Lester R. Kurtz Born into an Anatolian village family of considerable spiritual fervor within the Muslim tradition, Fwethullah Gülen’s parents raised him with a pervasive spiritual perspective on life. Gülen recalls that his mother “taught the Qur’an to all the village women and me at a time when even reciting Qur’an was prosecuted.”[1] It is [...]
Prof. Dr. Toktamış Ateş* Everybody draws out their own meaning from democracy. Some people claim that democracy is carrying their ideas to power by persuading others; some claim democracy means being able to express their ideas freely. When it is time to speak, everybody defends democracy. But the number of people who are sincere enough [...]
LEONID R. SYKIAINEN* Compatibility between Islamic and modern democratic liberal values is not more than theoretical ground to combine the both for success of political reforms in the Muslim world. It will be possible only through the dialogue of different cultures and civilizations. In this respect Fethullah Gülen underlines that for centuries the civilizations of [...]
Maimul Ahsan Khan* Fethullah Gulen started his professional career as a traditional imam, trained and certificated by the governmental authorities in Ankara. His innovative ideas of educational and social reform have made him a household name in modern Turkey and increasingly around the world for several decades now. In 2008 he was recognized as the [...]
Jon Pahl, Ph.D.* For scholars of religion and violence, the recent past poses a conundrum. Are civilizations clashing—as Samuel Huntington has provocatively posed, or cooperating, as Steven Pinker has recently contended? Pinker recognizes the apparently quixotic character of his argument on behalf of cooperation, and acknowledges that the 20th Century and first decade of the [...]
Dr. Simon Robinson Responsibility is a key concept in philosophy and theology, and also in practice, not least in business and the management of the environment. It is a concept at the heart of the writings of Fethullah Gülen. Responsibility Gülen’s view of responsibility is firmly set in accountability and thus in turn is based [...]
Dr. Richard Penaskovic Unlike Huntington Mr. Gülen is not an academic. Rather, he writes as a preacher, a journalist, a visionary, and as an activist. His thoughts are simple yet profound, poetic rather than pedestrian. He finds his inspiration in the Qur’an, the hadith, the Sufi mystics, particularly Rumi the poet, and in the ideas [...]
In his writings and oral addresses, Gülen prefers the term hoshgoru (literally, “good view”) to “tolerance.” Conceptually, the former term indicates actions of the heart and the mind that include empathy, inquisitiveness, reflection, consideration of the dialog partner’s context, and respect for their positions. The term “tolerance” does not capture the notion of hoshgoru. Elsewhere, [...]
Many people see the need for interreligious and intercultural dialogue but are not sure where to begin. I have often been asked, “How do you go about starting up dialogue with others?” Especially because I am a Christian who has lived and shared life with Muslims for many years, they ask, “How do you go [...]
The most populous Muslim presence in the UK has its roots in the Indian subcontinent, and the nature of Islam in Pakistan, especially, has coloured British understanding of and approaches to Islam. This is to ignore the diversity of Islam, not only theological, but also cultural and geographical. A very different model of Islam can [...]
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