Akademik

   The Nurculuk, or followers of the Nur (Light), movement in Turkey grew out of the inspired Islamic teachings of Said Nursi (1873-1960), an ethnic Kurd born in what is now southeastern Turkey. Said Nursi's many writings are collectively referred to as Risale-i Nur Kulliyati, or The Epistles on the (Divine) Light. Most of them are available on the Internet at www.nesil.com.tr. These writings elaborate upon an interpretation of the Koran that is a synthesis of modern science and reformist Islamic learning seen through strongly mystical lenses. Thus, the Nurculuk treat scientific discoveries as a way to further deepen the understanding of the Koran. Many of Said Nursi's interpretations are based on his dreams and visions and written in an obscure, 19th-century Ottoman Turkish that few people can completely comprehend.

   Basically, the Nurculuk seek to transform society by raising individual religious consciousness. The movement offers a conceptual framework for people undergoing the transformation from a confessional community (Gemeinschaft) to a secular national society (Gesellschaft). Folk Islamic concepts and practices are updated to provide practical strategies for dealing with modernity. To overcome the tension between desires and resources, Said Nursi sought to bring God back by raising Islamic consciousness. He argued that this would even alleviate the sources of many conflicts and wars.

   In seeking to reconcile scientific reasoning with Islam, the Nur-culuk treat freedom as an integral part of faith. Said Nursi identified poverty, ignorance, and internal enmity as the problems of the Muslim community. He called upon Islamic conceptualizations to provide a current vocabulary for constitutionalism, liberty, and elections. He argued that democracy and Islam are not opposite concepts, indeed that democracy and freedom are necessary conditions for a just society. In addition, he called upon the people in eastern Anatolia (the Kurds) to transcend their narrow tribal and religious loyalties to achieve a larger Islamic nation. In one of his earlier writings, Said Nursi identified the following as causes of the decline of the Islamic community: the end of truthfulness in sociopolitical life, enmity, despotism, and egoism. Despite Said Nursi's mysticism and earlier Naqshbandi contacts, he explicitly argued that the order was no longer appropriate for the current situation.

   Over the years the Nurculuk spread throughout Turkey, appealing to both ethnic Kurds and Turks and becoming probably the most influential religious movement in the entire country. The movement seems to appeal to different kinds of people for different reasons. Mystics are attracted by its visionary and mystical aspects; Islamic intellectuals for its acceptance of modern science; and Kurdish nationalists because of Said Nursi's ethnic heritage and earlier support of Kurdish national aims. Even secularists admire the movement's opposition to military rule that has appeared in modern Turkey on several occasions. More recently, Fethullah Gulen has become the leader of the neo-Nurculuk movement in Turkey.