How can Fethullah Gülen explain the fact that the Gülen Movement resonates in the large urban areas and with the recently urbanized and has become a social movement?
Some people in the cities could not adjust and became lonely; they found their identity eroding under the pressure of modernization and Westernization. These people, who were uprooted from their cultural roots, searched for a way to end the loneliness and ambiguity they found themselves plunged into. They wanted to rediscover or reconstruct their national and religious values in their new environment. This need was felt first in the cities, but today it is being felt in the villages as well. One of the main reasons for the rapid and far-reaching spread of the Gülen Movement is this phenomenon.
He adds, “Religion is a human need, and this movement is in the tendency of offering this need, avoiding the contradiction with the realities of life.”[1] Thus, he remarks that his movement, developing a contemporary philosophy of life, inspired by the religion of Islam, aims at guiding the daily practices of living.
[1] Doğu Ergil’s interview with Fethullah Gülen.
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