The Gulen Movement: Building Social Cohesion through Dialogue and Education

In recent years, Muslim communities in Europe and throughout the West have come under increasingly virulent criticism, blamed for everything from terrorism to breakdowns of social cohesion and ideas of national identity. In response, the Gülen Movement, inspired by the teachings of Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen, has organized volunteers to use dialogue and education as ways to bridge the divide of misunderstanding that separates Muslims and non-Muslims. The Gülen Movement analyzes the work of the Gülen volunteers using social movement theory, helping us to understand the interactions of its origins, goals, structure, and composition.