In my study room I have one special Gülen shelf: about 50 books by and about Fethullah Gülen. Much about Turkey, but also about the global impact of the Hizmet movement. In 2015 I was together with Gürkan Celik the editor of the book on Gülen-Inspired Hizmet in Europe. The Western Journey of a Turkish Muslim Movement. It was interesting to work on it. I never saw a review, nor was there a mention about sold copies (published by Peter Lang in Bruxelles). Anyway, it was done amidst nice contacts with remarkable and sincere members of Hizmet.
A 'post- June 2016 coup' book was recently published by the New Delhi Professor Anwar Ahmad. He was teaching in Delhi the history of Islam in West Asia, came to Turkey fort a short Gülen-visit in 2008 (Fatih University, Newspaper Zaman, high schools, Kimse Yok Mu, the charity, and the Journalists and Writers Organization). He was in 2011 for some time teaching at Fatih University in Istanbul. Between September 2013 and June 2016 he was teaching in Gaziantep (Southeast Turkey, close to the Syrian border) and left in time before the coup.
Anwar Alam is more reflective than informative. Only in few respects he gives new information, but he is fascinating in his comparison of Gülen with the Ihkwan, the Jamaat-i-Islami of Pakistan, the Tablighi Jamaat of India (however nothing about NU of Muhammadiyah of Indonesia).
He once attended a meeting of sponsors, fundraising, himmet, where US$ 32.000 was collected for a secondary school in Indonesia (enough for one year) and promises given for 1000 scholarships for Indonesians to stay one year in Turkey (p. 154).
The book apparently was started before 2016, when there were already problems but no straight persecution of the movement. His analysis of the hatred by Erdogan and AKP versus Gülen and Hizmet is described in pp. 227-8: "Thus, historically speaking, the political tradition in Middle Eastern countries including Turkey has been hostile to autonomous religious groups, as the state in the Midle East - whether secular or Islamist - suspects the political allegiance of various Islamic groups. The Middle Eastern states - whether secular, secular, or Islamist - to a large extent rely on Islam as the most important source of legitimacy of their rule, which makes to wish them not only to control and monopolize all 'Islamic spaces' but also leaves them deeply suspicious of autonomous visible Islamic political and social organizations or groups, as the latter are perceived as potential or social forces to challenge the legitimacy of the regimes. ... The Ikhwan al Muslimin in Egypt has been the object of state repression in various degrees throughout the modern political history of Egypt since the Nasserite regime on the charge of being a 'parallel state' or 'state within the state'. "
This week the new minister of religion of Indonesia Fachrul Razi announced that the permit (as an organization) for Front Pembela Islam will be renewed: of you cannot ban or crush them, join or embrace them! That was also the practice of the Catholic Church if new religious orders or dubious places of pilgrimage could not be forbidden, because they were too popular. They should be formally included in the big system or crushed down. The latter has happened with Gülen in Turkey.
On the whole it is a book full with long and complicated sentences, not so easy to read. Here and there still some new facts, but interesting analysis as well.


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