Pro-active Religious Rehabilitation for the Prevention of Radicalism and Violent Extremism

Social ruptures, socio-political injustices, double standards and grievances lay the foundation of alienation and frustration. While radical preachers tacitly use unfortunate circumstances to recruit vulnerable Muslims, mainstream Muslim preachers use religion to tame the opposed one’s emotional eruptions and violent reactions. One practical example of such religious rehabilitation can be followed in the sermons of M. Fethullah Gulen, whose followers have been politically oppressed, especially after the coup attempt in Turkey on 15 July 2017. Looking at Gulen’s sermons delivered in the first six weeks of the controversial coup attempt, this chapter analyses the overarching religious themes and discourse preventing Gulen’s followers from emotional eruptions and violent reactions. Examining the influence of religious rehabilitation from a real-life scenario, this chapter proposes a pro-active strategy that continuously and unconditionally produces positive thinking and action, and thereby leaves not much room for radicalism and no need for its refutation.