AIS Executive Director Attends “House of Service” Book Launch

On 13 August 2014; Deakin University’s Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation celebrated the launch of a new book from Dr David Tittensor; titled The House of Service: The Gulen Movement and Islam’s Third Way. The launch featured a talk by Professor Greg Barton from Monash University. AIS Executive Director Ahmet Polat attended the event along with several dozen other guests.

Dr Tittensor’s book focuses on the Gulen movement; a Turkish Muslim educational activist network that emerged in the 1960s and has since spread throughout the world. Named after its leader Fethullah Gulen; the movement has established more than 1;000 secular educational institutions in over 140 countries; aiming to provide holistic education that incorporates both spirituality and the secular sciences. Drawing on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey; Dr Tittensor explores the movement’s ideo-theology and how it is practised in the schools. His book provides a balanced perspective on the movement and is described as being “invaluable for those seeking to understand how Islam will be perceived and practised in the future”.

Author David Tittensor (left) with Ahmet Polat

(photo courtesy of Deakin University)

Dr Tittensor has a PhD in Politics from Monash University and is presently a Research Fellow at the Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. His research interests include transnational Muslim movements; Turkish politics and society; and faith-based organisations and development.

More information about the book launch is available here.