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CHALLENGING SECULARIZATION: The Educational Roles of Nurculuk Movement Muhammad Sirozi sirozi62@hotmail.com

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WHO IS BEDIUZZAMAN SAID NURSI ? Said Nursi (1878 March 23, 1960) was a Turkish, a Muslim scholar who is commonly known as Bediuzzaman, which means "the wonder of the age". The most influential,... Turkish Muslim thinker of the twentieth century. The most vocal and critical challenger of Kemal Ataturk and his secularization policy. (Turner 2008)

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WHO IS BEDIUZZAMAN SAID NURSI ? His major writings are presented in the Risale-I Nur, a collection of Quranic commentary exceeding six thousand pages. Said Nursi is the one who shape Islam in Turkey and draw the moderate Islam picture of Turkey and set the future of Islam there based on faith, prayer, and ethics. Dale F. Eickelman: Said Nursi played important role in shaping justice and morality in contemporary societies, including the Muslim majority world.

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SAID NURSIs INTENTION Nursis intention is simply to motivate people to think for themselves and understand the value of life in its diversification and its dynamism.

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Said Nursi and Nurculuk Movement Said Nursi was the founder of what is arguably Turkey's most important popular religious grouping, the Nurculuk Movement, which sought - and seeks - to foster Islamic sensibilities through a system of education based on Nursi's ideas (see Turner and Horkuc 2011).

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THE TRIGGERS OF NURCULUK MOVEMENT The conflict between Islamic social movements and state secular ideology. Increased literacy in Muslim society. Expanding market economy. The proliferation of information technology.

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SECULARIZATION AGENDAS Abolished almost all Islamic institutions (the Sultanate and the Caliphate). Banned Islamic traditional dress (the veil for women) and propagating western dress. Religion should not be a matter for public, but a matter of private, for each individual citizen. Prohibited polygami. Replaced Arabic script with Latin alphabet.

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SECULARIZATION AGENDAS Replaced the Muslim calendar of Hijriyah with the Gregorian calendar. Closed traditional Islamic education and introduced a modern western education system. Restricted all religious education.

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NURCULUK: A QUITE MUSLIM REFORMATION A modern faith movement based on the writings of Said Nursi (1876-1960). First emerged in public in 1950 and is inspired by the teachings of Bedizzaman Said Nursi (1873 - 1960) and is managed by his leading followers.

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NURCULUK: A QUITE MUSLIM REFORMATION Since Ataturk's death in 1938,... Turkey has been gradually moving away from his militant secularism and experiencing "a quiet Muslim reformation." In November of 2002, the Justice and Development Party that has strong Islamic roots swept to victory in the Turkish parliamentary elections.

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Theoretical Framework Abernety (1956): education and politics are inextricably linked. Michel Foucault: the reciprocal relation between Knowledge and Power.

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The Roles of Nurculuk Movement The Nurcus have sought to establish a sense of community within a secular state through religiously rooted and socially shaped networks. A significant religious force that play important role in slowing down the spread of secular policies in public sphere.

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Nurculuk Movement and Turkish Politics 1950s the political channel used by the followers of Nurculuk was the Democratic Party (DP) of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. 1960s the channel was the Justice Party (AP) of Suleyman Demirel, who was Prime minister at the time and later became President. 1970s it was the National Salvation Party (MSP) of the then Vice-Premier, later Premier, Necmettin Erbakan. From the 1980s onwards, the True Path Party (DYP) and the Motherland Party (ANAP).

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The Darsanah (Dershanes) as a Network of Nurculuk Movement A special apartment floor or one-floor building and a congregation of people who meet there to read and discuss the writings of Nursi Darsanas are central to Nur identity and facilitate the formation of multifaceted close networks of relationships among followers [of Said Nursi], who are able to form a bond of trust and civility among themselves.

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The Influences of Risale-I Nur For Turner and Horkuc (2011), The Risale-i Nur is a logical and scientifically based concept for dealing with the problems and challenges that increasingly face Muslims in the modern world. The objective of Said Nursis work, The Risale-i Nur, is to promulgate an Islam that brought all Muslims under a common faith but added the advantages of Western technology.

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The Main Objectives of Risale-I Nur To raise the consciousness of Muslims. To refute the dominant intellectual discourses of materialism and positivism. To recover collective memory by revising the shared grammer of society, Islam. (see Yavuz 2000).

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Repeated Trials for Said Nursi Said Nursi was repeatedly put in trials in 1944, 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1958. The repeated trials did not stop the spread of his writings and the rise of the Nurculuk movement. In 1950, while he was still dealing the trials of Ataturks government, Nursis writings were firt printed and circulated in Turkey by his students or followers who are united in Nurculuk movement.

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Nurculuk Movement Today Followed by an estimated seven million Muslims worldwide, standing out from other contemporary Muslim religious and ideological groupings. The followers of Nurculuk movement are primarily interested in Said Nursis teachings on the importance of renewing individual and collective faith and rejecting any kind of religiously legitimized violence or militancy for the sake of politico-ideological ends. Nurculuk followers are interested in Nursis ideas regarding the solution to the decline of Islamic civilization by unifying science and religion.

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The Unity of Religion and Science For Nursi, religion and science are not mutually exclusive. They can be connected and reciprocal, thus, should not be let to develop alone. Religion and science need to be unified, so that they can support and enrich one to another. If [religion and science] are separated, it [the separation] gives rise to ignorance and fanaticism in religion and fallacies and scepticism in the science.

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Religion and Science Nursi warns: religion can not replace science and vice versa. Each caterogy has unique benefits in explaining, understanding, and predicting human issues. "The science of religion is the light of the conscience. Civilisations (natural) sciences are the light of the intellect. (Said Nursi 1996, p. 2).

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