For the Sake of Allah

This book explores the Gulen Movement, also known as Hizmet, a religio-social movement inspired by Fethullah Gulen, one of the most prominent Islamic scholars of Turkish origin in the modern world. Notwithstanding the current purge of Hizmet under the Erdogan regime, it is one of the most interesting faith-based movements to arise from a Muslim society in the twentieth century. Since the late 1960s, Hizmet has opened thousands of schools around the world and has also contributed to relief efforts in Turkey and abroad. In this book, Anwar Alam shares a decade of research and field work based on the religious, educational, political, and social contexts that have shaped the essential dynamics of both Gulen and the Movement. At a time when the Gulen Movement has been primarily analysed and debated through the state prism and security discourse, especially following the failed Turkish military coup of July 2016, this book takes a longue duree perspective and provides a holistic treatment of Hizmet as essentially a postmodern phenomenon.