FETHULLAH GULEN - A TRUE DEDICATION TO PEACE

THE GULEN MOVEMENT - PEACE AND DIALOG
Tolerance and dialogue are among the most basic and broad dynamics of the Gülen movement. These two concepts, first developed on a small scale, have turned into a search for a culture of reconciliation on a world scale. Today, the idea of different groups peacefully living together is a philosophical issue that modern states are trying to formulate. The international relations of past empires were founded on conflict and war. Different civilizations were separated by thick walls, which were supported by political, ideological, and religious identities.

The Gülen movement is a clear example of a search, a search that has reached international proportions. Gülen strengthens this search with religious, legal, and philosophical foundations. One of the basic aims of the global education activities is to form bridges that will lead to dialogue between religions and civilizations. The long-lasting wars of the past had to do with the problem of power balance that reigned in the international relations of the day. This was probably the case for all political empires and religious formations of the past. But today, humanity is not in a position to shoulder such a conflict on the global scale. According to Gülen, Muslims today should not shape their own cultural, social, and existential identities according to destructive values which are rooted in conflict and fight; these are not aligned with the universal value system of Islam, in which peace, dialogue, and tolerance are the basic principles. Today, humanity is not in a position to bear a conflict on the global scale.



Apr 5, 2011

The Fountain Talks and In Between Contrasts

...Such nationwide transformations cannot be completely irrelevant, but what Gülen points to is the human condition free from boundaries of time and space, that everyone can take upr for himself or herself. He speaks of “massive collapses” in which “our homes … have been rendered into inns and hotel rooms for short stopovers and swift migrations.” His concern is for a great many of us who have become “enslaved to soulless ambitions,” “leading lives as the victims of bodies, [and] serving a life-sentence in the narrow confines of corporeality with feeble willpowers, unbelieving hearts, starving souls, bleak horizons, and shaken hopes.” His hopes are with those fortunate ones who “are busy with the passion of letting live … blowing resurrection everywhere.”

“What would you do if you were told you had only 72 hours to live?”...

read more at http://www.fountainmagazine.com/article.php?ARTICLEID=1216
AND lead article by Fethullah Gulen at http://www.fountainmagazine.com/article.php?ARTICLEID=1217
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