Contemporary Islamic conversations : M. Fethullah Gülen on Turkey, Islam, and the West / Nevval Sevindi ; edited and with an introduction by Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabiʻ ; translated by Abdullah T. Antepli.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sevindi, Nevval, 1957-

Contributor:

Abu-Rabiʻ, Ibrahim M.

Language:

English

Turkish

Subjects (All):

Gülen, Fethullah.

Islam and politics--Turkey.

Islam and politics.

Turkey.

Islam--Turkey.

Islam.

Turkey--Politics and government--1980-.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xiv, 160 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, [2008]

Summary:

Contemporary Islamic Conversations discusses the ideas of Turkey's most significant Muslim figure, M. Fethullah Gulen. Originally published in Turkish by Nevval Sevindi, one of Turkey's top journalists, this edited translation makes Gulen's work and ideas accessible to the English-speaking world for the first time. It includes interviews conducted by the author with Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999. The book explores his ideas regarding Islam and the West, Islam and violence, and religion and the future of the nation-state in Turkey and the Muslim world.

Gulen has worked hard to revive the religious tradition of the Turkish theologian Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960), and while his debt to Nursi's ideas is clear, he has a passionate interest in Islamic theology and Arabic and Turkish literature, and is also deeply interested in poetry, philosophy, sociology, and the classics in general. Gulen offers a moderate perspective on Islam, is open to interfaith and intercivilizational dialogue, and defends a notion of Islam in which Muslims are able to fully engage the world without any fear or prejudice. His community of followers has opened 500 high schools around the world, including the United States, and also owns seven universities in Central Asia and Turkey.

Contents:

Editor's introduction

Preface

Fethullah Gülen's life and thought

The actual source of hope : the duty of humanity

The flowering of the individual

Islam, violence, and the West

Turkish identity between Islam and nationalism

Turkey's quest for unification with Europe

Reform in Islam and the Turkish experience

Iranian Islam

Criticism and countercriticism of the Gülen phenomenon in contemporary Turkey

Appendix : two poems by Fethullah Gülen.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-155) and index.

ISBN:

9780791473535

0791473538

9780791473542

0791473546

OCLC:

124538896