University of North Dakota UND Scholarly Commons Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects January 2018 The eP rsistence Of Orientalism And The oP sitive Portrayal Of The uleG n Movement In The ewN York Times And In The alW l Street Journal Between 1985 And 2016 Yonca Ipek Cubuk Uzundag Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/theses Recommended Citation Cubuk Uzundag, Yonca Ipek, "The eP rsistence Of Orientalism And The ositP ive Portrayal Of The uleG n Movement In The eN w York Times And In The alW l Street Journal Between 1985 And 2016" (2018). Theses and Dissertations. 2396. https://commons.und.edu/theses/2396 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PERSISTENCE OF ORIENTALISM AND THE POSITIVE PORTRAYAL OF THE GULEN MOVEMENT IN THE NEW YORK TIMES AND IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BETWEEN 1985 AND 2016 by Yonca Ipek Cubuk Bachelor of Arts, Saint Francis College, 2015 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of North Dakota in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Grand Forks, North Dakota December 2018 PERMISSION Title The Persistence Of Orientalism And The Positive Portrayal Of The Gulen Movement In The New York Times And In The Wall Street Journal Between 1985 And 2016 Deparment History Degree Master of Arts In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a graduate degree from the University of North Dakota, I agree that the library of this University shall make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for extensive copying for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor who supervised my thesis work or in her absence, by the chairperson of the department or the dean of the Graduate School. It is understood that any copying or publication or other use of this thesis or part thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of North Dakota in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Yonca Ipek Cubuk December 06, 2018 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………….....v ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………..,….vi INTRODUCTION: ORIENTALISM, THE NEWS MEDIA, AND THE GULEN MOVEMENT…………………………….…………………………………………….….1 CHAPTER I. THE PERSISTENCE OF ORIENTALISM IN THE NEW YORK TIMES AND IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BETWEEN 1985 AND 2016………………………………………………………………………………………40 THE POSITIVE PORTRAYAL OF FETHULLAH GULEN AND THE GULEN MOVEMENT IN THE NEW YORK TIMES AND IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL………………………………………………………………………….67 CHAPTER II: MISREPRESENTATION OF FETHULLAH GULEN AND THE GULEN MOVEMENT BY THE ACADEMIA……...…………………………..…………….….91 CONCLUSION: THE FALSE REPRESENTATION OF THE GULEN MOVEMENT AS A RESULT OF PERSISTENT ORIENTALISM……………………………………........118 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………123 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the members of my advisory committee Dr. Caroline Campbell, Dr. William Caraher, Dr. James Mochoruk for their tremendous support. I would also like to thank to my friends and colleagues at the University of North Dakota for their support and guidance. v To Emre, my husband and my best friend. ABSTRACT This thesis argues that the positive portrayal of the Gulen (Hizmet) movement in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal is a direct result of persistent Orientalism in the American academia and news media. The evidence reveals that most of the articles published in the New York Times and in the Wall Street Journal Between 1985 and 2016 and the majority of academic works completely ignored the controversial nature of the Gulen movement. This favorable approach portrays Islam as monolithic and indicates the otherness of Muslims by subjecting them to a separate set of standards for “moderation.” This is problematic for two distinct reasons. First, it shows that Orientalism is still persistent well into the year 2016. Furthermore, when referring to Gulen as “moderate and progressive,” the journalists and academics falsely portray all Muslims negatively since this portrayal indicates Gulen’s ideology is moderate in comparison to all interpretations of Islam. vi INTRODUCTION: ORIENTALISM, THE NEWS MEDIA, AND THE GULEN MOVEMENT The negative portrayal of Islam, Muslims and Muslim societies in the news media has been a growing issue since the 1970s. Scholars explained this inaccurate and negative portrayal with the tumultuous political environment of the 1970s. Oil Embargo, the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Hostage Crisis were among the main events that turned the American attention to Islam and eventually to its negative portrayal. The relatively positive atmosphere of the post- WWII lasted roughly until the end of the Afghan-Soviet War in 1989. While the negative news media attention started to portray Muslims and Islam as one-dimensional and almost always as a threat to the security of the United States, the collaboration between the United States and the Afghan rebels, mujahedeen, continued to garner positive attention. The negative portrayal gained momentum with the beginning of the 1990s and eventually reached its peak after the September 11 attacks with the “War on Terror” and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Research has repeatedly shown that Muslims, Islam, and especially Arabs in the media disproportionally represented as violent and uncivilized. Human rights abuses in Muslim majority societies often featured in the news for the last twenty-five years; yet, the recent consistent trend in the Muslim-majority nations is to better the lives of their members. From Saudi Arabia to Morocco, societies of different sects of Islam and minorities started to demand and earn more rights. An examination of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal’s approach to Islam from 1985 to 2016 demonstrate the persistence of Orientalism. The Orientalist approach employed by both of these newspapers emphasized the otherness of Muslims and strengthen the civilized vs. uncivilized narrative. During the 1980s there was little to no public interest in Muslim-majority societies but the interest grew significantly during the 1990s and reached its peak after the September 11 attacks. Certain issues also garnered the attention of journalists; issues regarding child marriage, 1 violence against women and the lack of LGBTQ+ rights were the main issues both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal persistently reported on; access to healthcare and modern education, however, were the kind of issues that often went overlooked. In addition to specific issues, a specific person's and a movement's actions were often overlooked as well: Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen (Hizmet) movement.1 Even though the Gulen movement’s ideology contributes negatively to the most urgent issues in the Islamic world and his ideology contradicts the clauses on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, both the American academics and American journalists insistently portrayed the movement and Fethullah Gulen himself as positively. Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal dismissed the Turkish concerns as if they were coming from some radical faction and referred to the critics of Gulen simply as “seculars,” and/or indicated their support of the Turkish Armed Forces, which is an entity that enacted several coups over the course of modern Turkey’s history, allegedly to protect the secularism principle. The journalists who were somewhat critical of Gulen and the Gulen movement lacked in-depth analysis of Gulen’s ideology and primarily focused on the corruption allegations of Gulen affiliated charter schools, Gulen’s leadership, and/or the Turkish state’s accusation where Gulen was suspected of instructing his followers to infiltrate the state institutions. The critical articles never pointed out his remarks where he encouraged violence against women –even instructed when and how to beat women. Never pointed out his unscientific approach to modern science and especially to the scientific theory of evolution which was especially worth noting since he is known for his STEM-oriented schools and famously claims that religion and science must be complementary to each other rather than being rivals. None of the articles even mentioned Gulen’s deep hatred of the LGBTQ+ individuals and atheists while 1 Hizmet means service in Turkish. 2 so vehemently arguing that he promotes tolerance. I argue that the journalists’ reluctance to point out these issues can be explained by two interrelated factors. First of all, there is an absolute favoritism of Gulen and the Gulen movement in the American academia. American academics completely ignored the characteristics of Gulen’s ideology that would never be accepted in a Western and Judeo-Christian movement/ideology and portrayed Gulen and his movement as the egalitarian and progressive future of Islam. Secondly, I argue that Orientalism, as defined by Edward Said in 1979, still dominates Western journalism. While, after 9/11 the journalists’ approach seemed to be changed and became more nuanced towards the Muslims, Muslim societies, and Islam the evidence that is provided in this thesis demonstrates