Gülen and His Global Contribution to Peace Building

Last Updated on Thursday, 01 November 2007 07:20 by Zeki Saritoprak, Today's Zaman Wednesday, 31 October 2007 17:20

Although recent studies have put forward Gülen's ideas on various topics, Gülen's approach to peace building is one of the less studied. Given the contemporary reality of wars and ethnic/religious strife, this is a neglect that needs to be corrected.

Gülen's efforts are mainly educational. It can be argued that he did not directly stop armed conflict, but his efforts equipped young people with values that prevented them from engaging in such conflicts. Gülen believes that the new generation should be equipped with qualities such as wisdom, compassion and knowledge.

Through his writings and educational institutions, he has attempted to create such a generation, which he has coined the "The Golden Generation" (Altın Nesil). The aim of the Golden Generation is to provide a perfect education for a perfect generation, to attain a perfect society. The Golden Generation also requires the young people of the community to show great respect for religious and national values. Gülen hopes that a lasting peace can be achieved through the work of a generation which is peaceful, made up of individuals who are living examples of peace, who will build bridges of dialogue and mutual understanding to make peace among people. To Gülen, the Golden Generation has certain specific qualities: knowledge, faith, love, idealism, altruism and action.

Education, according to Gülen, will result in peace. Today in Turkey, Central Asia and many other parts of the world, the educational institutions that were established by admirers of Gülen have continued to contribute greatly to the education of people of different religions and ethnicities. In fact, his Golden Generation has already contributed, through educational endeavors, to the building of peace in many areas of conflict, including the Balkans, northern Iraq, Northern Ireland and the Philippines.

When I visited Skopje, Macedonia, in the summer of 2004 I had a chance to visit a school established by some Turkish businessmen who were supporters of the Gülen movement. I was told that when civil war was going on in the region, members of different ethnicities sent their children to this school. Their parents were fighting, but the children were living peacefully under the roof of the same school.

In order to contextualize Gülen's peace building philosophy, I would like to draw upon the famous Muslim sociologist Ibn Khaldun's understanding of building peace. In Ibn Khaldun's philosophy, individual efforts and sacrifices remain essential. He says: "Peace in society is possible through willingness of an individual to subordinate [the individual self] to the group. Without this, peace and social development are not possible."

Ibn Khaldun addresses the development of urban society with the term asabiyya, or "group solidarity," in a way which he empties of its original connotations of racism and nationalism, both of which are prohibited in Islam. I would like to borrow this term from Ibn Khaldun to indicate solidarity around a value or an idea that is shared by members of society. Gülen's "Golden Generation" exemplifies Ibn Khaldun's idea of the establishment of peace in society.

Gülen describes his Golden Generation as "selfless people, sincerely thinking of others rather than themselves." He says: "Who knows? Maybe in the near future some selfless people, who sacrifice themselves to make others live, will unite hearts and minds through their efforts. The conscience and logic will become two different, deeply rooted dimensions of their lives that will complete each other. Physics and metaphysics will abandon the fight between themselves: in order to give the opportunity for the beauty of everything to express itself in its own language, each will return to its own field. These selfless people will discover the interconnectedness of the divine command and the laws of nature. People will repent for their previous meaningless fights with one another. An atmosphere of serenity will be built and be felt in homes and in schools. No dignity will be stepped on. The hearts will be full of respect to the extent that no one will trespass on the properties or the dignities of others. The powerful will act justly so that the weak and the poor will have a chance to live humanely. No one will be arrested just because of an assumption. No one's house or business will be attacked. No innocent's blood will be shed. No oppressed person will cry out. Everyone will love human beings as a duty towards God. It is exactly this time when the world, which is a corridor to Paradise, will become a paradise-like place that will always be enjoyed."

Without a generation with such qualities, Gülen, like Ibn Khaldun, argues that peace would not be possible. This is why he constantly asserts the need for faithful and selfless individuals to dedicate themselves to the establishment of peace.

For Gülen, forgiveness is an essential element to building peace. When a woman accused of committing adultery was brought to Jesus, he said, "Let the person who is without sin cast the first stone." Gülen says of this, "Those who understand the deep sense in this statement cannot throw stones at others while they deserve to be stoned themselves."

For Gülen, another effective element to build peace is love. He considers love to be an effective weapon; he embraces this weapon of love against all violent actions: "In a time when people are defeated by their sense of revenge and animosity, when masses are driven into struggles and wars, when truth is silenced before force, when those who wield power behave against their dissidents as tyrants, when dictators and oppressors are applauded and promoted, while the oppressed are treated badly, we once again say: love. I believe that love has the capacity to change the rhythm of our life."

The search for global solutions to common global problems confronting human society and the quest for a just, compassionate and peaceful order will be the challenge human civilization faces in the 21st century. To meet the challenge is to fulfill God's vision to embrace all humanity. Doing so is to know God's compassion.

* Professor Zeki Saritoprak is a professor of Islamic studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.