Limits of political Islam: the other face of AKP (2)
Anwar Alam* Such narratives do not hold up for long and quickly expose themselves to their
multiple inherent contradictions. First, Fethullah Gülen himself has been
accused of supporting the military coup in 1980; if that is true then Gülen
does not personally see the military as an obstacle to his Islamic vision.
Hence, the issue of collaborating with the AKP vis-à-vis the marginalization of
the military does not arise. Second, any serious observer of the Gülen movement
would realize that the movement’s focus is the ethical and moral transformation
of the individual and has nothing to do with either the state/government or
state politics.
Third, if there is an informal alliance between the two, why then did the AKP
government enter into ???secret deals??? with the military way back in 2004 to
monitor, profile and eventually bring down the individuals and the
organizations associated with faith-based movements, particularly the Gülen
movement? Fourth, what are the advantages that have been accrued to the Gülen
movement due to its informal alliance with the government? Probably none. The
movement has never asked the government for any favor, which was also confirmed
by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo??an’s statement, ???Why don’t they [the Gülen
movement] ask for anything????
Fifth, the Turkish volunteers of the Gülen movement have voted for the AKP and
would
