Connecting Civilizations? The Gülen Movement in the United States.

Abstract

This thesis tries to answer the question whether the whether the concept of the neobrotherhood as it is explained by Olivier Roy in his book, Globalized Islam: the search for a new Ummah can be applied on the Gülen movement in the United States? Moreover, after analyzing the structure of the movement, it will investigate whether their claim of being primarily an interreligious and intercultural dialogue initiative, and a counterweight to confrontationalapproaches that regard a clash of civilizations inevitable, is justified, or rather, that it is a smokescreen to cover a conservative Islamic agenda. this research has been conducted with the criticism as it is known in the Netherlands, but as the examples display also in the United States, in the back of my mind.