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“Feeling Tells Better Than Language”: Emotional Expression and Gender Hierarchy in the Sermons of Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendİ

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Esra G. Özyürek*
Affiliation:
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of Anthropology

Extract

Over the past two years, the televised sermons of Fethullah Hocaefendi have thrust him into the public limelight, lending his name celebrity status as a prominent religious-cum-political figure. His long standing influence as the leader of one of the most powerful Islamic communities in contemporary Turkey, Nur Cemaati, is now common public knowledge. Currently, this group owns one of the largest mass circulating newspapers (Zaman), a TV channel (Samanyolu) and a vast network of hundreds of educational institutions extending all the way from Turkey to Central Asia. The teachings of Fethullah Gülen Hoca are widely disseminated through books as well as cassette recordings of his sermons, readily available for sale on counters of commercial bookstores. For the “secularized” public however, Fethullah Hoca's renown extends beyond his religious-cum-political prominence. He is famous for the fact that he weeps ecstatically during his sermons, contrary to what is expected of a man in Turkey today.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © New Perspectives on Turkey 1997

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