The Gulen Movement Is Not a Cult -- It's One of the Most Encouraging Faces of Islam Today

Last week witnessed what may be the last act of an unfolding struggle between two major Islamic movements in Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused exiled Islamic leader Fethullah Gulen of plotting last week's failed coup against the government. Immediately thereafter, Erdogan unleashed massive Stalin-style purges and arrests across the country of anyone suspected of any connection with Gulen or indeed of anyone of any ideology who opposes Erdogan.

First of all, when we talk about Islamic leaders in Turkey, we're talking about a very different scene than in most of the rest of the Muslim world. In Turkey, it's basically a struggle among Islamic moderates. Neither Erdogan nor Gulen call for any kind of Islamic State, Sharia law or Caliphate. They both operate fairly comfortably within a primarily secular state structure established a century ago by the country's modernizing secularist founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. We're not really talking about Islam or theology but about power and influence. Politics in Turkey has always been a rough game, even within a basically democratic order.

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