Gülen not only my hero, also a model for other religions


Date posted: November 23, 2010

Hatice Avcı, Brussels

A leading American minister has said all religions need an adherent like Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish-Islamic scholar whose teachings focusing on interfaith dialogue have been widely lauded around the world.

“He is not only my hero for what he has done for the Muslim societies but also [offers] a model for all other religions,” said Dirk Ficca, executive director of the Chicago-based Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, an international NGO aiming to cultivate better understanding between the world’s religious and spiritual communities by highlighting the similarities while also acknowledging the differences between them.

In an interview with Today’s Zaman in Brussels this past week, Ficca commended the activities of the faith-based movement named after Gülen, who has authored more than 50 books, most of which have been translated into English, French, Russian and Arabic. Gülen is also known for the hundreds of sermons he delivered so far in which he stresses the significance of strengthened communication between people of different religions and cultures. “I have a deep admiration for him. I have read a couple of his works and also have observed the movement he has inspired. This sociable and kind man has become an inspiration for Turkish Muslims and others around the world for shaping Islam’s highest values and blessings,” Ficca noted, adding that Gülen “encouraged Muslims to treat everyone as their Muslim neighbors or brothers,” something, Ficca also said, “all religions should do.”

Businessmen, schoolteachers and academics inspired by Gülen’s teachings — mostly known as Education Volunteers in Turkey — have opened hundreds of educational institutions of all sizes, from kindergartens to universities, in over 100 countries so far. Each year, select students from those institutions come together in Turkey for a traditional Turkish Olympics. Last year, participants from 120 countries around the world took part in the annual cultural and linguistic contest. “Wherever I go, I see a Gülen movement organization,” Ficca said, expressing his appreciation of the initiative’s coverage.

Also lauding the movement’s decentralized and completely non-hierarchic structure, which is completely based on volunteerism, Ficca said the Gülen movement is different in that it is a movement completely between people, whereas institutions serve functional and practical purposes rather than holding a managerial power and authority. “I think that the people should feel that they are in the service of a much bigger thing [than institutions],” the minister explained. For Ficca, the Gülen movement with its said traits is also a model for the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions.

During the interview, Ficca commented on how interfaith dialogue should be understood. He said their council promotes the individuality and uniqueness of all religions and their coming together around a table to communicate with each other under the council’s roof. He further explained that an agreement or consensus in approach to a certain matter is not a requirement to conclude a meeting. Stressing that they would like to receive all participants as they are, with all their differences, Ficca said sometimes the organization’s aim is presented as the uniting of all religions but that “nothing could be farther from reality.” “Dialogue is about mutual understanding whether we agree or disagree,” he added.

Every five years, the council organizes an international gathering of the “parliament” at a different city. Since the early ‘90s, the event has been held in Chicago, Cape Town, Barcelona and most recently in Melbourne last year with a wide participation of representatives from religious and spiritual traditions around the world. The next meeting will be held in 2014, and the candidate cities to host the gathering are Guadalajara and Dallas as well as Brussels.

 

Source: Today's Zaman , 22 November 2010


Related News

3rd Dialogue & Peace Iftar Dinner

3rd Dialogue & Peace Iftar Dinner on 10th July, 2014 at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja emphasized the importance of dialogue and peace between different religion members and nations. During the program Dialogue and Peace Awards were given in various categories to the people who served for dialogue and peace recently in Nigeria.

Fethullah Gulen: Muslims, we have to critically review our understanding of Islam

Words fall short to truly express my deep sadness and revolt in the face of the carnage perpetrated by terrorist groups such as the so-called ISIS. I share a profound frustration with a billion and a half Muslims around the world at the fact that such groups commit terror while dressing up their perverted ideologies as religion.

Toward an Islamic Enlightenment: The Gulen Movement (Book Review)

BOOK REVIEW Ten years after co-editing his first book on the Gülen movement, Hakan Yavuz, a leading scholar on Turkish society, brings his academic prowess and careful observations to bear on this dynamic phenomenon in Toward an Islamic Enlightenment: The Gülen Movement.1 This well-timed book not only provides an update on the growth of the […]

‘Turkish people not silly to believe slanderous news about Gülen’

Lawrence E. Carter, the dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, stated that a campaign of slander has bene launched against religious scholar Fethullah Gülen and Hizmet Movement but Turkish people are not stupid to believe such defamations.

The message at the dialogue dinner: There’s no alternative to one Nigeria

The Archbishop of Abuja made the statement during a Friendship and Dialogue Dinner, organised by UFUK Dialogue in Abuja recently. He said, “God has put us all in this one boat called Nigeria. And we really have no other option than to try to live together in peace with all our differences.

What is lacking in democratization package is democracy itself

This time’s so-called democratization package to soon be submitted to Parliament is an overt effort to make judicial proceedings nearly impossible if the consent of a governor or one of their deputies has not been granted. A prosecutor who wants to start an operation will first go to the governor (read: the government) in order to get a license to use law enforcement bodies in any sort of operation. This move is not only against democratic norms and the principles of transparency and the rule of law, but is also a clear reflection of a defensive mechanism in light of mounting corruption and graft claims surrounding senior government officials.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Gülen’s relatives dismayed over smear campaign against Islamic scholar

Gülen says talk of raid against Zaman aims to intimidate

History of politically motivated assault on Bank Asya

Interfaith Ramadan Iftar Dinner Held in Montville

Turkish opposition leader: No witch hunt in democracies

Another AK Party deputy, Muhammed Çetin, resigns in protest

Islam-state-society relationship: the Turkish model

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News