AIS Gave an Iftar (Ramadan) Dinner
Good evening.
Honorable Former Governor General of Australia, Ministers, Parliamentarians, Diplomats and dear Guests and most distinguished community members and leaders, ladies & gentlemen.
First of all, I would like to say that it is a great honor for the AIS to host and initiate the 3rd Ramadan iftar dinner at the well prestigious Windsor Hotel. On behalf of Australian Intercultural Society, Members, Directors and sponsors would like to welcome the iftar event.
We share the same world. We are all neighbors in this very small world. Therefore, we all recognize the fact that we cannot afford not to learn the art of living together. The question is: "In practice, how can we learn to live peacefully?" I would like to answer this question by sharing with you our experience as AIS and vision, and our sources of inspiration in this beautiful journey.
Our organization, Australian Intercultural Society (AIS) was established in the year 2000 by a small group of professional second generation Australian Muslims. The AIS, its Directors and members decided to focus on issues such as 'Interfaith dialogue', 'Living in harmony' and 'Social interactions in a diverse cultural society'. Therefore they developed the idea of "Building Bridges through information, interaction and cooperation". Diverse cultural and multi-faith communities need to understand each other through social interaction and personal experiences by means of social & educational gatherings. Since its establishment, the AIS have built community partnership projects to achieve those goals in cooperating with faith communities as well as government and community organizations and institutions.
The Australian Intercultural Society was established with the intention of playing a part in this noble cause. Our aim is to promote the harmony of Australia's diverse cultural values on national and/or international level, to promote and foster harmonious relations between faith communities in Australian society, to encourage members of the community to achieve efficiency and promote high ethical standards in business, industry, professions, public duties and private endeavors, to raise public awareness on social justice issues and to organize and plan various events and functions such as international conferences, arts festivals, mosque open days, church and synagogue visits, joint interfaith projects and various other public events.
When we talk about our unique practices as AIS, we are especially thankful to His Excellency Fethullah Gülen. Like millions of his readers and admirers in Turkey and all over the world, Gülen has been a significant source of wisdom and inspiration for us. We consider ourselves part of the civic movement formed around Gülen's teachings.
A man for all seasons, Gülen is a Muslim scholar, prolific writer, a sensational poet, a religious educator and an interfaith activist. In the course of more than 40 years, initially small but very dedicated community of activists and entrepreneurs lead by Gülen has evolved into being one of the most widespread and influential religiously motivated civic movements in modern Turkey. What makes Gülen and his movement unique, however, is its unyielding stance for non-violence, educational reform and peaceful dialogue.
Gülen's call for peace and understanding is not just at domestic level. On the day after September 11th, Gülen declared that "A true Muslim cannot be a terrorist, and a terrorist cannot be a Muslim" and subsequently run an ad on the Washington Post to condemn the attacks. He denounces any sort of violence and terrorism emphasizing the fact that Prophet Muhammad had never used such low, non-Islamic ways to serve Islam.
Gülen points out that evil-oriented people can deceive ignorant people, so main cure of evil is education. Driven by the goal of spiritual and intellectual Enlightenment, he encouraged people to establish modern schools. Gülen movement enthusiasts now run 700 hundred private schools and numerous universities in more than 80 countries. Some scholars say Gülen movement's educational philosophy and activities are similar to Jesuit's. That is, there is no direct mention of religion but decent teachers serve as successful role models for the students. They have a secular curriculum. Gülen schools do very well academically and often win national and international awards. In these schools, ranging from Mongolia to South Africa, children from different ethnic and religious backgrounds sit next to each other learn living together in peace as a live example of Gülen's principles. They set a great example for the art of living together, which prevents "the clash of the civilizations" from the outset.
Another main pillar of Gülen movement is intellectual, religious, cultural and political dialogue. Gülen has tried to reach out and mediate the most extremes in Turkey. Despite reaction from ultra-secularist and ultra-fundamentalist elements in Turkey, Gülen saw no problem coming together with minority religion leaders like His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomeos, Vatican Representative His Excellency Marovitch, Jewish Rabbis, Armenian Patriarch and many others. Many of these religious leaders consider Gülen pioneer of interfaith dialogue in today's Turkey. Also, Gülen met with Pope John Paul II in 1998.
We believe that any conflict between the members of the religions and communities is due to misunderstanding or exploitation for political or other purposes and we should beware of those who use religion to divide.
Abrahamic faiths have many common aspects and few differences. When there are hundreds of common bridges between us, it is mistaken to stress a few differences.
When people really understand such things, Abrahamic religions and other disciplines will contribute positively to relations between communities and countries.
The world today needs peace more than at any time in history.
To avoid clashes among communities and to establish peace, the true believers should come together among the common values and references, while acknowledging the variety of belief and practice.
For this reason, we Muslims, like the people here, at the AIS, give priority to love, compassion, dialogue, respect for others' rights, human rights, positive action and non-coercive, non-violent methods and means.
Being loyal to particular faith and its essence does not prevent its members from understanding contemporary values.
By coming together here, at one table, we prove that this is a situation of great richness, with remarkable opportunities for mutual understanding and for creating a society rooted in common values.
We give the society the idea that people can live together regardless of group, faith, or ideology.
As Fethullah Gülen is greatly encouraged and inspired by, said, and I am quoting,
"We have a great deal to learn from one another. Together, listening and responding with openness and respect, we can move forward to work in ways that acknowledge genuine differences but build on shared hopes and values, to attain peace and to help bring about the long-awaited cooperation of the world civilizations, and to encourage justice, love, respect and altruism.
Please make sure that your sincere endeavors inspire and encourage all to do what they can to promote dialogue, respect and understanding among all peoples of the worlds regardless of differences and certain adverse conditions."
It is with this intention that this Ramadan iftar dinner is being held. And it is hoped that it will serve as a good reference for educational institutions, media organizations, government agencies, and other community groups.
We sincerely hope this gathering benefits all.
Thank you for your attendance.
Miss Sureyya Cicek
Youth and University Affairs Coordinator.
Australian Intercultural Society
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