Perspectives of Gülen Movement Discussed at Louisiana Conference
A two-day international conference held at Louisiana State University (LSU) beginning March 6 focused on various perspectives in Islam and the movement of Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish Islamic scholar, that provide solutions to major challenges of the globalized world.
The conference, titled: "The Fifth International Conference on Islam in the Contemporary World: The Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice," was attended by both American and international social scientists, politicians, students and local officials.
Academics from eight states and 17 countries submitted 45 abstracts. The conference explored the major challenges of the globalized world, Islam and the alternative perspectives of the Gülen movement in four sessions titled "Intellectual Foundations of the Gülen Movement," "Social Impacts of the Gülen Movement," "The Gülen Movement as a Bridge between Faith Groups" and "Case Studies in the Gülen Movement."
Catherine Eustis, president of the Atlas Foundation, one of the organizers of the event, delivered a speech suggesting that people's shared values outnumber their differences and that these values can be discovered only through dialogue.
In this regard she emphasized the importance of love, peace and compassion among people from different cultures and backgrounds.
The coordinator of the conference, Mehmet Ulupinar, delivered the opening speech, explaining the goal of organizing the conference: "As there has been an ongoing transformation in the Muslim world due to recent social, economic, political and personal changes, the organizing committee wanted to shed light on the problems between Muslims and the West in the contemporary world. The theme of this year's conference is studying Turkish-Muslim thinker, author, education activist and interfaith dialogue advocate Mr. Fethullah Gülen's ideas and finding out the impacts of the worldwide activities organized by the volunteers inspired by his ideas."
Ulupinar also noted that, although it started in Turkey, the Gülen movement has already become transnational within three decades, and their only agenda is providing educational opportunities and a platform for interfaith dialogue worldwide, while hoping to build bridges between the Muslim world and the West.
Dr. Tom Gage, professor of English literature at Humboldt State University, emphasized the importance of the movement's interfaith dialogue initiatives. While presenting his paper, "Dialoguing Across the World: Using the Gülen Model to Expand Cultural Horizons of Secondary Students," Gage stated that volunteers of the Gülen movement can prevent clashes between different cultures by getting people from different backgrounds to find out they can meet in their common values.
In his speech Professor Mark Webb of Texas Tech University cited his observations of the social structure of eastern and southeastern Turkey. After visiting some educational institutions opened by volunteers of the Gülen movement and interviewing locals, he stated that if the volunteers had not opened these institutions, terrorist activities perpetrated by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) would now be much more intense. Upon questioning from the audience, Professor Charles David Isbell of LSU said it is wrong to attach religions to terrorist activities. In this sense there are no Muslim, Jewish or Christian terrorists, but just "terrorists."
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