomenon in Contemporary Turkey 123Two Poems by Fethullah Gulen 149Notes 151Selected Bibliography 153Index 157
