THE CONCEPT OF FUTUWWAH FETHULLAH GULEN: Offering Religious Solutions in the Post-Truth Era

Abstract

This study discusses one of the concepts offered by a Turkish intellectual, Fethullah Gulen. With indicators made by Fazlur Rahman, that Islamic thinkers in general can be classified into four categories, namely: revivalists, classical modernists, neo-revivalists, and neo-modernists, then Fethullah Gulen is one of the leaders of neo-modernist Islamic thinkers. Among his thoughts that will be discussed in this paper is the concept of futuwwah. His thoughts are deemed necessary to study in order to find out how religious attitudes are appropriate in this post-truth era. The post-truth era, where fanaticism and group identity are more important than data and facts, if left dirty, can lead to social or racial segregation. If that is allowed to happen, Indonesia will be like South Africa, which during the 20th century, adopted Apartheid politics that segregated its people based on their skin color. Thus, social, economic and political inequality are inevitable. For this reason, to fight the bad side of post-truth, religious solutions are needed in accordance with this post-truth era. The concept of futuwwah feels right, because, although the concept of futuwwah is a traditional concept, but Fethullah Gulen can find his spirit so that it is useful for the modern era.