Like political representation or social class, the term secularism is a term that various authors use idiosyncratically.   While there are many ideal types and state policies of secularism in the world, there is little consensus on its necessary components.  This paper will examine the turn taken in the Gülen Movement’s thinking about secularism and the role of religion in public life more generally.  It will offer clarification on the Gülen Movement’s definition of secularism and the pattern of state-society relation that this envisions (for instance, what does it mean to talk about state neutrality, or about a faith-based civil society?).   Specifically, this paper will draw on the theoretical literature on social movements to achieve a better understanding of this turn in light of the national, political and social contexts that conditioned the movement’s goals and strategies.  The paper will critique the theoretical approaches offered by scholars of social movements and will suggest how the Gülen Movement makes a unique contribution.  It will offer an evolutionary framework that will account for the ways in which post-February 28th (1997) events served as a catalyst to movement growth -- in particular the government’s representation of Fethullah Gülen as a threat to the Turkish republic.  This will entail a discussion of political antecedents and the historical and intellectual significance of the movement with emphasis on the following:
•    The movement’s evolving perspective on the importance of democratization
•    The political opportunity spaces beyond those provided by the state for an increase in social capital, created by current global conditions
•    The emergence of the movement as a “counterelite” alternative to the Kemalist elite understanding of state-society relations
•    The movement’s articulation of virtue-ethic principles through education, most notably, the belief about one’s self and one’s social and political situation being susceptible to positive change.

Kathleen M. Moore is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara.  She is also affiliated with the UCSB Law and Society Program and the Center for Middle East Studies. With postgraduate degrees in political science and law, Professor Moore has written about the political and jurisprudential thought of Muslims living in the United States and the United Kingdom; U.S. law as it affects Muslims (anti-discrimination laws, constitutional law); popular attitudes about Islam and Muslims in the United States; and Muslim women in America.