Book Review: Civic Service Without Borders

Anwar Alam *

The Gülen Movement, as it is usually referred to in English, has attracted the attention of “critical public minds and scholarship” throughout the world in recent years for two important reasons. First, Fethullah Gülen’s ideas and praxis demonstrate the potential role of religion in reshaping the present violent, conflict ridden world into an inclusive, humanistic society and world order based on the principles of pluralism, intercultural dialogue, and mutual living. Second and more important, Gülen, through his twin tools of Islamic hermeneutics and public actions, particularly in the field of education, has restored the “humane face of Islam” in the public eye—something that was lost due to centuries of a radical, positivist, secular and Orientalist narrative of Islam and more recently due to acts of violence in the name of Islam—and has demonstrated the complementarity of Islam and modernity. This reconciliation of faith and reason—both in terms of theory and action—solves a conundrum that has plagued the Islamic scholars for long.

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Let jailed journalists refer to the Strasbourg court

Abdülhamit Bilici

No one can say that everything is rosy in terms of democracy and freedom of thought in a country that is being ruled by a constitution drafted by coup generals as in Turkey. There are many steps that need to be taken for the progress of democracy, and the proponents of a universally valid democracy are all aware of them.

Old Turkey used to show allergic reactions to criticisms voiced by foreign countries about its democratic performance. And the country would spend time and energy responding to these criticisms instead of investing its efforts in the measures that would eliminate, say, torture. Most naturally, this course of action would never be able to put an end to torture nor would this good-for-nothing heroism sound convincing to the critics.

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Freedom as the highest value in Islam

Şahin Alpay

I was extremely happy to visit, during most of the past week, Tunisia, the cradle one may say of the recent Arab revolutions against autocratic regimes. The occasion was the invitation to the symposium on “Religion and State in the Arab World” jointly organized by Centre for Arab Unity Studies based in Beirut and Swedish Institute, Alexandria, to present a paper on Turkey’s experience. The symposium took place between October 15 – 17 at the coastal city of Hammamet, and was attended by distinguished academics, journalists and some politicians from all over the Arab world. It provided a great opportunity for me to gain insight into Arab affairs in the post – Arab Awakenings era.

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"Women and Islam" lecture

Jessica Kimmet

Tonight I had the privilege of attending a lecture at the Rosegarden Turkish American Cultural Center here in Portland. I signed up for their mailing list a while ago to follow any Turkish language classes and read about this lecture in one of the emails they sent out. It was given by Dr. Sophia Pandya from California State University, Long Beach, and I really enjoyed it.

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Murder of Christian missionaries and the deep state

Markar Esayan

Remembering the victims of Malatya

In my article on Friday I underlined the crucial importance of the investigations into coups and the deep state for Turkey's democratization and the establishment of a new state apparatus. Today I want to discuss the landmark trial launched in connection with the murder of Christian missionaries at the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya on April 18, 2007.

Turkey has so many issues that have accumulated over time and such a busy agenda that we can hardly allocate sufficient time or interest to the very important developments. Yet it is of vital importance to maintain the general public's interest in such trials and processes. This is because when they are relegated to oblivion, these critical trials may be sabotaged by the deep state networks that still survive in our time.

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The quest for Muslim liberalism: An Egyptian’s journey from ultraconservatism to liberalism

Ahmed M. Abou Hussein *

An Egyptian man waves the national flag 

next to a graffiti on a newly whitewashed wall

 in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday, Sept. 21. 

(PHOTO ap, Nasser Nasser)

I come from a typical Egyptian family that did not emphasize religious teachings as much as it did morals in general. Stealing, lying and cheating are bad traits because they are immoral, not because they are forbidden.

My relationship with Islam was very opaque until the age of 15, when a friend of ours started attending religious seminars and listening to Islamic recordings by state-banned sheikhs. I started to indulge myself in conservative Islamic teachings so fast that, as I remember, in the first few months of being a practicing Muslim, I read dozens of Islamic books and booklets (printed in the Gulf), listened to multiple recordings and attended dozens of Islamic seminars. The excitement of getting to know my religion and doing something against the state was quite gratifying, yet not fulfilling. Soon and at the age of 16, I stopped talking to girls or shaking their hands, listening to music, watching television or going to the movies. My family had some objections, but the more they objected, the more stubborn I became.

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