Güliz Dinç

Utilizing Gramsci’s conceptualization of hegemonic struggles through both coercive means of the state and also the production of consent in civil society, the article conducts a comparative textual analysis of the writings and speeches of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Fetullah Gülen. In so doing, the article focuses on four main themes: (1) sacralization of modern knowledge, science, and education; (2) militarism and centrism; (3) statism and corporatism; and, (4) ethnic nationalism and Turkism. It argues that the ideology of the Gülen’s “service movement” shares the principles of Kemalism in the above-mentioned domains, while couching them within a religious discursive framework. Since Gülenism uses Quranic terminology out of context and for secular ends, the term “religionist” is used instead of “religious” to describe this ideology.