THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: The Gulen Movement: “a non-transparent organizational model”

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: The Gulen Movement: “a non-transparent organizational model”:

The Gulen Movement: “a non-transparent organizational model”

Sharon Higgins

The Perimeter Primate

The leading US authority on the Gulen Movement (GM) at this time is Joshua Hendrick, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Loyola University Maryland. His new book “Gulen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World” was published in August 2013 by New York University Press. Fifteen pages are devoted to the Gulen charter school situation and are worth your investment in the book. From page 230:

“... by insisting on the nonpolitical nature of the GM’s lobbying and public relations efforts, by maintaining ambiguity regarding connectivity between individuals and institutions, by flatly denying suspect hiring and retention practices at affiliated charter schools, by allegedly engaging in gender discrimination at these schools, and by becoming the subjects of state and federal level investigation for financial mismanagement, the GM has opened itself up to intense criticism at best, and to potential criminal implications at worst.”

Hendrick recently spoke at one of the Gulen Movement’s self-promotional conferences. 

  

Notable comments during his 12-minute long presentation (begins at 0:01:10 min.):

• 03:07 min.: “I am criticized by my colleagues and friends in the Gulen Movement for applying categories from western social science to explain mobilization of a Muslim social community.”
• 04:14 min.: “... this social movement or collective mobilization, more specifically, is, among many