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The resurgence of Sufism in the contemporary world has necessitated reexamining the nature and role of Sufism in contemporary contexts. A series of the reexaminations reveal that contemporary Sufism cannot be fully explained by traditional theories; instead it must be understood in accordance with changing contexts. On this basis, this dissertation directs itself to an investigation of the contemporary manifestations of Sufism. It specifically examines Sufism in the life, thought and teachings of Fethullah Gülen (b. 1941), as its case study. Gülen is known to be one of the most influential contemporary Muslim leaders, and has led a fast-growing movement expanded to global proportions. Much of the research that has consequently followed the inception of the growth of the movement presents Gülen as one of the major figures in defining the contemporary global Islamic experience, and suggests that the studies of Gülen contribute to a better understanding of contemporary issues in Islamic studies including the resurgence and transformation of Sufism. Remarkably, almost all of the studies on Gülen and the Gülen movement underline the importance of further research on Gülen's approach to Sufism. Terms like 'quasi-Sufism' and 'neo-Sufism' are assigned to his thought, while such phrases as 'a Sufi order,' 'a Sufi-oriented movement' and 'a Nurcu branch in the Naqshbandiyya' are circulated to characterize his movement. However, this terminology has not been adequately examined by any extensive research to warrant its justification. This dissertation examines Gülen's view on Sufism in order to understand how Sufism manifests itself in contemporary contexts, addressing what Sufism means in the contemporary world. Viewing Sufism as a dynamic discipline interacting with given contextual conditions, I primarily argue that there are distinctive characteristics of Sufism that appeal to the contemporary world enough to allow Sufism to resurface; it is necessary to identify those characteristics to understand the nature and role of Sufism in contemporary Islam. Gülen's Sufism, as an outcome of its interaction with a contemporary context, provides a better understanding of the characteristics in a way that it represents one of the contemporary manifestations of Sufism. / Religion

L’objectif de cette thèse est de montrer comment une communauté musulmane d'origine turque caractérisée par la culture du secret, l’informalité et l'action sociale s’institutionnalise dans la transnationalisation. Par une étude connectant la Turquie, l'Afrique du Sud, le Sénégal et le Kenya, il s'agit de comprendre ce que l’expansion transnationale vers l’Afrique subsaharienne et les interactions qui en émergent révèlent de l’institution tout en la recomposant, dans ses mécanismes organisationnels mais aussi dans sa capacité (ou non) à produire de la croyance et à susciter de l’engagement et des loyautés chez les Turcs comme chez les Africains. / The goal of this work is to analyze the ways a Muslim group coming from Turkey, relying upon a culture of secret, informal bonds and social action, institutionnalizes itself through transnational expansion. Through a study connecting Turkey, South Africa, Senegal and Kenya, our aim is to understand how the transnational expansion towards Subsaharan Africa and the encounters it creates between Tuks and Africans both reveals and recomposes the logics of the institution.

L’essor de mouvements islamistes - ou d’inspiration islamiste - et de leurs activités dans le monde contemporain exige l’étude de leur finalité et de leur rôle. Les discours et activités de ces mouvements, qu’ils fussent sociopolitiques ou religieux, et leur relation avec le monde laïque, sont variables. Le présent travail vise à analyser l’émergence et le développement de l’un de ces mouvements en France, le réseau islamique turc transnational de Fethullah Gülen (GM). La thèse présente d’abord le contexte idéologique et historique dans lequel le mouvement de Gülen s’est développé. L’expérience turque de la laïcité (laiklik) a influencé la forme et la stratégie d’expansion du mouvement à l’étranger, notamment en France où le modernisme turc a influencé une implantation relativement restrictive du modèle français. La thèse s’attache à montrer l’étroite interconnexion qui existe entre les activités éducatives, sociales, culturelles et économiques avec la hiérarchie du mouvement en Turquie et à travers son réseau international. Elle met en lumière les éléments fondamentaux sur lesquels repose le mouvement : ses ressources humaines, ses organisations, ainsi que son pouvoir financier mais explique aussi le rôle de l’idéologie de Gülen dans la mobilisation sociale ainsi que dans ses actions de légitimation. Elle montre que le succès de Gülen en France relève de la subtilité de sa stratégie de développement: le facteur islamique est cultivé dans la sphère privée et soigneusement écarté de la sphère publique. Enfin, le présent travail montre que le mouvement de Gülen est ambigu et il questionne son identité proclamée de mouvement apolitique, alors que le mouvement s’est illustré récemment dans l’arène politique contre le gouvernement turc. La thèse clarifie le développement du mouvement en France sur la base du concept d’Islam apolitique, et le pouvoir de mobilisation de ce dernier, grâce à la théorie de mobilisation des ressources via la structure organisationnelle, ses activités d’adaptation et de légitimation et son réseau et organisation hiérarchique. / The rise of Islamic or Islamic-based movements and their activities in the contemporary world has required studying their aim and role. However, their discourses and activities, either as socio-political or as religious movements and their relation with the secular contemporary world are diverse. The present work aims to analyze the emergence and development of one of these movements in France, the transnational Turkish-Islamic based “Gülen Movement” (GM). The thesis presents first its ideological background and the historical context in which the GM grew. The experience of Turkish secularism (laiklik) influenced the form and the strategy of the GM abroad, especially in France where Turkish modernism influenced a relatively restrictive implementation of the French model. Then, it shows the close interconnection of the GM’s social, cultural educational and business activities in France, and the hierarchy of the Movement and its network at the national and international level. This thesis highlights the fundamental elements on which the Movement lays, human resources, organizations and financial power, and explains the role of the Movement leader’s ideology in human and social mobilization and legitimization activities. It shows that the GM’s success in France is due to a familiar formula in the installation process of its earlier development in Turkey as well as in other countries, and its capacity to balance visibility and invisibility of Islam respectively in the private and the public spheres. Finally, it shows that the GM has an ambiguous identity, and questions the future of a declared non-political movement, which recently illustrated itself in a political battle – still ongoing – with the current Turkish government. The thesis clarifies that the Movement’s development in France has been made possible by explaining the concept of non-political Islam, and its successful mobilization made possible by outlining resource mobilization theory through its opportunity organizational structure, adaptation/legitimization activities, and hierarchical/network organization.

Turkey's most controversial religious figure is the Muslim cleric and author Fethullah Gülen, whose followers have established around one thousand schools in 135 countries. Since 2003, the Gülen-affiliated educational non-profit TÜRKÇEDER has organized the International Turkish Olympiad, a competition for children enrolled in the Gülen schools. The showpiece of this event is its song contest, in which students perform well-known Turkish songs before live audiences of thousands in cities all over Turkey and reach millions more via television broadcasts and the Internet. While the contest resembles American Idol in its focus on individual singers and Eurovision in its nationalistic overtones, the fact that the singers are performing songs associated with a nationality not their own raises intriguing questions about the intended message of the competition as well as about its publics. To answer these questions, I analyzed YouTube videos of the competition and examined YouTube comments, popular websites, and newspaper opinion columns. I conclude that the performers themselves are meant to feel an affinity with Turkish culture and values, while Turkish audiences receive a demonstration that Gülen's brand of Islam is compatible with Turkish nationalism. Moreover, the competition reaches a multiplicity of publics both within and beyond Turkey. While some of these can be characterized as essentially oppositional counterpublics, I find that, in the case of the Turkish Olympiad, the dichotomy between rational public and emotional or irrational counterpublic established collectively by such theorists of publics as Jürgen Habermas and Michael Warner begins to break down.

In the age of mass information, globalization, and peer-to-peer social networks, the traditional markers of identity and elective affinities, particularly those of religion and nationalism, are shifting in relation to contemporary trends. The field of Religious Studies has been influenced by a series of ‘post’s: postsecular, postmodern, postcolonial, and post 9/11. The rise of revolutionary religious movements internationally is a hallmark characteristic of the postsecular age. Participants in these movements are variously characterized as religious dissidents, militant secularists, neo-fascist nationalists, and terrorists. However, according to the dialogues within these communities, participants do not think of themselves in these terms. The dualizing labels of ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ do not lend meaning to these contemporary identities. This thesis addresses the question: How do traditional and contemporary theories in the field of Religious Studies evaluate contemporary religious nationalist movements, and how do their analyses compare to how members of the groups in question perceive themselves? To answer this question, this dissertation examines and contrasts four key case studies: the Native Faith Movement and Femen in Ukraine, and the Gezi Park protesters and the Gülen Movement in Turkey. By analyzing group activities through the fora of the curated digital presences of group leaders and members, this research investigates emerging elective affinities and markers of identity which transcend the religious/secular binary. Contemporary theory from the field of Critical Religion and feminist theology transcending the religious/secular binary will be applied to these case studies in order to gain a deeper understanding of the shifting relationships between religion, protest and the nation.