Millî Görüş (, ) or Erbakanism is a religiopolitical movement and the ideology of a series of Islamist parties inspired by

Necmettin Erbakan Necmettin Erbakan (29 October 1926 – 27 February 2011) was a Turkish politician and political theorist who served as the 23rd prime minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was pressured by the military to step down as prime minister and was la ...

. It argues that

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

can develop with its own human and economic power by protecting its core Islamic values and combating

European imperialism Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...

. Multiple political parties in Turkey adopted the ideology, such as

New Welfare Party The New Welfare Party (, YRP) is an Islamist and ultraconservative political party in Turkey, founded on 23 November 2018. The party positions itself as the successor to the Welfare Party ( Turkish: ''Refah Partisi''), which was a prominent Isla ...

Felicity Party The Felicity Party (, SAADET) is an Islamism, Islamist Turkey, Turkish political party. It was founded in 2001, and mainly supported by conservative Muslims in Turkey. It was founded on 20 July 2001 after the Virtue Party (Turkey), Virtue Party ...

, Virtue Party, Welfare Party,

National Salvation Party The National Salvation Party (, MSP) was an Islamist political party in Turkey, founded on 11 October 1972 as the successor of the banned National Order Party (''Millî Nizam Partisi'', MNP). The party was formed by a core group of working cadres ...

and

National Order Party National Order Party (''Millî Nizam Partisi'', MNP) was an Islamist political party in Turkey, which adopted the '' Millî Görüş'' ideology. It was the first political party of the '' Millî Görüş'' movement and also the first Islamist p ...

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

, a lieutenant of Erbakan, founded the Justice and Development Party, which has governed Turkey since

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. It has been called one of "the leading Turkish diaspora organizations in Europe"Religion and politics in Turkey
By Ali Çarkŏğlu, Barry Rubin, Barry M. Rubin, p.63 and also described as the largest Islamic organization operating in the West. Founded in 1969, the movement claimed to have "87,000 members across Europe, including 50,000 in Germany," as of 2005. The term also refers to the "religious vision" of the organization that emphasizes the moral and spiritual strength of Islamic faith ( iman) and explains the

Muslim world The terms Islamic world and Muslim world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs, politics, and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is ...

's decline as a result of its ignorance and imitation of

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

values.Religion and politics in Turkey
By Ali Çarkŏğlu, Barry Rubin, Barry M. Rubin, p.64 The movement is active in nearly all European countries and also countries like Australia, Canada and the United States. IGMG Head Office

Background

In 1969 the Turkish politician

published a

manifesto A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...

that he gave the title ''Millî Görüş''. It spoke only in the most general terms of

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

moral and religious education but devoted much attention to

industrialization Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

and economic independence. It warned against further rapprochement towards

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, considering the Common Market to be a

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

and

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

project for the assimilation and de-

Islamization The spread of Islam spans almost 1,400 years. The early Muslim conquests that occurred following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE led to the creation of the caliphates, expanding over a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted ...

and called instead for

pan-Islamism Pan-Islamism () is a political movement which advocates the unity of Muslims under one Islamic country or state – often a caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. Historically, after Ottomanism, which aimed at ...

. According to author Banu Eligur, Erbakan and the party "used the code words ''national'' and ''culture'' to refer to Islam, and ''National Vision'' to refer to the project of

Political Islam Political Islam is the interpretation of Islam as a source of political identity and action. It advocates the formation of state and society according to (the advocates understanding of) Islamic principles, where Islam serves as a source of poli ...

" as "it is illegal" in Turkey "to use religious symbols for political purposes." The name of Millî Görüş would remain associated with a religio-political movement and a series of Islamist parties inspired by Erbakan, one succeeding the other as they were banned for violating Turkey’s secularist legislation.

Islamist rift

Following the ban of the Virtue Party (FP), a rift that had been developing in the movement resulted in two parties taking its place, the

(SP) representing Erbakan’s old guard, and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) led by younger and more pragmatic politicians around

, which claims to have renounced a specifically Islamist agenda. The AK Party convincingly won the 2002 elections and formed a government with a strong popular mandate, that brought Turkey closer to acceptance for membership in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

than any previous government had done.

European Turkish diaspora

Among the Turkish immigrants in Western Europe, Milli Görüş became one of the major, if not the major, religious movements, controlling numerous mosques. Like the movement in Turkey, it went through some remarkable changes, not least because the first generation, which was strongly oriented towards what happened in Turkey, is gradually surrendering leadership to a younger generation that grew up in

and is concerned with entirely different matters. Milli Görüş' public profile shows considerable differences from one country to the next, suggesting that nature of the interaction with the 'host' societies may have as much of an impact on its character as a religious movement as the relationship with the 'mother' movement in Turkey.

Germany

According to several sources in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

the attitude of the German branch towards Turkey has completely changed. After the taking over of Erdogan and the AKP the organisation is mainly serving the interest of the Turkish government which now subsidizes the organisation. Diyanet, AKP and the Turkish government practically control the organisations' public statements and appearances. Because of fraud and criminal offences of the board of directors several trials are running against the organisation.

Timeline

ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:25 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1970 till:01/01/2023 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1970 Colors = id:milligorus value:rgb(0.811,0.2,0.2) legend: National_Vision Legend = columns:4 left:150 top:24 columnwidth:100 TextData = pos:(20,27) textcolor:black fontsize:M text:"Political parties:" BarData = barset:PM PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM from: 26/01/1970 till: 20/05/1971 color:milligorus text:"

" fontsize:10 from: 11/10/1972 till: 12/09/1980 color:milligorus text:"

" fontsize:10 from: 19/07/1983 till: 16/01/1998 color:milligorus text:" Welfare Party" fontsize:10 from: 17/12/1997 till: 22/06/2001 color:milligorus text:" Virtue Party" fontsize:10 from: 20/07/2001 till: end color:milligorus text:"

" fontsize:10 from: 23/11/2018 till: end color:milligorus text:"

" fontsize:10

Footnotes

Literature

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Milli Gorus Antisemitism in Turkey Far-right politics in Turkey Islamism in Europe Islamist groups Islamism in Turkey Islamic organizations established in 1969 Islamic nationalism Political movements in Turkey Turkish diaspora organizations Anti-Western sentiment Anti-American sentiment in Turkey Anti-LGBTQ sentiment in Europe