Max Farrar writes about the Turkish (though now living in Pennsylvania) intellectual Fethullah Gülen and his well-funded international movement. Gülen recently topped Foreign Affairs magazine’s list of the World’s Top Public Intellectuals.
Fethullah Gülen is in the centre of Islamic belief that the Qur’an is the revealed word of God, and thus cannot be modified. But the prophet’s own practice, he goes on, initiated the processes of interpretation that have been continuously developed for the past 1,400 years. These processes are influenced by the conditions of their time, and their geographical location. The implication could be drawn that this—Turkish and modern—movement is developing an Anatolian Muslimhood which might influence other formations of Muslimness.
More at openDemocracy.