Sometimes you need many pages to properly express a feeling or idea. Sometimes a sentence is enough to depict that dominant feeling or idea. This is the very feeling I personally have in the face of the debates concerning the reopening of Halki [Greek Orthodox] Seminary on the island of Heybeliada near İstanbul, which was closed down in 1971 by the interim regime formed in the wake of a military memorandum in Turkey. “Shame” is the only word I can find to describe this feeling.
Speaking at the Dialogue Symposium held in İstanbul on Friday, the spiritual leader of the Latin Catholic Community, Louis Pelatre said some states abuse religion for wars although all religions prohibit killing and war. “We have to fight against prejudices in order to prevent the use of religion in wars,” said Pelatre as he commended the interfaith dialogue efforts of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
One of the best-selling weeklies of Turkey, Aksiyon, made Fethullah Gülen’s meeting with Pope John Paul II a cover story on February 2, 1998 and published an published an interview with him. Gülen visited the Pope on February 9, 1998. A summarized excerpt from that interview follows.
Dialogue Institute of the Southwest co-sponsored a video production called “In the Footprints of Francis and the Sultan: A Model for Peacemaking”, which aims to advance interfaith dialogue and understanding between Christians and Muslims. This video uses the story of their meeting to help us negotiate our difficult interfaith encounters and other misunderstanding and hostility between peoples.
Chorepiscopus Yusuf Sag, Vicar General and leader of the Syriac Catholic Church in Turkey: “I wish every country had its own Fethullah Gulen. I watched the students performing at the recent Turkish Olympiads in admiration. They all sang in Turkish like angels. I have to ask: Is it better that they sing Turkish songs or hold guns in their hands?”
Hrant Topakiyan, Kentim Gazette, April 5, 2010 Journalists and Writers Foundation = Love For many years I have attended the love-filled Ramadan iftar dinners arranged by the Journalists and Writers Foundation. My Lord allowed me to meet very valuable people at these dinners. Since it is impossible to write all their names in this column, […]
10 August 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN The Ufuk (Horizon) Dialogue Foundation hosted a Dialogue and Peace Iftar Dinner last week in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. The event was attended by Gombe State Governor Ibrahim Dankwanbo, Nigerian Information Minister Labaran Maku, Finance Minister Yerima Ngama, Abuja’s Roman Catholic Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, Anglican Archbishop Nicholas […]
Australian Catholic University has announced Fethullah Gulen International Scholarship to be given to international students who will research Muslim-Christian relations at postgraduate level. Funded by the International Student Scholarship funds, the Fethullah Gulen International Scholarship was established in 2012 to support international students undertaking postgraduate research in the broad area of Muslim-Christian relations within the […]
Fr. Leo D. Lefebure* 03 July 2012, Tuesday The members of Hizmet have been unfailingly gracious and cordial, respectful of Christianity and mindful of the many values shared by Muslims and Christians. Their concern to build constructive relationships and to collaborate in building interreligious understanding is inspiring. Since the 1990s, I have been involved in […]
11 April 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has praised well-respected Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen for his efforts to build intercultural dialogue in Turkey and the world in an interview he gave to a US daily. “He builds bridges, and religion should build bridges,” said the patriarch. “This is why […]
Zaman Newspaper March 24, 2012 A former Vatican diplomatic official in Turkey, Msgr. Georges Marovitch who lost his life in a hospital at the age of 81 were buried after funeral ceremony held in İstanbul’s St. Esprit Church on Saturday. Msgr. Marovitch passed away the other day as he suffered from a multiple organ failure […]
In the view of doomsday reports from the US, it does not come as a surprise how ordinary Americans from all faiths, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, have worked meticulously to bridge the gap and sheer absence of dialogue between these three Abrahamic religions especially in the context of post 9/11 world. SAURABH KUMAR SHAHI | […]
HATİCE AVCI, LEUVEN A chair named after the well-respected Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen has been established at one of Belgium’s most prestigious Catholic universities, the Catholic University of Leuven, with university officials saying it is a source of pleasure for them to have a chair named after Gülen. The Fethullah Gülen Chair for Intercultural Studies […]