Is the Gülen Movement an extreme right-wing attempt to defend the social order?
The Gülen Movement does not breach the system limits in order to defend the social order, as in the case of ultra right-wing counter-movements or fascist movements. The Gülen Movement does not claim, compete for, or raise conflict over something within the state organizational or political system.
Since it is not a struggle or mobilization for the production, appropriation, and allocation of a society’s basic resources, and since it is not engaged in conflict over imbalances of power and the means and orientation of social production, the Gülen Movement is not materialistic or antagonistic. It does not dispute the shared rules and the processes of representation. It does not dispute how normative decisions are made through democratic institutions.
The Gülen Movement aims for the internal equilibrium of society. It aims for exchange among different parts of the system, and for roles to be reciprocally assured and respected so that social life, fairness and the material and non-material prosperity of individuals are maintained and reproduced through interaction, communication, collaboration and education. These relations allow individuals to make sense of themselves, of this world and its affairs, and of what lies beyond it.
The Gülen Movement takes no direct interest in institutional change or the modification of power relationships. Rather, it aims to bring change in the individual, in mind-sets, attitudes and behavior. The many forms of the voluntary and altruistic community action undertaken by Gülen Movement participants correspond to everyday life and are strictly cultural in orientation, not political.
- Created on .