A Conference in Potsdam

Last Updated on Monday, 01 June 2009 14:41 by İhsan Yılmaz, Sunday's Zaman Sunday, 31 May 2009 21:00

The two words "conference" and "Potsdam" instantly bring to mind the famous gathering that ended World War II as far as Europe was concerned. (Japan surrendered a few months later after two of its cities were atomic bombed.) The conference not only aimed to end the war and build peace, but also practically divided Germany and also Berlin into four influence zones, which would pave the way for the de facto and de jure division of Germany into two parts. The conference I attended this week was not about wars and divisions, but integration and conflict prevention.

First of all, I should note that I was surprised to see so many German academics, senior and junior, following the conference titled "Muslims between Tradition and Modernity: The Gülen Movement as a Bridge between Cultures" for the whole two days. I already knew that Germany was not full of Turkophobic and Islamophobic "[Angela] Merkels" but seeing that so many German academics, politicians and civil society leaders speak highly of the Gülen movement was indeed reassuring for me. In total contradiction to the stereotypical self-conceited image of the Western elite, Germans, German-Turks, other Europeans and several others from many countries confidently discussed how the Gülen movement can contribute to the integration of communities in European cities and if and to what extent the movement will be an essential bridge in the way toward the alliance of civilizations. I think even this attempt to include Fethullah Gülen, his thoughts and the movement inspired by his ideas is a vital step that will not only challenge and hopefully eliminate the prejudices on both sides of the EU accession process, but that it will also help Europe to enrich itself once more as has traditionally been the case.

Even though I have a problem with the title of the conference as it refers to "Muslims between tradition and modernity," and most social scientists now agree that the alleged dichotomy between tradition and modernity is not real, the content of the conference was very diverse and rich and should be commended. While some of the paper presenters rightfully stated that the movement should be constructively criticized, as our Kerim Balci highlighted during the conference, very few could actually raise critical points. I think this is due to the fact that the movement is slowly becoming a commodity in the academic market and many scholars who study and write on the movement are not so knowledgeable about the movement that they can analytically and constructively criticize the movement, which now publicly acknowledges that it needs critics to improve itself. It is a fact that the students of the Muslim world very rarely studied Turkish ― one of the major languages of Muslim heritage and culture ― and focused on either Middle Eastern or South Asian regions. Therefore, we do not have many scholars who would study Gülen in his native language and also the Turkish context. Unfortunately, not all of Gülen's works have been translated into English, and we are also not sure if the ones that have been translated perfectly convey his message to the Western audience. If we bear in mind that great works of important thinkers have been translated several times and that there are several editions, Gülen's works can also similarly be translated. But of course, it would be ideal if scholars studying the Muslim world would learn Turkish as well. For instance, Swedish scholar Klass Grinell, who presented an excellent and thought-provoking paper on the movement and politics, knows Turkish, and one can easily see how he commands both Gülen's literature and the Turkish socio-political context. He reminds me of another Swede, Professor Elisabeth Özdalga, who knows Turkish very well and has produced a number of excellent articles on the movement.

Anyway, the Potsdam Conference highlighted that the Gülen movement has the potential to contribute to conflict prevention, integration and peace in Europe and that both the movement and Western scholars should do more to make sure that we are more exposed to Gülen's ideas and practices.