How does one define a public intellectual? A public intellectual is someone who centers their life on thought, critical thinking, or topics such as writing and social or political analysis and is potentially a leader in the forefront of conversations around the world. One may argue that some celebrities possess these traits; maybe before or after focusing on fame and fortune, though there are clear differences in agendas between a celebrity and a public intellectual. With this focus on being a public representative of circulating or conceptualized ideas connecting to people and communities of some kind, there comes intellectual contributions to the community of our world, as well as controversies and dilemmas of what is acceptable or moral on the actions of this “Public Intellectual”. Fethullah Gülen is a well-known religious leader, educator, activist, and revolutionary in many senses of the word with a complex past and present that is often not fully visited and provides insight on positive change in a modern and troubling world.
Fethullah Gülen was born in Korucuk, Erzurum in 1938, a socially conservative area with a heavy military history bordering Iran, Georgia and Armenia. Early on, Gülen learned and supported the mindset of Said Nursi, and aligned his ideals with his. A major motive of Gülen’s focus was on maintaining the culture of Turkish religion that has come under heavy criticisms in the modern era of a modernistic and science-focused society. His first intellectual achievement was when he passed the exam to become a imam, put in place by the state leading him eventually to be a director at the Qurʾānic school which was a part of the mosque at the city center in Izmir. Going beyond his community, Gülen would preach in coffee houses to people of all backgrounds on the benefits of religion among his other supplementary ideas.
A major belief he instituted was how religion could be a part of modern life, and was not as much of an enemy as so many in the modern age of industrialization made it out to be. This is a major contribution of Gülen, as his movement started to take form in the 1960’s, centering on empathy, tolerance, and devotion of the self to humanity. These altruistic ideals grew and with it his followers increased. He soon became a figure representing these ideals which have strong influence from the history of the Ottoman peoples and their tolerance of other groups of people through interaction over time. By far, Gülen’s establishment of his movement and leadership in it is his greatest intellectual contribution as well as instituting schools teaching his ideals in Turkey which had a lacking in educational opportunities for its youth and people. The Hizmet movement he created helped to create grass root funding for out of town and low-income young people to get an education by creating dormitories for students to reside while away from families, and provided protection alongside helping prevent and address habits such as drug use and violent extremism. Creating public discourse, while maintaining respectability and love toward all people is a very admirable and a strong quality he possesses in modern times even while surrounded with brutality and war in his homeland. Gülen certainly followed his own principles in the movement he created, with many significant charitable and selfless acts like the Hizmet movement mentioned above, though his intellectual, philosophical, and social achievments are expansive and include much more than what can fit into this paper.
However, Gülen has many controversies which have led to the events of 2016 and his exiled fleeing to the United States that same year, though already living here since 1999 in Pennsylvania. Once admired by his homeland of Turkey and its government officials, Gülen currently represents a threat to Turkey’s Secular order after an attempted military coup on July 15, 2016. “The Turkish government holds Gülen directly responsible for masterminding the coup and the GM is referred to in Turkey today as FETÖ (Fethullahist Terrorist Organization), and the unprecedented wave of arrests and state sector purges that have been witnessed since 2016 have ostensibly been aimed at its members” (Brill.com). As a result, Turkish government purged any and all possible individuals who may have had association with Gülen, even if these concerns were only suspicions, thousands of people have been placed in prison or escaped the country like Gülen himself. The members of the Gülen Movement still are strong, growing and apparent throughout the world in places such as in Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. This of course is a political controversy which many may support or denounce Gülen and his actions based solely on their political affiliation and national ties to Turkish government. Once sponsored by the government, and now a long-hated enemy, Gülen is a controversial figure as a result of these events to say the least.
Gülen embodies his ideals, regardless of his controversies and attitudes expressed by a corrupt government. Often today we see a divide in religion and politics, as politics today distance morals more often than not in my own personal opinion. In example, America is said to be the “home of the free” by political definition, though has the largest amount of imprisoned peoples (majority black or African, and Caribbean descent) in the world for any country. Neo-Liberalism is indeed modern fascism, and as Professor Mack has cited in “Wicked Paradox: The Cleric as Public Intellectual”, Americans today who try and use religion in politics are highly flawed as the system itself cannot sustain equity without great revolution or over hall. According to Mack, “One of the great ironies of this debate is that historically, public intellectuals in America are a product of both our secular and religious traditions. Indeed, our entire liberal, secular democratic tradition is an extension of our religious origins”. As many evangelicals in America denounce abortion rights and feminine healthcare to women on political grounding, they are in many ways abhorrently using God’s name in vain. This may be a very controversial statement to make, but with extremism high in America, this issue is probably the highest in which God’s name is used to determine the rights another human has, ironically very much against god’s teachings in many religions around the globe. Gülen himself chose to combat the hateful system of government forces in his fight for good and equality, as he himself started his public figure career in giving back to his community and continued to do so for so much of his life without the use of politics and instead denounced and rebelled against government and politics when he could.
As we look deeper at public intellectuals and their lives and acheivements we often must remember the obligations and responsibilities we have as people to our actions and our practices, which when shed under light must be honestly addressed. While religion and movements can be used for good and can bring the most humanistic elements to our lives it does not take responsibility for an individual’s actions. In my personal opinion I think Gülen is an excellent example of a modern clash between the trifecta of business, religion, and politics in the modern age. Using what he could in an entrepreneurial sense, while staying aligned to his moral convictions, he proved to create change and bring love to many people in his endeavors and his movement which is still followed by many even years after his condemnation. As a religious and spiritual person myself I do find Gülen to be underrated by many and not covered enough as his ideals focus on such peaceful and powerful topics that humans already possess within themselves yet are restricted by government and hateful influences in society today. Though he may have disturbed peace with trying to overthrow his homeland’s government, I cannot denounce it as governments have corruption and clearly go against his basic principles of empathy and altruism. “Today, people are talking about many things: the danger of war and frequent clashes, water and air pollution, hunger, the increasing erosion of moral values, and so on. As a result, many other concerns have come to the fore: peace, contentment, ecology, justice, tolerance, and dialogue. Unfortunately, despite certain promising precautions, those who should be tackling these problems tend to do so by seeking further ways to conquer and control nature and produce more lethal weapons” (Fethullah Gülen).
Work Cited:
Amburn, Brad. “The World's Top 20 Public Intellectuals.” Foreign Policy, 7 Oct. 2009, https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/07/the-worlds-top-20-public-intellectuals/.
“Fethullah Gulen Quote.” A, https://www.azquotes.com/quote/546994.
“Fethullah Gülen.” Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School, https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/fethullah-g%C3%BClen.
Mack, Stephen. “Wicked Paradox: The Cleric as Public Intellectual.” StephenMack.com, 14 Aug. 2007, http://www.stephenmack.com/blog/archives/the_public_intellectual/index.html.
Tee, Caroline. “Chapter 4 the Gülen Movement: Between Turkey and International Exile.” Brill, Brill, 23 June 2021, https://brill.com/view/book/9789004435544/BP000014.xml?language=en.
“What Are the Basic Principles of the Gülen Movement?” Gulen Movement, 20 Sept. 2017, https://www.gulenmovement.com/what-are-the-basic-principles-of-the-gulen-movement.html.
People like Gülen have proved the community's reasoning and have produced a new meaning of intellectuals as people who have new ideas to solve specific issues in the community. Such people are considered important, and they generate changes in society, uphold social norms, and help the community shape its behavior towards development.