Dr. Nader Hashemi, Assistant Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.

Theme:
How Islam is Promoting Liberal Democracy in Turkey:
Reflections on The Fethullah Gulen Movement

This lecture explores the role of Turkey's Fethullah Gulen movement in promoting democracy in Turkey.

Arguing against the assumptions of mainstream modernization and dependency theorists, and the writings of liberal political philosophers, who largely believe that religion -- especially Islam -- is an obstacle to the cultivation of liberal democracy, this talk seeks to demonstrate the contrary with a focus on the activities of the Fethullah Gülen movement in Turkey.

Specifically, it will be argued, drawing on the work of Alexis de Tocqueville, Francis Fukuyama and Robert Putnam, that religious groups and religious leaders are playing a critical, significant and enduring role in fostering social trust, civic engagement and political reconciliation in Turkey, all of which are important building blocks for the consolidation of democracy in societies with deep ideological cleavages.  This is a unique phenomenon that has few parallels in the rest of the Muslim world and provides a potential model for other Muslim societies to study and to emulate.  Precisely how the Gulen movement is contributing to this development and why it bodes well for the long term prospects of political development in Turkey will be examined in this lecture.