Milli Gorus and Place of Modern Islamic Thought

Milli Gorus is the most significant asset that manifests Necmettin Erbakan’s contribution to modern Islamic thought, as he remains among prominent Muslim leaders of the last century. In fact, Mıllı Gorus, a work that combines intellectual and political struggles dominant in Erbakan’s life, strong revolutionary qualities and at the same time a cultural movement bearing the revival of human beings and nature, is regarded as result of the aims Islam seeks to realize in modern times, as viewed through Erbakan’s implemented provisions. In other words, there is a real connection between the objectives the Mıllı Gorus strives to reach by establishing basic understanding of main concepts such as morality, spirituality, right-wrong, jihad, just order and unity and the aims of Islam. Modern Islamic currents can be classified into traditionalists, reformers (Islamists) and modernists by using Büyükkara’s reasoning . In this paper, Mıllı Gorus movement is explored, as classified in the category of political reformists within these three currents, in comparison with other Islamic movements in the Muslim World by employing key concepts such as sources, ijtihad, sufism, jihad, ittihad-i Islam, women activity and leader profile in order to highlight areas of similarity and difference. As a result, the Mıllı Gorus movement is considered to represent a typical Islamist movement that enjoys both the cultural reformism that performs social and cultural work and the political reformism that aims at the reform of the government. In addition, we shall explore how all these aspects played a major role in the Islamization of Turkish politics and normalization of Islamic rhetoric, leading Islam to become a normal driving force in Turkish society’s order, thus entering the political sphere.

Keywords

Erbakan, Mıllı Gorus, Islamism, Reformism, Islamic Movement