Testing Times for Muslims, Americans and Believers the World Over
The recent murders of American service personnel at Fort Hood, Texas, have once again raised the potential for enmity between the different segments of US society, and between different nations.
The upsurge of anger and enmity will undoubtedly be a setback for many who have been working hard for peace and understanding in the years since stories of international terrorism started to spread. At that time people started asking where peaceful Islamic voices, the voices of moderation and tolerance over extremism and radicalism, could be found.
After Sept. 11, 2001, there were calls around the world to listen to the moderate Islamic voice. At that time many other groups changed their rhetoric. In contrast to those groups, the Gülen movement’s participants (also known as the “volunteers’ service”) were well placed to speak up because the Gülen movement had already been teaching and practicing peace and tolerance for 30 to 40 years. Fethullah Gülen and the supporters of the services the movement provides did not need to change their language and attitude to become acceptable. This was one of the most significant factors that drew the attention of community leaders and authorities the world over.
Just before the execrable events at Fort Hood, I was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for the annual Community Prayer Breakfast of the Interfaith Federation for a talk about the volunteers’ service. Federation members were especially interested in how the Turkish scholar and preacher, Fethullah Gülen, encouraged people inside and outside Turkey to offer apolitical and altruistic services to humanity. What we shared was not an idealized picture of a particular individual but the meaning of his message and the achievements of the people inspired by it. Federation members were eager to learn how a scholar’s ideas had changed the direction of youth, how Gülen helped Turkey through a time when political and religious strife threatened to pull it apart and how he convinced the masses about Islam’s demand for mutual respect, caring and cooperation.
At the heart of the message of the volunteers’ service lie education, sound morality, altruism and inner transformation. This understanding and practice have convinced people to avoid violence, ignorance, moral decay and corruption. The movement has aimed to inculcate peaceful, non-violent thinking and attitudes in people through conversation, interaction, compassion, education and collaboration. Gülen argues that “only if they receive a sound education can individuals and their society respect the supremacy and rule of law, democratic and human rights, diversity and other cultures,” and this is why the services provided by the movement’s participants are recognized and welcomed by various nations and people. Gülen has convinced many to fund new schools, where children from various segments of society not only learn, but also become friends. The education at the schools and institutions accepts differences and renders them valuable.
The organizing committee of the breakfast wanted to hear how the movement’s participants had worked to establish a progressive and prosperous society without violence, terror and destruction during the turbulent Turkey of the 1980s. Together, we looked at the fruit that brings recognition of the tree. The volunteers’ service demonstrates to people that we may be powerless as individuals, but when we work together, we have the power to shape our community and history; we can all leave our mark for good because we can all serve humanity. It contributes to the creation of common public spaces in which an agreement can be reached to share the responsibility for a whole social field. In this respect, through the process of interfaith dialogue between groups such as the Interfaith Federation and the volunteers’ service, people can grow deeper in their own faith while practicing the common virtues and accomplishing the shared goals that faith commends.
A few days after the Community Breakfast, the shootings at Fort Hood and then the execution of the Washington, D.C., sniper took place. No one can condone the despicable crimes of those two men. Although their motives are not yet fully known, such incidents show that we are indeed in dire need of the type of sound moral and spiritual education, and beneficial services, given by the volunteers’ service and other similar groups.
Some in the press and media are already playing with fire by covering the views of extremist individuals from both sides about these particular incidents and individuals. This, too, confirms once more that we need men and women of common sense who will not galvanize the enmity caused by such incidents but will work to prevent further hatred, polarization and clashes in and between societies. We need to work hard together to disseminate the messages and teachings of academic, moral and spiritual authorities to avoid further ignorance, violence and decay.
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