ABSTRACT
On December 24, 1995, the pro-Islamic Refah Party added another impressive victory to its recent string of gains in Turkish politics. The general elections that were held on that day showed that Refah had become the largest and most popular party in Turkey. In most popular and even some scholarly writings one still finds a general acceptance of the view that Islam is essentially and fundamentally opposed to the West and to Western modernity. The most immediate and visible effect of the deteriorating economic conditions has been on the distribution of income in Turkey. The Refah program consisted of a series of general statements about poverty, unemployment, inflation, and corruption that were caused by a "slave order that is established and run by imperialism and Zionism." Today, Gülen represents a more tolerant and flexible voice of Islam that tries to repair the ties among the fractured communities and groups in Turkey.
