European Muslims, Civility and Public Life

This collection deals with challenges and opportunities faced by Muslims and the wider society in Europe following the Madrid train bombings of 2004 and the London Transport attacks of 2005. The contributors explore the challenges to the concept and practice of civility in public life within a European context, and demonstrate the contributions that can be made in this regard from the thought and practice of the global movement inspired by the Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen. The importance and distinctiveness of the teaching of Fethullah Gülen and the practice of the movement is that it is rooted in a confident Turkish Islamic heritage while being fully engaged with modernity. It offers the possibility of a contextualised renewal of Islam for Muslims in Europe while being fully rooted in the teachings of the Qu'ran and the Sunnah of the Prophet. This volume is an important contribution to the study of the movement, which advocates the freedom of religion while making an Islamic contribution to the wider society based on a commitment to service of others.The movement and initiatives inspired by the Turkish Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen began in Turkey, but can now be found throughout the world, including in both Europe and in the 'Muslim world'. Bloomsbury have a companion volume on The Muslim World and Politics in Transition: Creative Contributions of the Gülen Movement, edited by Greg Barton, Paul Weller and Ihsan Yilmaz.

Editor and contributor biographies Acknowledgments Fethullah Gülen, the movement and this book: an introductory overview Part I: Perspectives from Gülen on Muslim identity and community life 1. Dialogical and transformative resources: perspectives from Fethullah Gülen on religion and public life, Paul Weller 2. Modern ideals and Muslim identity: harmony or contradiction? A text linguistic analysis of the Gülen teaching and movement, Gürkan Celik and Yusuf Alan 3. Turkish Muslims and Islamic Turkey: perspectives for a new European Islamic identity? Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi Part II: Civility, co-existence and integration 4. Civility in Islamic activism: towards a better understanding of shared values for civil society development, Wanda Krause 5. European public sphere, Islam and Islamic authority: Tariq Ramadan and Fethullah Gülen, Erkan Toguslu 6. Integration of Muslims in Europe and the Gülen movement, Araks Pashayan Part III: European contexts 7. From 'new man' to 'world citizen': The replication of Gülen's renovation vision in the Dutch context, Tineke Peppinck 8. The emergence of a neo-communitarian discourse in the Turkish diaspora in Europe: the implantation strategies and competitivelLogics of the Gülen movement in France and in Germany, Emre Demir 9. The Gülen movement as an integration mechanism for Europe's Turkish and Muslim community: potentials and constraints, Fatih Tedik 10. An exploration of the strategic dimensions of dialogue in a Gülen movement organization in Northern Ireland, Jonathan Lacey Part IV: Challenging Terrorism 11. Robustness and civility: themes from Fethullah Gülen as resource and challenge for government, Muslims and civil society in the United Kingdom, Paul Weller 12. A Sunni Muslim scholar's humanitarian and religious rejection of violence against civilians, Y. Alp Aslandogan and Bekir Cinar 13. The work of Fethullah Gülen and the role of non-violence in a time of terror, Steve Wright 14. Combatting terrorism in Britain: choice for policy makers, Asaf Hussain and Ihsan Yilmaz Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet: towards an evaluation, Paul Weller and Ihsan Yilmaz Bibliography Index