Gülen Movement, emphasis on service, and reaching out

Dr. John Esposito speaks to Pacifica Institute

At a fundraiser sponsored by the Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) on Wednesday February 15th, Dr. John Esposito, one of America’s leading experts on Islam, was invited to give a talk about the future of Islam in the 21st century.

After a brief introduction of Dr. Esposito by the president of MPV, Ani Zonneveld, the event was started with a 30-minute lecture followed by a Q&A session moderated by KPCC’s Shirley Jahad.

Dr. Esposito started off by giving a brief history of the turbulent relationship the West has had with Islam and its origins.

“When I got into the field… in the early 60’s, late 1970s it’s important to realize that Islam was invisible in the western landscape and certainly in the United States landscape,” he said, “ The second largest religion in the world was absent on our map.”

Now an expert on Islam, Dr. Esposito said growing up in New York, Muslims were invisible to him as well and his study of Islam was only accidental.

It wasn’t until the Iranian revolution of 1979, which was seen as a threat, that people in the US government, universities and media began dealing with Islam and Muslims, he said.

He said that the “Media's propensity for conflict and conflict discourse,” leads people in the West who hear about people like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden to generalize that all Muslims are a threat.

“Most Americans see an explosive event,” He said, and as a result “the vast majority of Muslims get telescoped through that [one] event.”

On the one hand Dr. Esposito said that the world has changed tremendously since the 1970s but on the other he said that for the past 40 years he is confronted by people asking him the same questions about Islam.

For 40 years, he said, people have been asking whether or not Islam is compatible with modernity, whether Islam is compatible with democracy, or if there is something about the Qur'an that is particularly violent.

“There’s a certain kind of conclusion one can draw from [the same questions being ask for 40 years], either we have a learning curve or have some other reason for a block,” he said.

The fact is he said that “reformists have been active in Islam for the last part of the 19th century” and many Muslim theologians are calling for reforms and modernity within Islam but the problem lies at the community level.

“The community is overwhelmingly conservative because of its religious leaders,” who have a great influence on all aspects of their followers’ lives, Dr. Esposito said.

In Islam the situation of dealing with modernity has been a bit difficult he said because at first they were “dealing with a world dominated by European colonialism and then a world dominant by authoritarian regimes,” which “ if they are about religion are about co-opting religion and religious leaders,” and not about open education.

This, he said, gives rise to Right-wing extremist. He emphasized the label Right-wing extremist is not a label for violent people alone but also for people “who subscribe to an ultra-exclusive religious world view, which impacts both members of the faith and interreligious affairs.”

In a separate interview with Pacifica Institute before the lecture, Dr. Esposito said that at the community level many Muslims need to know more about their own faith in order to move forward and pave the way for a more tolerant attitude toward Islam in the west.

He said that it is one thing to be a devout person who prays regularly and observe the religion but that is different from being knowledgeable about the history and development of the religion.

“I think Muslims need to continue to speak out… and certainly Muslims have learnt since 9/11 the importance of reaching out to the broader community,” he said.

Instead of preaching or talking about Islam, Muslims should become more involved in their communities.

“The way in which you communicate better what a Muslim is when people see how you function in a parent teacher situation, in a neighborhood situation, in a time of crisis, in a social or political situation,” he said, “this is when other neighbors actually get to see you as a neighbor first and then they see the religious dimension,”

Dr. Esposito also praised organizations following the Gülen movement, such as Pacifica institute, for being a gain for the American society because they rely less on “hard-handed or hard-headed approach of trying to convert people,” and put more emphasis on service instead.

Posted in: Gulen Movement, Hizmet Movement, Interviews, Islam, John Esposito, Los Angeles, Modernity, Muslims for Progressive Values, Pacifica Institute