Last Updated on Monday, 26 June 2006 15:43 by Aaron Howard Thursday, 01 September 2005 05:00
There is a Muslim Middle East nation that has been a force for stability and moderation in that region for more than 40 years; where the overwhelming proportion of educated Muslims work not in religious oriented occupations but in engineering, the sciences and in business; where a moderate Islamic brotherhood is actively building a system of schools, universities, hospitals, media and businesses to provide a "third way" between the forces of secularism and radical Islamism. That nation is Turkey.
I just returned from an eight-day mission to Turkey sponsored by the Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID). By dint of a grueling daily 18-hour schedule with tight domestic plane and bus trips, our group of 11 media representatives from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana was able to sample much of Turkey, from Istanbul to the ancient city of Harran, seven miles from the Syrian border in southeast Turkey. We visited Sanliurfa, Ankara, Konya, Izmir and Istanbul. We met with heads of high schools, a university, hospitals, Turkish television and press, businessmen and ordinary people. We toured the site reputed to be the birthplace of Abraham, the ruins at Ephesus (Efes), the Mevlana Museum and the Tomb of Rumi and Istanbul's Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia and the Grand Covered Bazaar. We shared ideas, cultural insights-and gut busting meals- in the homes of some of the most generous hosts in the world. Most significantly, we learned about an Islam that seeks deep dialogue and tolerance with other faiths; an Islam that emphasizes education and that lives its faith through constructive-not destructive-deeds. I hooked up on the mission through a friend, Dr. David B. Capes, Chairman of the Department of Christianity and Philosophy at Houston Baptist University. Dr. Capes is active in various efforts to promote interfaith dialogue in Houston and sits on the IID Advisory Board. As it turned out, I was the only Jew on the mission.
The IID is a non-profit organization staffed here in Houston and other US locations by volunteer members of local Turkish communities and their American friends. Their mission is dialogue, not evangelism. By bringing together various faith communities "to promote compassion, cooperation, partnership and community service through interfaith dialogue and conversation", the IID believes that participants will gain "a renewed sense of gratitude and respect for the spiritual beliefs they hold closest to their hearts". It's a refreshing vision, especially at this time when so many religious "spokesmen" identify their religion as players in a clash of civilizations.
As we learned in Turkey, IID members don't only talk the talk. They also walk the walk. The IID is affiliated with the Gulen Movement. This Moslem movement (jamiyyat) is based on the writings of Fethullah Gulen, a contemporary Turkish religious thinker. At the risk of simplifying a complex, nuanced approach to religion, Gulen envisions Islam as grass roots, non-government brotherhood dedicated to living their faith through deeds of community service. Since 1991 the Gulen Movement has constructed more than 150 elementary, high schools and universities in Turkey, in the former Soviet Central Asia, in Germany and even in Africa. In Turkey, these schools must follow the same federal curriculum taught in all Turkish public schools. However, the schools emphasize the sciences and individual academic excellence. As an administrator at the Murat Koleji in Sanliurfa said, "We are in competition with the best, established private schools. We often cannot attract 'the cream of the crop' (of the local students) It is through the dedication of our teachers, the many extra hours they spend tutoring and mentoring their students, that we are able to turn out some of the best students in Sanliurfa".
A trophy case of academic-not sports-awards is the first thing that greets visitors to the Murat Koleji. According to school officials, 98% of their students go on to Turkish universities. This achievement is extremely significant given the economic and social context of Sanliurfa. The city is the administrative capital of one of Turkey's southeast provinces bordering Syria. Our bus ride from Diyarbakir to Sanliurfa provided visual evidence that we were in Turkey's version of the Deep South. The province is also the site of the South Anatolian Project, a gigantic agricultural development project made possible by the construction of the Ataturk Dam and subsequent irrigation of the river behind the dam. At stake: an effort to bring huge economic improvement to the lives of some of Turkey's poorest and most rural citizens. (Further to the southeast on the Turkish-Iraq border, nearly 200 Turks have been killed in a series of over-the-border terrorist attacks by the PKK, the Kurdistan Worker's Party. The current official Turkish policy is "to fight terrorism by implementing social, economic and cultural measures to alleviate regional inequalities". While both Ankara and Washington consider the PKK a terrorist group, the US recently gave Turkey a stern warning not to consider any military action across the Iraq border aimed at the PKK).
Planning for the near future, the Murat Koleji staff encourages their students to return to Sanliurfa after university to become part of the local leadership. Leading by example, instilling a faith-based work (deeds) ethic, the Murat Koleji staff makes concrete the Gulen theory that a modern education is central to being a good Moslem in today's world. Compare the Gulen paradigm to the model advocated in most of the madrasses (religious schools) of the Arab world, in Pakistan and in Iran. There, one finds a curriculum that represents a total turning away from science, engineering and mathematics. One finds an ideology of triumphalism: a sense that the Islamic tide is irreversible along with an unrelenting anti- Western rhetoric and a Manichaean vision of the world. Dialogue with non-Muslims? Worthless-a waste of time-especially with Jews who are, by their nature, "hegemonistic, racist, aggressive and violent." Whether it's radical Islamists or the official Islam that is supported by ruling regimes, it's hard to find any Islamic voice in the Middle East or Iran open to pluralism and debate. During my time in Turkey, I was introduced by our trip hosts as a writer for a Jewish newspaper in Houston. Not once did I encounter a hostile or mean-spirited response from anyone. Not once was I pressed to defend Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians. (Some of our Turkish contacts did engage in lively debate on the US role in Iraq).
Historically, the Jewish people fared rather well in Turkey. Jews in the Ottoman Empire lived in kehillot (Jewish communities), each kehilla living in its own quarter, grouped around its own synagogue, subject to its own haham (rabbi) writes historian Bernard Lewis. Jews made significant contributions in the fields of medicine, printing (as long as they did not print in Arabic characters) and the performing arts. They also played prominent roles in the textiles, at Turkish ports in the customs trade, in government mints, in weaponry and related technology and as advisors to various Turkish ruling elites. Lewis concludes that in the eyes of the Turks, not only were Jews hard working but they also had "the great advantage of not being Christian and therefore not being suspect of treasonable sympathies with the major enemy of the Ottomans, which of course meant European Christendom." Turkey has been a secular republic since 1923. Under a series of sweeping reforms instituted by Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), all temporal and religious institutions of the Ottoman Empire were erased. This secular ideology (Kemalism) marginalized religion even though some 98% of Turkey's population considers itself Moslem. To this date, most of the ruling elite of Turkey (including the military, big business, labor, the intelligentsia and the mainstream media) see any increase in power of Moslem groups as a threat to Kemalism. This partially explains how the Gulen movement pragmatically shaped itself to the existing possibilities in Turkey.
Gulen writes there is no conflict between democracy and Islam. He adds "Islam does not propose a certain unchangeable form of government or attempt to shape it. Instead, Islam establishes fundamental principles that orient a government's general character, leaving it to the people to choose the type and form of government according to time and circumstances." He has constantly spoken out against radical tendencies in Turkish politics, especially to those in the Turkish Islamist movement who would replace democracy with a theocracy. And he has gone on record many times in favor of the separation of state and religion.
To be a good Moslem is to live like one, he says. Religion must unite and civilize human beings, not divide them. "Indeed, all believers, through the thoughts which flow in the depths of their identity and in accordance with the degree of their faith, become boundless within their bounds," he writes. That's why a good Moslem does not try to convince others that he/she possesses the truth. A good Moslem is committed to the pursuit of truth. And that means having a mind that is open, accepting, respectful and welcoming.
These "heroes of faith"- in compassion, cooperation, partnership and understanding-draw on their own faith traditions to bring about reconciliation and understanding. That's the essence of real interfaith dialogue. And that's what we experienced during our entire journey in Turkey. IID representative Y. Alp Aslandogan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, was one of our mission guides. He quotes the 13th century poet Yunus Emre: "Come on friends, let's get to know each other/through knowledge, let's get to love each other". This quote is very popular in Turkey, Aslandogan says, and represents the general spirit of friendship and affection that is part of the spiritual dimension of the Islamic faith. It also summarizes why people involved in IID activity are committed to dialogue.
"We believe that there are two main reasons why human beings have negative feelings about other people: these are not knowing and not being able to reach others. When you don't know somebody, you're more likely to have negative feelings ranging from dislike to hate. Conversely, when you do know somebody, then you're more likely to have positive feelings towards that person. "The purpose of our involvement is to remove the barriers towards people knowing each other. Removal of these barriers will lead towards a better world. This trip removed a 6,000-mile barrier so that Americans could sit at the same table with Turkish families. "Accurate knowledge of 'the other' prevents hate-mongers from taking advantage of the ignorance of people to spread their hate. It's easier to make enemies than make friends. So we're trying to do the more difficult work of friendship."
For more information on The Institute of Interfaith Dialog, go to www.interfaithdialog.org
"This article was published on September 1, 2005 Thursday issue of Jewish Herald-Voice (www.jhvonline.com)"
Aaron Howard, Staff Writer, Jewish Herald-Voice, September 1, 2005
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