Devotion, adaptability, contradiction: Introduction to ethnographies of Fethullah Gülen’s followers in the aftermath of Turkey’s failed coup

The Islamic revivalist project advanced by the followers of the Turkish preacher, Fethullah Gülen, has always been characterized by an aspiration to serve God in accordance with the norms and sensitivities of different social, political and cultural contexts. The potentials and limits of such adaptability were put to the test in the tumultuous period preceding Turkey’s deadly 2016 failed coup and during its dramatic aftermath, when many of Gülen’s followers were driven into exile. Based on long-term ethnographic engagement, the articles in this special issue produce a fine-grained and variegated account of how ordinary followers of Gülen maneuvered in this mounting political pressure and regrouped as a decentered diaspora in Europe and the US. Focusing on different segments of followers across diverse national contexts, the articles analyze the community’s myriad adaptive strategies and the tensions and contradictions these engendered. The special issue contends that Gülen’s followers offer a rich and compelling case for theorizing how Muslim social formations transform in response to specific socio-political conditions and how Islamic ritual repertoires and imaginaries are invoked and reconfigured in the process. This introduction discusses the dynamics and challenges of ethnographically engaging with a once prominent, now precarious, Muslim community and situates Gülen’s followers within the politico-religious history of modern Turkey, and in relation to broader revivalist currents.