Georgetown University Conference: The Gülen Movement (2)

The goal was to discuss scholarly of questions regarding various aspects of Islam, Turkey and peaceful civic services in an effort to provide the public with a healthier understanding of contemporary global issues and promote intellectual debate and sharing among researchers and scholars of the Gülen movement. Among the 35 papers presented, I will only touch upon five of them here.

Aaron Tyler, St. Mary's University, Texas: Contrary to the exclusiveness and intolerance preached by extremists, Gülen's writings champion tolerance and caritas toward the Other as the essence of a true believer. Tolerance, for Gülen, is a consequence of one's faith in God and a salve of reconciliation in a world of lasting difference. With every region of the world beleaguered by inter-communal conflicts, a strategy of tolerance, which is both taught and lived, is urgently needed.

Tyler demonstrates how Gülen's faith-based conceptualization of tolerance is a wholly Islamic ideal, can enrich Muslim understandings of faithfulness and help facilitate inter- and intra-communal endeavors for cooperative dialogue, mutual understanding and benevolent coexistence. Contrary to post-modernity's pseudo-tolerance, which is often criticized for its moral vacuity, Gülen is not reticent to espouse a genuine, faith-based idea of tolerance that embraces humanity's search for truth and encourages coexistence through a benevolent awareness of lasting human difference and an unqualified defense of the dignity ascribed to each person. If healing and community between religions, tribes and cultures is to take place, such a conceptualization of tolerance must take root, one which acknowledges the reality of human diversity and the need for mutual respect, human friendship and hospitality.

Gary Bouma, Monash University, Australia: The Gülen movement offers the world a theologically grounded grassroots approach to interfaith relations that is well resourced and motivated by values core to the movement. Its holistic experiential Sufi approach is deeply resonant with the emerging spiritual character of the 21st century. By operating at both the grass roots and senior leadership levels and with deep religious commitment to the activity, the Gülen movement offers a unique source of hope in an otherwise daunting environment.

Heon Kim, Temple University: As a source of human, social and cultural capital, Gülen's vision of dialogue on the basis of universal humanitarian values of Sufism provides a vision of religion as a solution to human problems in sharp contrast to the image of religion represented by religious fundamentalists and some scholars as a primary source of conflict and clash. These inter-civilizational dialogue activities of the Gülen movement prove the potential role of religion as a means of a dialogue-based bond and bridge between people of different religious and cultural background.

Margaret Rausch, University of Kansas: The militant laicists in Turkey as well as among other "liberal secularists" throughout the Muslim world conjecture that modernization, the sole path to progress, can only be achieved through secularization and that, by extension, Islam, like other religions, promotes stagnation, ignorance and oppression. Since the 1980s, a growing number of Muslim men and women have been questioning this dichotomy. Viewing their faith and piety as a source of guidance and strength, they are reviving Islam's message of equality, social justice, education and progress as a means to societal improvement. A growing body of scholarship on the impact of Gülen's teachings on women participants in the Gülen movement shows that some of them have found direction in their lives, forging career paths in Gülen-inspired schools, while others have been inspired to seek dialogue with their spouses to negotiate changes in their personal lives and relationships in contemporary societies.

Martha Kirk, University of the Incarnate Word, Texas: Gülen has urged people to analyze the roots of the unrest, the discrimination against ethnic groups and women and the lack of educational and economic opportunities. He urges people to do good works to transform challenges and bring justice and peace. Many examples of the attitudes and actions of the people inspired by Gülen are seeds of peace being sown in grounds where there have been fires of violence. In some places, the plants and fruits of these seeds are already visible. The attitudes and actions of Gülen movement volunteers in southeast Turkey could be models to use in other places of unrest in the world. Teaching ethics and spirituality can often be done more effectively with narrative, the stories of people, than through abstract words. The examples are from conversations and information on a research trip in Şanliurfa, Harran, Mardin, Mazidaği, Derik, Boyakli, Midyat, Hasankeyf, Batman, Binaltli, Bismil, Diyarbakir and their surrounding areas. Sometimes people seem to belong to different sides: Kurds, Turks, Christians, Muslims, Palestinians, Israelis, whites, blacks, indigenous or colonizers. The true difference is between those who try to solve problems through domination with psychological, social or physical violence and those who are solving problems through invitations to the humanity, the conscience and the hearts of others. Cowards often hide behind guns.