Fethullah Gülen’s Missionary Schools in Central Asia and their Role in the Spreading of Turkism and Islam1
By Bayram Balci
Introduction: The Nurcu Movement from Said Nursi to Fethullah Gülen
The Legacy of Said Nursi
A broad outline of Said Nursi’s life and thought is crucial to an understanding of the Gülen phenomenon in Central Asia. Born in 1873 in the village of Nurs (southeastern Turkey), Said Nursi was deeply influenced by the classical teaching in the madrassah and the traditional and conservative atmosphere of his region. His biographies and hagiographies highlight three essential periods in his career.2
Between 1873 and 1925 he first got involved in politics and religious matters, fighting for the rooting of Islam in the state institutions of the dying Ottoman Empire, dreaming of an Islamic university as prestigious as Al-Azhar, heroically leading a movement of popular resistance in the First World War against the Russian troops, who held him as a prisoner of war in Siberia until 1916, negotiating in vain the role he felt Islam must play in the emerging modern Turkey of the young Mustafa Kemal.
Distrusted and disappointed by Turkey’s new secular leaders, Nursi returned home to teach Islam. When in 1925 a separatist Kurdish revolt broke out in the south-east, he opposed it publicly, but he was still deported to the West by the young Kemalist regime, which was eager to pacify the region and eliminate all possible opposition.
From his deportation to approximately the beginning of 1950s Said Nursi remained far from politics, dedicating his time to writing and sharing his ideas with newly converted disciples and followers. Considered as dangerous for the stability of the state, he was arrested and imprisoned for 11 years (1935–46). Most of his essays were written in prison, where he converted his first followers and where his thought evolved from the goal of Islamisation of the state towards the even more essential Islamisation of the spirit and the reinforcement of faith by education.
Nursi’s followers were known as Nur Talebeleri, ‘the Followers of Nur’, ‘nur’ meaning ‘light’ in Turkish as well as recalling Nursi’s name and village of origin. They constituted what became known as the Nurcu Movement.
As political pluralism in Turkey made progress between 1946 and 1950 and new political parties emerged, the hitherto unique Republican Party of the People (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) was now challenged by the Democratic Party (Demokrat Partisi, DP) of Adnan Menderes. This major political change brought a change for Said Nursi too. Although the leader of the Nur Talebeleri invited people to support the DP because it tolerated religious activities in Turkey, Nursi, until his death in 1960 and the banning of his ideas and publications after the military coup, continued to denounce the ‘politicisation’ of religion, calling on his followers not to get involved with any party or political movement but to concentrate on Islam only.
Said Nursi’s Thought
Many books have been devoted to the religious ideas of Said Nursi and their impact in Turkey. Faith is at the very centre of Nursi’s thought. He gives priority to the reinforcement of individual faith, and only after that to the revival of faith in society. In his view this great ideal can be accomplished only through education, and this comes to play a major role in his vision of the development of Islam in the context of modernity.
‘Modernity’ is indeed the other key concept in Nursi’s understanding of Islamic revival. It has two different but complementary aspects. The first aspect is technology, and especially telecommunications and the media, as a tool for disseminating his ideas widely and attracting the younger generation. The second aspect is the introduction of science. Very early, Nursi advocated the modernisation of the classical spirit of the madrassah by the introduction of mathematics, physics and logic into the educational curriculum. The objective was to demonstrate that Islam belonged to the present and the future just as much as science and modernity did.
The Relationship of Fethullah Gülen to Said Nursi
After the death of Said Nursi his followers divided. Various subcommunities emerged in the 1960s and 1970s for a variety of reasons: political (support for the army or a political party), religious (contacts with the religious political parties), ethnic (the Kurdish question and the interpretation of Nursi’s message) and generational. Among these subgroups and among the Nurcu leaders claiming Nursi’s legacy, Fethullah Gülen stands apart.
Although both men originated from eastern Turkey, Gülen, born in 1938 near Erzurum, never met Nursi; but he was deeply influenced by his ideas. The major common points linking them are the importance given to education and the anchorage of Islam in modernity. Since the beginning of his religious career Gülen has been putting into practice Nursi’s conception of education as a method of strengthening faith. Like Nursi’s, Gülen’s conception of education involves a scientific input and openness to modernity, making real Nursi’s dream of a mix of madrassah (the classical Islamic school system) and mektep (the modern school system), simultaneously developing secular and religious subjects in the same curriculum. Last but not least, both thinkers place Islam in good harmony with modernity, enlarging the debate on Islam’s compatibility with democracy and the western world (Gülen, 2001).
At the start of the 1970s Gülen was an employee of the state, working as a vaiz (preacher) in the mosque of Kestanepazari, near Izmir. Aware of the importance of education for the development of Islamic faith in the country, he gathered a small group of followers in vakif (private foundations) and organised ‘religious summer schools’, which could be compared to scout camps, and where hundreds of students received Islamic education.
During the 1970s new vakif were created throughout the country. The media network was developed in order to increase the community’s influence. Conscious of his fragile status in the secular republic, Gülen never attacked the state and its secular institutions, but he proved to have a strong nationalist dimension in his ideology.
The 1980s saw the fast development of the movement, eased by liberal measures introduced by the government in the 1980s that transformed the economy and society. Economic development was boosted and the various political, social and religious organisations strengthened their influence. The vakif belonging to Gülen’s community invested in all economic sectors but especially in education with the creation of private schools, dormitories and dershane (special schools where students prepare for examinations for entry to university). Nurcu media like the magazine Sızıntı, the newspaper Zaman and the television station Samanyolu were developed. After the military coup of 1980 open religious activities increased. Because of the ‘communist threat’ and the feared influence of leftist organisations in Turkey the military regime tolerated the development of Islamic consciousness among young people and sometimes facilitated the development of Islamism. By the end of the 1980s the community of Fethullah Gülen became the most powerful Islamic organisation in Turkey, with the exception of the various political parties created by Necmettin Erbakan, the Islamism of which is more political than cultural. The collapse of the socialist bloc in the 1990s proved to be an even better opportunity for the development of the community in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The Nurcu Movement in Central Asia Today
The purpose of this article is not to study Gülen’s community in Turkey; this has already been the subject of good research.3 Since the beginning of the 1990s Central Asia has been the area where this movement has mainly been focusing its strategy of development as a transnational network. It is important therefore to analyse in detail the role of this community’s presence in Central Asia in order to understand the nature of this neo-Nurcu movement. Because of its strong presence in Central Asia, Gülen’s movement is an element in the development of Ankara’s policies in the Turkic republics there. The neo-Nurcu presence in Central Asia is everywhere: in economic life, in the media and in the educational network. In this study I shall try to analyse the ideology of the Nurcu movement and its ambitions for this area. The first aim of Gülen’s students (shagird) is of course to reintroduce Islam into an area that has for so long been dominated by atheism and communism. As I am going to demonstrate, however, this group – called cemaat, which means ‘community’ – faces difficulties in trying to propagate its ideas in the Central Asian republics. This is partly due to the Central Asian states’ attitude and partly to the nature of the movement’s ideas. Turkism is much more easily spread than Islam. High schools – liseler – are the most important of the community’s establishments in Central Asia.
This study is based on field research carried out between November 1996 and May 2002 in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, and on work in Turkey.4 In the course of my research I had the opportunity to interview hundreds of people, most of them employed in these Turkish private schools or working with them.5 I also had the opportunity to live with teachers in these schools. I interviewed people in the following categories:
● the manager of all the schools in each republic (genel müdür)
● the heads of each subject in the school (zümre bas,kanları)
● the teachers and tutors (ögretmen and belletmen)
● pupils’ parents
● pupils
● undergraduate and graduate students
● employees of the Ministry of Education in each country
● religious authorities
● Turkish diplomats in each country
● Turkish Nurcu businessmen
● members of the community in Turkey
The conclusions drawn in this article are tentative. Members of the cemaat in Central Asia try to spread their ideas secretly because of the authorities’ attitude to religious influences from abroad. Of course while carrying out my research I won the trust of some fethullahcı (as the disciples of Fethullah Gülen are known), but this confidence was not sufficient for me to obtain answers to some of my questions such as the nature of hierarchy in the movement, the salaries of the teachers or the expenses of the school.
The Establishing of Schools and their Various Categories
The first schools appeared in the period 1992–93. The time was favourable, for two reasons. First, at that period the relations between Turkey and the Central Asian republics were excellent, probably because they were new. There was the question whether these countries would adopt a ‘Turkish model of development’ (Bal, 1997; Jalolov, 1994), the context being that of a ‘reunion’ of ‘Turkic brothers’. Second, Turgut Özal, Turkey’s leader at that time, helped the initial mission activity on the part of Gülen’s schools. Each school displays a big picture of Turgut Özal.
In fact Gülen’s pioneers did not wait for there to be a favourable context for beginning their activities in Central Asia. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of the Central Asian states, a good number of businessmen who were members of the movement came to the region. The missionary spirit of the movement helped to prepare its way. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union many Nurcu in various cities in Turkey had been preparing themselves to ‘conquer’ Central Asia (Can, 1996, pp. 53–61). They included businessmen, students, teachers and journalists. Just before the independence of the Central Asian republics, Gülen and his advisors urged these people to go into Central Asia.
They always use the same method: businessmen from a particular city in Turkey, for example Bursa, will decide to concentrate their efforts on a particular Central Asian city, for example Tashkent. Nurcu investment will then become important in Tashkent, and a kind of twinning (kardes sehir) between the two cities results. Nurcu group members – whom we can consider as missionaries – are sent by the movement with the aim of making contact with important companies, bureaucrats and personalities in order to appraise local needs. They then invite some of these important personalities to Turkey. Some vakıf and other Nurcu organisations receive them and show them the private schools and foundations of the cemaat, without ever mentioning this word. Thanks to these contacts it then becomes easy to prepare the work in Central Asia.
The network of important personalities established in Central Asia has been crucial for the community. With their help, the cemaat has been able to overcome the bureaucratic obstacles encountered by every foreigner working to invest there. After their arrival in each country, thanks to their contacts, the representatives of the cemaat are given permission to take over an old school and to transform it. The new school will remain under the control of the state, which helps to maintain it, paying for such things as gas, water and electricity. On the other hand all the other expenses, for books, tables, computers, laboratories and so on, are met by the Turkish companies.
The movement’s strategy for establishing itself in Central Asia was quite successful. In just two years, 1991–93, hundreds of companies and dozens of schools were opened in Central Asia, as well as the cemaat newspaper Zaman, which was published in the capital of each republic.
Most of the Turkish companies in Central Asia belong to the Nurcu movement. Most of them, except Ülker and Barakat (import-export) are small-sized companies involved with a range of activities like baking, running restaurants, the construction industry and textile manufacture.6 A company can be described as a ‘Nurcu’ company when its directors and other members subscribe to the ideas of Nursi and Gülen. The company will normally try to propagate these ideas in various ways. During the first years of independence these companies imported books and literature from Turkey about Said Nursi and his movement.7 Bookshops belonging to the cemaat played an important role in the distribution of Nurcu literature. For example, the Aydın company in Almaty and its branch in Tashkent stocked books, reviews, tapes and newspapers from the cemaat in Turkish, English, Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Turkmen.
In each country most of the Nurcu companies are members of businessmen’s associations. For example, in Uzbekistan Özbekistan ve Türkiye Is,adamları Dernegi (The Association of Uzbek and Turkish Businessmen, UTID) tries to favour trade between Uzbekistan and Turkey.8 In Kyrgyzstan the same service is provided by Kırgızistan ve Türkiye Is,adamlari Dernegi (The Association of Kyrgyz and Turkish Businessmen (KITIAD)) located in central Bishkek. In Turkmenistan this sort of organisation is forbidden by law, but the Nurcu have other ways on improving their investments in that country. In Kazakhstan, Kazakistan ve Türkiye Egitim Vakfı (The Kazakhstan and Turkey Education Foundation (KATEV)) is entirely Nurcu, although Kazakistan ve Türkiye Is,adamları Dernegi (The Association of Kazakh and Turkish Businessmen, KATIAD) is not controlled by Gülen’s businessmen. Some non-Nurcu are allowed into all these organisations, but they are a minority.
It is impossible to study the cemaat presence in Central Asia without mentioning the role of Zaman,9 the famous Nurcu newspaper which is at present distributed in three of the Central Asian capital cities, Bishkek, Ashgabat and Almaty. Efforts to establish Zaman in Central Asia began just after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This proved to be easy except in Tashkent where after two years of publication it was closed by the Uzbek government, which was hostile to Turkey and Turkish schools.
In each country, Zaman has been supplementing the mission of schools in Central Asia. Some teachers, for example, work both in schools and for Zaman, and the paper sometimes recruits pupils from these schools where Turkish is taught. Like that of other Nurcu companies, the purpose of Zaman is to help the schools to fulfil the mission of the Nurcu movement.
In 1998–99 there were about 75 Nurcu educational establishments in Central Asia.10 However, we should bear in mind that schools inspired by Fethullah Gülen’s ideas are to be found throughout Eurasia (see Table 1).
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Notes
1 I would like to thank the Institut Français d’Études sur l’Asie Centrale of Tashkent where I was able to spend three years doing the research for this article.
2 On the life and ideas of Said Nursi, see two main references: Mürsel, 1991 and Mardin, 1989.
3 For more detailed analyses of Gülen’s movement in Turkey see: Yavuz, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c; Can, 1996; Erdogan, 1997.
4 Some high schools have been set up in Tajikistan too: in Dushanbe, Khojand, Kulyab and Kurgan-Tyube. When I visited Tajikistan in July 1998 they totalled five. My research is however limited to the Turkic republics of Central Asia; I do not include Persian-language Tajikistan.
5 It is difficult to separate the two fields (Turkey and Central Asia). I chose to limit my research to Central Asia, but sometimes I had to go to Turkey to make important contacts. For information on the activity, importance and strength of the cemaat in Turkey see Yavuz, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c and Aras, 1998.
6 For example, cemaat firms in Uzbekistan in May 2000 included Nur-Efs, an (chocolate), Efendim (restaurant), Nil JV (napkins), Ikbal (clothes). Prominent cemaat companies in Kyrgyzstan in 1999 included Herkül (biscuits), Gök-Nur (cleaning products), Pak-Maya (bakery and cakes). These lists of companies were compiled by UTID and KITIAD.
7 The Sözler Yayınevi publishing company in Cagaloglu-Istanbul has translated some chapters of Risale-i-Nur into various Turkic languages (as well as Russian and Serbo-Croat). They are usually the shortest and easiest chapters of this large religious work. For example, Küçük Sözer (Short Words), Tabiat Risalesi (Epistle on Nature) and Yirmiüçüncü Söz (The Twenty-Third Word) have been on sale in several Central Asian cities. None of Gülen’s books have been translated into Central Asian languages, however.
8 The aim of UTID is to make Turkish investment in Uzbekistan easier. Every Uzbek or Turkish company can become member of this association if it pays US $1000 for membership and thereafter US $100 a month. UTID offers its members investment advice and can translate Uzbek and Russian documents for them. In 2000 UTID was in bad relations with the Uzbek government because of a political crisis between Tashkent and Ankara. The UTID leader was declared persona non grata in Uzbekistan in April 2000. At the same time, President Karimov received President Putin of Russia.
9 See the website www.zaman.com.tr. This site provides some good links to Zaman in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
10 The number has since fallen because the Uzbek government closed all the schools on its territory in 1999 and 2000.
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Fethullah Gülen's Missionary Schools in Central Asia and their Role in the Spreading of Turkism and Islam
Bayram Balci
To cite this Article Balci, Bayram 'Fethullah Gülen's Missionary Schools in Central Asia and their Role in the Spreading of Turkism and Islam', Religion, State and Society, 31: 2, 151 — 177
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/09637490308283
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09637490308283
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