NEW BOOK: Beginnings and Endings: Fethullah Gulen's Vision for Today's World

Walter Wagner attempts to present a framework of understanding that outlines the philosophy and theology of Fethullah Gulen, a worldwide known scholar of Islam who inspired a global movement of education and interfaith dialogue. This book shows how Gülen's vision for the present and future makes the present and future forms of Hizmet an essential part of his wider and urgent call for the formation of a community of religiously committed and non-religiously committed persons to work toward a just, equitable and prosperous world now.

About the Author:
Dr. Walter H. Wagner is adjunct faculty at Moravian Theological Seminary (Bethlehem, PA) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. He is an ordained Lutheran pastor (ELCA), retired from parish ministry. He has taught at California, Lutheran College, Upsala College and Muhlenberg College, and served as the director for theological education of the Lutheran Church in America. He is the author of a number of articles on early church history and Islam as well as Opening the Qur'an.



More Info: http://www.amazon.com/Beginnings-Endings-Fethullah-Gulens-Vision/dp/1935295268

ARTICLE: An Eye-Opening Trek Into Turkish Society

An Eye-Opening Trek Into Turkish Society
WALTER RATLIFF*

May 22, 2013

In Gaziantep, Turkey, the children at a local orphanage were recently asked to write about what they wished for most in life. The exercise was designed to help them think about their goals for the future. However, one child took the answer in a different direction: “I wish my parents could come back for just two hours, so I could show them around and have them meet my friends.”

This anecdote formed perhaps the most poignant moment in our recent visit to Turkey. As an orphanage sponsor told our group the story, our host and translator, Emre Celik, had to take a few moments before he passed the story along to us. There were few dry eyes in the room. Earlier, the children had greeted us with cheers, laughter and singing. But this story brought home the stark realities that these children face every day.

The facility we visited serves about 600 children between the ages of 10 and 18. Most of the children are Kurdish. Before coming to the orphanage, they were in danger of becoming street children, or being recruited by violent rebel groups such as the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK). Here, they can continue their education, make friends, and receive counseling. The site we visited is part of a network of orphanages taking care of about 10,000 children in Turkey who have lost one or both parents.

The counselors work hard to engage new children coming to the facility. They also watch for danger signs. The biggest concern among the staff is that a new children will emotionally withdraw into themselves. Developing a habit of withdrawal after an emotional trauma can have long term negative consequences. The staff and other children work hard to give the new kids a sense of care and belonging. This is as important to their health as any educational program the school has to offer. Caring, reciprocal relationships matter. Like a recent Harvard study (unsurprisingly) concluded:Happiness is love. Full Stop.

The orphanage visit was part of a week-long study fellowship for DC-area Ph.D. students. The trip gave us an inside look into many key segments of Turkish government and society. Our visits ranged from Turkey’s foreign affairs brokers in Ankara, to the country’s leading newspaper in Istanbul, to businesses, relief organizations and think tanks located around the country.

Many of the organizations we visited were part of what its popularly called the Gülen Movement. Its members refer to it as Hizmet, which simply means “the service.” It is perhaps the most powerful civil society group in Turkey. The founder, Fethullah Gülen, is a Muslim public intellectual and cleric who advocates what The Economist described as “pacifist, modern-minded Islam, often praised as a contrast to more extreme Salafism.”Hizmet members shun political office in favor civil society projects. They run large universities, hugely popular media outlets and influential non-governmental organizations. They remind me of Christian groups that have established universities, hospitals, NGOs and civil society organizations throughout the history of the United States. Faith is an important starting point for each member of the Hizmet. At the same time, Gülen advocates a secular government where religious practice is free from state control, and the government holds every religion at an equal distance. He promotes religious freedom for all faiths who wish to participate in the public sphere.

This places the Hizmet ideology far apart from some Islamist groups who wish for a theocratic state, as well as the Turkey’s historic Kemalist government position, which simultaneously controls religious institutions and removes them from public life. This includes the displacement of religious participation in education and other key sectors of civil society. Gülen promotes religious pluralism, freedom of conscience and fully engaged faith communities as critical components of a healthy society. Civil society is left vulnerable without support from citizens who actively look after its welfare. Just as caring relationships can change the life of an orphan, engagement by service-oriented religious groups can change a nation.

Yet, the trip was more about contemporary Turkey than it was about the Hizmet. Some meetings were disconnected from the movement’s activities, and some included critics of the movement. Each encounter helped us form a picture of Turkish civil life, including some universal concerns. From an editor at Zaman, Turkey’s largest daily newspaper, we learned how both sources and journalists face intimidation from the government, which severely hampers the role of the press in a free society. The morning after we met Zaman’s editors, I received word that the U.S. Justice Department seized AP’s phone records (likely including my own) from our DC, NY and Connecticut offices.

One of the biggest highlights of the trip was getting to know the other participants. It was a “fellowship” in the true sense of the word. We were all scholars with a different research interests studying at a variety of schools. Yet, there was a great deal of mutual respect running through the widely (and sometimes wildly) different personalities. We were able to discuss many points of view in our conversations with each other and the people we met along the journey. We also formed friendships that I hope will last into the years ahead.

* Walter Ratliff is a scholar of Religion and the Religions Editor at Associated Press

SOURCE: http://walterratliff.com/2013/05/an-eye-opening-trek-into-turkish-society/

Today's Zaman: Halal Secularism - IHSAN YILMAZ

Halal secularism

MADISON -- I am in the US to chair a panel and also present a paper at the Third International Conference on Islam at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This year’s theme is Islam and democracy.

My paper reflects my recent studies on Islam-secularism-democracy issues that I have also touched upon in this column from time to time. I have been trying to analyze if and to what extent an Islamic secularism or “halal secularism,” as it were, is possible. The issue does not, of course, concern Turkey, and given the fact that the Middle Eastern Islamic nations are hopefully entering a phase of democracy, it is crucial to understand how Islam will accommodate different ethnicities and, more importantly, religions. Older versions of Islamic “multiculturalist, multireligious” political schemes cannot obviously be applied in a similar fashion in the 21st century where religious minorities will not be content with the status of dhimmi or politico-legal arrangement of a legally pluralist millet system. They will not settle for less than being equal citizens. It is crystal clear that a new ijtihad (independent decision making with regard to Islamic law) is needed on this issue. Then, the vital question is how Muslim democrats will conceptualize new Islamic political theories that will enable very citizen -- regardless of faith -- to be equal citizens, without making any ethnic or religious group superior to or privileged over the others. With regards to ethnicity and race, Islam does not have a problem. Nevertheless, as I said, a new ijtihad is needed on how to accommodate different faiths and religions constitutionally equal in the public sphere and also in legislative activity. I argue in my paper that Fethullah Gülen’s new ijtihad on state-religion issues could be beneficial to study. The Turkish case may be unique in several aspects, so it may not be a model for the Muslim world. However, it is obvious that ijtihads that are normative politico-philosophical formulations could easily be transplanted and applied in different localities and contexts. I try to show that in Gülen’s thinking one can find a convergence of Habermasian and Shatibian ideas with regards to human rights, primarily freedom of conscience and religion. John Rawls argued that “reasonable comprehensive doctrines, religious or non-religious, may be introduced in public political discussion at any time, provided that in due course proper political reasons -- and not reasons given solely by comprehensive doctrines -- are presented that are sufficient to support whatever the comprehensive doctrines are said to support.” In response, Habermas puts that this epistemic burden -- that each time religious communities and movements have to “find an equivalent in a universally accessible language for every religious statement they pronounce” as part of the duty of civility -- results in a sort of self-censorship. Instead, Habermas argues that this strict demand can only be laid at the door of politicians, who within state institutions are subject to the obligation to remain neutral in the face of competing worldviews. Thus, religious citizens and actors can express and justify their convictions in a religious language if they cannot find secular “translations” for them. It is the legislators’ duty to translate these demands into a secular language. Gülen’s conception of Islam-friendly democracy is key to understanding his approach to sacred and secular relations. Gülen does not see a contradiction between Islam and democracy. With regards to state-society-religion issues, he has argued, unlike the Islamists, that passive Anglo-Saxon secularism -- which guarantees human rights and freedoms, including freedom of religion -- could provide a wider framework for Muslims to practice their religion comfortably and for other religious minorities to also benefit from human rights. In his view, the faithful can comfortably live in secular environments if secularism is religion-friendly and understood as the state not being founded on religion, and hence not interfering with religion or religious life, as well as remaining equidistant to all religions in a neutral manner. It can be argued that Gülen’s approach to sacred-secular relations is similar to the First Amendment of the US Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” since he has highlighted that Islam does not need a state to survive and that civil society or a civilian realm in liberal-democratic settings is sufficient for its individual and social practice. SOURCE: http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-277370-halal-secularism.html

U.S. Foreign Policy and the Challenge of Spiritual Engagement, by Dr. Douglas M. Johnston

ACADEMIC - Indonesian 'Fethullah Gulen conference' papers go online

The conference papers recently published from the Fethullah Gulen conference in Indonesia have gone online. These studies reflect the research that is necessary to better understand this global social and civic movement and its inspiring Fethullah Gulen

1	Hisako Nakamura, " An Observation on the Gülen-Inspired Informal Education among Newly Converted Japanese Muslims"
2	Prof. Dr. Mitsuo Nakamura, "Rationality and Enlightenment: A Comparison of Educational Reforms Promoted by Gülen Movement and Muhammadiyah"
3	Dr. Ali Ünsal, "Gülen’s Perspective on Education: Foundations of His Ideas and Actions"
4	Dr. Margaret A. Johnson, "Glocalization of the Gülen Education Model: An Analysis of the Gülen-Inspired Schools in Indonesia"
5	Mohamed Nawab Mohamed Osman, "Gülen’s Educational Philosophy: Striving for the Golden Generation of Muslims"
6	Dr. Salih Yücel, "Spiritual Role Models in Gülen’s Educational Philosophy"
7	Dr. Qamar Agha, "Fethullah Gülen’s Ideas on the Relationship between Science and Religion"
8	Dr. Zeki Saritoprak, "How Do Gülen’s Educational efforts contribute to Global Peace"
9	Dr. Suchart Setthamalinee, "The Role of Education in Raising New Generations: A Case study of Chinese Muslim in Northern Thailand"
10	Dr. Muhammed Çetin, "The Contribution of Islamic Scholarship to Democracy"
11	Prof. Dr.Maniruzzaman, "Gülen’s Idea of Education for Peace"
12	Prof. Dr.Leonid R.Sykiainen, "Purposes of Education in the Light of Fethullah Gülen’s Teachings"
13	David Tittensor, "An Alternative Pilgrimage: Teachers Doing Hizmet Abroad"
14	Prof. Dr. Choi Woo-Won, "Transformation of Philosophy and New Education for the Global Age"
15	Mahsheed Ansari, "The concept of mani ism (meaning by name) and mani harf (meaning by letter) as a comprehensive theoretical tool for educational philosophy and method and the importance and impact of the Risale i Nur in Fethullah Gulen’s educational out"
16	Prof. Dr. Ismail Albayrak, "Main characteristics of the Gulen movement and the importance of education in globalising world'"
17	Dr. Masayuki Akutsu, "Social Revitalization through Promotion of Education : Socio-Historical Analysis of Islamic Education and Muslim Society in Pre-Modern Islamic World"
18	Prof. Dr. Gumilar R. Somantri, "Keynote speech for the International Conference on Fethullah Güllen at UI"
19	Prof. Dr. Adama Diop, "Fetullah Gülen's Idea on the Relationship Between Science and Religion"
20	Fr. Thomas Michel, "The Thinking Behind the Gülen-Inspired Schools"
21	Prof. Dr. M. Amin Abdullah, "Fethullah Gülen and Character Education in Indonesia"
22	Çemen Polat, "The Functions of Gülen-Inspired Educational Initiatives As Business Enterprises in the Philanthropic Fashion"
23	Ahmet Orhan Polat, "The Key Factors Behind the Success of Gülen-Inspired Schools"

ORIGINAL WEB SITE :
http://www.fethullahgulenchair.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=75:conference-papers&Itemid=255&layout=default&lang=en

OTHER CONFERENCES:
http://rumiforum.blogspot.com/2010/09/rumi-forum-suggested-links-has-been.html

MEDIA - Gulen : A model for other religions - Dirk Ficca

A new article based on an interview in Brussels appeared in the media a few days ago, including an interesting view on Fethullah Gulen's as a model for others

‘Gülen not only my hero, also a model for other religions’ 22 November 2010, Monday / Hatice Avcı, Brussels

A leading American minister Dirk Ficca spoke to Today’s Zaman in Brussels last week. A leading American minister Dirk Ficca spoke to Today’s Zaman in Brussels last week.

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.... FULL ARTICLE:  http://www.sundayszaman.com/sunday/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=227553