Preaching by Example: Understanding the Gülen Hizmet in the Global Context of Religious Philanthropy and Civil Religion

Greg Barton

Abstract

The Gülen movement, or hizmet, is often misunderstood, and this is in large measure because it is unlike anything else in the Muslim world, though the Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama mass-based organisations of Indonesia do bear some resemblance.

However, there is no good reason to limit comparisons to the Muslim world. As a social movement motivated by religious values and the ideals of selfless service, engaged in philanthropic endeavour and active in the civil sphere, the Gülen hizmet deserves comparison with other such movements around the globe. This paper looks outside the geographic and cultural context of the Muslim world to demonstrate that the Gülen hizmet shares much in common with many Western, Christian, philanthropic initiatives in education and public discourse of the past three centuries, particularly in North America.