What makes the Gülen Movement different from movements of the past and present in Europe?
Although the Gülen Movement is a contemporary movement, it concerns itself with forms of action, content and meanings that are qualitatively different from the tradition of struggle frequently seen in European societies.
It does not fit into the conventional categories of the workers’ movement of industrial capitalism and modern leftist movements.
Along with inequalities or changes in society that are economic and political, there are changes and meanings that arise because of the various contractions of the fields in which cultural and moral values can be expressed. Meanings and values such as faith, family, morality, and parts of people’s history have been sidelined or forgotten. Many mechanisms of self-control and autonomy, especially those arising from people’s cultural heritage and religion have been pushed out by modernity. Their constructive influence has lessened, and they have contracted to become mere expressions of individualism or escapism.
The Gülen Movement recognizes the need for a new and inclusive synthesis arising from the past but based upon universal values and modern realities. The Movement therefore emphasizes a different array of factors, including values, such as equality, freedom, dignity, altruism, good life, ecology and morality, needs and issues which the socio-political structure fails to implement.
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