Immigration and Integration: Examining Fethullah Gulen’s Philosophy of Integration

Abstract

Forced migration is a huge asset, but also a challenge within Europe. The key to overcoming it is love, tolerance, dialogue, humility, self-devotion, as well as creating common and safe spaces for meeting and working together in socially beneficial tasks. In order to prevent and solve problems arising from taking in refugees of different faiths and cultures, believers of all religions need to accept these tasks as a top priority. Although the role of religion in lives of immigrants has been a subject of interest by scholars, not much focus had been put on the importance of social activism of faith-based community organisations in favour of immigrants. This paper focuses on social networks as playing an important role in the integration process, and examines Turkish Islamic Scholar Fethullah Gulen’s view of integration within current EU policy regarding Muslim immigrants.