The Muslims, over the past nine years, have been the main dynamic of the change in Turkey. They have questioned their ties with nationalism, militarism and the status quo. These points that Gülen underlined are extremely important. He clearly and precisely identifies the reason of the problems and offers advice.
But this does not mean that all Turks think the same way about the Turkish activists on the Mavi Marmara, and the particular course of action some of them took. In fact, an interesting debate has just begun – and within a very interesting place: the Islamic camp.
“Bridges of peace should be built,” said Gülen, adding that occasions such as Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha could be used for such a purpose. “We need to show that we have no prejudice against anyone. We ought to respect all,” he said, emphasizing that this is an obligation under Islam.
Children from a variety of ethnicities and religious groups attend these schools and sit side by side, scattered all across Iraq. Sunni, Shiite, Christian, Assyrian and Yazidi students study together in the classroom and play together in the schoolyard.
Thus Gülen and the initiatives inspired by his teaching challenge the tendency found among some Muslims groups to separatist withdrawal from the wider non-Muslim society. By contrast, they offer a basis for Muslim engagement with the wider society based upon a confident and richly textured Islamic vision.
DİLEK HAYIRLI, İSTANBUL “I do not think there are people in Houston who are afraid of this movement. Rather I think that a lot of people are realizing that the emphasis on education and interfaith dialogue is exactly what we need to hear from the Muslim world. American sociology professor Helen Rose Ebaugh, who is […]
Gülen movement could be compared with Gandhi and his movement of nonviolent resistance. Of course, the context of both figures is very different. However, the scope of their influence is not dissimilar. What both have shared is the capacity to bring hope and to enable others to find hope.
The Peace Learning Center in Eagle Creek, Indiana has added Fethullah Gulen to the peacemaking curriculum and Executive Director Tim Nation says Gulen’s work to promote interfaith dialogue and community service makes him an excellent peacemaker. The Peace Learning Center in Eagle Creek, Indiana has been teaching thousands of young people about how to be […]
Officials from the US Department of State, a retired ambassador, academics and others gathered at the University of Maryland, College Park campus, on Thursday to participate in a Rumi Forum Maryland conference on the Gülen (Hizmet) movement’s contributions to world peace.
Nicolas Birch, Turkey There is a studious silence in the basement floor of the Rose Pink Women’s Education and Mutual Aid Association in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast. In three classrooms, 70 12-year-old girls are hard at work studying for exams that will decide their secondary school future. Wearing headscarves that […]