By Relma Hargus, "Seminar in BR to study Gülen practices of Islam" - The Advocate - Baton Rouge, LA, USA
Saturday, February 28, 2009
“The Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice” conference kicks off at 8 a.m. March 7 at Lod Cook Alumni Center, 3838 W. Lakeshore Drive, Louisian state University.
The conference is sponsored by Atlas Foundation and the Institute of Interfaith Dialogue, is free and open to the public and will focus on such topics as interfaith and intercultural dialogue, Sufism and Islamic mysticism and education in contemporary societies.
The Houston chapter president of The Institute of Interfaith Dialogue spent time in Baton Rouge this month readying for a conference he won’t attend. When “The Gülen Movement in Thought and Practice” conference, Alp Aslandogan will be leading Texas college professors of sociology on a spring break trip to Turkey.
The conference and the trip both have the same purpose: to foster cultural dialogue and create a different understanding of Islam than the one that emerges through news coverage of terrorism and Middle East conflicts.
The Atlas Foundation, a co-sponsor of the conference, also sponsors U.S. performances by the Whirling Dervishes of Rumi.
The Gülen Movement is based on the teachings of Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish Muslim scholar, author, poet and education activist. Gülen teaches that Islam is an inclusive religion and that creative and positive relations between the Muslim world and the West are both possible and necessary. Currently living in Pennsylvania, Gülen sees dialogue and education as effective means to surpass differences among people and countries and ideologies.
Aslandogan said fact-backed science is strongly stressed by Gülen and such trips as he will be leading in March can result in academic papers subject to rigorous oversight. Another result from such trips is the opportunity to encounter people who share the same values of civic responsibility, desire for peace and respect for others even though they practice a different religion, he said.
“All the major religions stem from the same source. God is love and we should not be surprised when they do,” Aslandogan said.
The Rev. Donald Cottrill certainly isn’t surprised. Cottrill, conference director of connectional ministries for United Methodists, submitted an abstract for the March 7 conference paralleling the similarities in Methodism’s founder, John Wesley, and Gülen.
The Turkish scholar and author is helping Muslims “go back to the roots of their faith to capture, recapture, the original faith,” Cottrill said. “I believe John Wesley was doing that also,” he said. Emphasis on the importance of concern for society and of putting faith into action can also be found in the two men’s teachings, Cottrill said. “They both have a great many traits in common,” he said, citing concern for “the needs of the poor” and “helping people where they are, ministering to them in God’s name.” “We are all God’s children working together to show our understanding of God’s love for all,” Cottrill said. Although he couldn’t complete his paper in time for the LSU conference, Cottrill said he plans to continue working on it and hopes to present it at another conference.
Paul Weller, a professor at the University of Derby whose emphasis is interreligious relations, examined parallels in Gülen and early Baptists such as John Smyth and Thomas Helwys during a similar conference at Georgetown University in November. All three find the concept of religious liberty for all people within their sacred texts, Weller said. Both traditions stress the importance of advocating their own truth claims, while giving others the freedom to accept or not accept, Weller said.
Interfaith dialogue strengthens those who participate and leads to ethnic and cultural understanding and to a peaceful world, Aslandogan said. “Nobody benefits from conflicts,” he said.
Karen Fontenot, head of the mass communication department at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, and Michael Fontenot, assistant professor of geography and history at Southern University, were also participants at the Georgetown University event. The Fontenots said Gülen demonstrates the characteristics of a “transformational leader”: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation. “He reminds me in a lot of ways of the early Jesuits,” Michael Fontenot said during an interview at the Turkish Cultural Center in Baton Rouge.
The center, which hosts activities conducted by Atlas Foundation to promote dialogue, trust, understanding and cooperation among people of different faiths and cultures, will be officially opened at 7 p.m. Friday when Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is scheduled to cut the ribbon in opening ceremonies at 7712 Goodwood Blvd.
Thomas Michel, Vatican secretary for inter-religious dialogue, commenting on the man whose writings have sparked a movement, says “Gülen’s educational vision is one that embraces societies throughout the world.”
Here are some quotes from Fethullah Gülen, the focus of a March 7 conference at LSU:
On Interfaith Dialogue
“Islam, Christianity and Judaism all come from the same root, have almost the same essentials, and are nourished from the same source. … (T)he common points between them and their shared responsibility to build a happy world for all the creatures of God make interfaith dialogue among them necessary.”
On Education
“Science and knowledge illuminate and develop the mind. For this reason, a mind deprived of science and knowledge cannot reach right decisions, is always exposed to deception, and is subject to being misled.”
On Concern For Others
“Let there be no troubled souls to whom you do not offer a hand and about whom you remain unconcerned.”
On 9/11
“Islam abhors acts of terror. A religion that professes ‘He who unjustly kills one man kills the whole of humanity,’ cannot condone the senseless killing of thousands.”
On Religion and Science
“(They) are two faces of a single truth. Religion guides us to the true path leading to happiness. Science, when understood and used properly, is like a torch that provides us with a light to follow the same path.”
On the Internet:
http://www.atlasinterfaith.org/
or e-mail trobinson@theadvocate.com.
Picture: The Blue Mosque, a 17th-century structure in Istanbul, Turkey, is one of the sites often visited during the interfaith trips sponsored by the Atlas Foundation and The Institute of Interfaith Dialogue.
or e-mail trobinson@theadvocate.com.
Picture: The Blue Mosque, a 17th-century structure in Istanbul, Turkey, is one of the sites often visited during the interfaith trips sponsored by the Atlas Foundation and The Institute of Interfaith Dialogue.
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