The Gülen Movement, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2017 Transformative Social Change Middle East Today Series

This book presents findings from research into one of the world's most influential Islamic movements, the Gülen Movement, from the perspective of social transformation through adult education. At the core of research questions lies how the movement enrolls volunteers from all walks of life and transforms them to adopt its aims at the expense of their individual ideals. The book reveals the socio-psychological mechanisms that make such transformation possible by looking at how followers integrate weekly lectures and discussions on the theory and practice of Islam into their personal and social lives. The Gülen Movement offers a moderate interpretation of Islam and stresses the vitality of establishing communication with the members of all faiths. This book provides a window into how and why religion may roll into extremism by presenting findings from an opposite perspective: the participants in the research all define themselves as truly pious but do not even imply an act of violence intens of hours of interviews. In short, the book weaves the strands of "Islamic," "movement," and "adult education" into a unified whole and limns the snapshot of a social movement, offering a comprehensive discussion of the role of adult education within the movement, as well as its transformative potential and its wider social and political implications. 

Salih Cıngıllıoğlu received his PhD degree in Educational Sciences from Boğaziçi University, Turkey in 2015.

Closely examines the everyday practices of the Gülen movement, one of the most influential global Islamic movements Offers the first comprehensive analysis of the movement's Sohbet gatherings Takes an interdisciplinary perspective by exploring both the social movement aspect and the role of adult education