Islamic Political Identity in Turkey

194 islamic political identity in turkeyIstanbul. They believe that they have a mission to fulWll, just like missionaries.Like American Protestant missionaries of the nineteenth century, the neo-Nurcu teachers are seeking to deliver God along with Turkish nationalism.These education networks are connected closely to conservative businesscircles. The combination of business interests with Gülen’s ideas is powerfulboth inside and outside Turkey.Students in the Gülen movement’s high schools in Turkey consistentlyachieve superior results on university exams. Although these schools do a muchbetter job than state schools, they still stress memorization and conservative valuesmore than critical thinking. The Gülen movement’s educational system doesnot necessarily promote free will and individualism but rather promotes collectiveconsciousness. For the students who graduate from Gülen’s schools, the senseof duty or fulWlling one’s mission is a more important virtue than being diVerentor thinking critically. This lack of critical thinking is an outcome of a cultural andeducational system that discourages questioning of social and religious values.Being the same as and being “part of the group” and behaving in conformity withthe group expectations are more important than carving a unique self.In addition to these formal education networks, Gülen’s community alsohas a widespread informal network of dershanes. The dershanes, inhabited bycollege students, are rooted in Islamic ethics and a sense of urgency to not onlybeneWt from but shape the unfolding modernity. They have become spaces formultiple activities of education, sport, practical training, distribution of books,and conversation. Dershanes integrate religious and secular publicity togetherand remove the boundary between private and public space by arming the studentsagainst temptations and seductions of the modern world. Moreover, theyare run according to a set of rules and seek to generate their own income byoVering new services such as helping with students’ homework, giving privatelessons, or organizing athletic activities. These networks all seek to realizeGülen’s goal of creating a Golden Generation of Turks to produce modernityand not just remain its consumers. The achievement of the dershanes lies intheir institutional and conceptual ability to reconstitute the Muslim personalityat the most subjective level. They oVer necessary means for the self-realizationof a Muslim personality. The religious ambience oVered by the dershane structureencourages the internalization of the ideals (archetypes) as a map of actionthat would lead to the discovery of the richness of Muslim identity. In otherwords, people’s interests are informed by their values and these values constitutethe map of action. This shared cognitive map of ideals and action is at thecore of the Gülen movement.Islam in the Vernacular: Türkiye Müslümanlì:ìSince Islam, for Gülen, is about morality (ki7ilik) and identity (kimlik), he hasdeveloped a historically rooted and politically sensitive identity with whichMuslims can identify. Gülen redeWnes Turkish national identity as being essentiallyOttoman and Islamic. By doing this, he aims to restore Islam to its his-