Rumi Forum Podcast

Join us for a talk by Dr. Pim Valkenberg on his recent book “Renewing Islam by Service: A Christian View of Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet Movement”. The talk will be moderated by Dr. Paul Heck.

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Event will be broadcast live on Periscope at  @rumiforum
Questions via app or on twitter #RumiPeriscope

Renewing Islam by Service offers a theological account of the contemporary Turkish faith-based service movement started by Fethullah Gülen, and placed against the backdrop of changes in modern Turkish society. The life and works of Gülen are analyzed against the background of developments in Turkish society, and of spiritual Islamic tendencies in the transition from the Ottoman empire to the secular republic. Pim Valkenberg includes stories of his personal experiences with supporters of this movement, in a number of different countries, and analyzes the spiritual practices and the faith-based service of this movement that is also compared to some important Christian religious movements.

Speakers

Pim (Wilhelmus G.B.M.) Valkenberg is a professor of religion and culture at the Catholic University of America. He previously worked for the Diocese of Breda as a specialist on adult education, and for the Netherlands School of Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion as research fellow. He was an assistant and associate professor of dogmatic theology and the theology of religions at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (1987-2007), where he studied Arabic and Islam as well. He contributed to the establishment of a new Department of Religious Studies in 1991 with a focus on interreligious dialogue, and as associate dean of education between 1999 and 2004 he was responsible for the development of new programs of intercultural theology and pastoral studies. Between 2006 and 2011 he was a visiting professor and an associate professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland with a focus on Christian-Muslim relations.

Paul L. Heck is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in Georgetown University’s Department of Theology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is founding director of The Study of Religions across Civilizations (SORAC). His scholarly interests focus on the history of skepticism in Islam, mysticism and the role of spirituality in Muslim society, views on martyrdom in the three monotheist traditions, the phenomenon of theo-humanism, the emergent field of comparative scripture, and issues in political theology. Some of these themes were treated in Common Ground: Islam, Christianity and Religious Pluralism (2009). His most recent monograph is Skepticism in Classical Islam: Moments of Confusion (2013). His work overall, looking at three faith traditions through a single if refracted lens, seeks to bring sharper insight to our knowledge of the phenomenon of beliefs and their role in scholarly circles and society in general.

http://rumiforum.org/latest-trends-in-global-religious-restrictions/

On March 31st, 2015 Peter Henne of the Pew Research Center presented the Global Religious Restrictions report’s findings on the trends of global religious restrictions.

Paul Marshall of the Hudson Institute joined him for an engaging discussion on the significance of the report.

In February 2015, the Pew Research Center released its sixth report on Global Religious Restrictions. These reports analyze trends in religious restrictions and hostilities around the world through a rigorous and innovative quantitative analysis. The latest report highlights a general decline in social hostilities even as a significant portion of the world’s population remains in highly restrictive countries. It also points to widespread harassment of Jews, as well as other religious groups, and restrictions on religious minorities. Peter Henne, a Research Associate with the Pew Research Center and primary researcher on the report, will present findings from the report and answer questions. Paul Marshall, a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, will respond to the report’s findings and moderate the discussion.

EVENT SUMMARY:

Peter Henne argues that freedom of religion has been one of the key issues in the international community after World War II and since then has been a very contested issue on the global platform. The research he produced with the Pew Center is an attempt to create a new way of studying, measuring and understanding religious freedom. Instead of focusing on measuring the amounts of religious freedom as a concept, this particular series of reports analyzes to an extent of where governments and societies restrict religious beliefs and practices.The report relies on identifying certain laws and policies which might infringe upon religion, in addition to the social dimension in this measure. To accomplish this, two indexes that they developed are used: the Government Restrictions Index and the Social Hostilities Index–that gauge government restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion in nearly 200 countries and territories. Ultimately, with the results created by these indexes each country is assigned a score as an indicator of how “free” that state is deemed to be. The initial report created in 2009, established a baseline for each country and the five major geographic regions of the globe. From this baseline, the report is very valuable in the way it provides an analysis of the changes in the level of restrictions and hostilities in these countries (alternatively regions) over a period of time.

In the 6th published report since 2009, Henne declared that the center found a slight drop in social hostilities around the world however, government restrictions have remained in relatively stable conditions. 77% of the world’s population lives in restrictive country conditions (taking into account the levels of both government and social religious restrictions). China tops the list of offenders for its multiple persecutions against Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, with Pakistan coming close behind for its bans on Muslim dress and literature, its religion-related terrorism, multiple cases of forced conversions and mob violence. Some countries surveyed under the report have seen an increase in religious restrictions either perpetrated by social groups or the government. For example Turkey who, on top of the restrictions already put into place against Muslims, have experienced new government policies and laws that increase hostilities throughout the country. On the other hand Russia for example, has experienced high spikes in social violence with attacks against Muslims, and mob violence led by militant groups.

The Pew report looks at to which groups were specifically harassed because of restrictions on religion and to what extent they were harassed by social or governmental conditions. Through their research they found that violence conducted against Judaism has notably increased steadily since the first report in 2009. Those who practice Judaism are harassed in 77 countries around the world, specifically experiencing an increase in European countries. When the center broke down the numbers, it was shown that the levels of harassment were at an all-time 7 year high, and that Jews were mainly being harassed on a social level rather than by state governments.

Another interesting trend that the research uncovered was the big area of harassment conducted between both Christians and Muslim. Christians are harassed in 120 countries out of the 200 surveyed, and Muslims are harassed in 99 of those 200 countries around the world. Again, when the numbers are broken down further we find a very intriguing difference between the harassment experienced by both groups. Christians are found to often be more harassed by state governments, where 85 reported countries harbor restrictions against the religion and 71 countries harass the group on a social level. For Muslims it is the complete reverse in terms of religious restrictions. 84 countries are reported to harass Muslims on a social level, and 73 of those countries have laws or policies in place that restrict the religion. These distinctions allow us to gain insight into what types of harassment is occurring, and where in the world we are finding these kinds of restrictions. *It is important to note the findings by the Pew Center have shown that religious restrictions affect different kinds of groups around the world, other than the above mentioned examples.

Further on in his discussion, Peter Henne presented a new analysis that relates to contemporary issues in concerns of highlighting government and social restrictions that target minority groups. Some examples of factors the center examined was the banning of certain religious groups (the Falun Gong/Falun Dafa in China), attempts at trying to remove a certain religious group, development of hate/extremist groups, groups trying to control other religious groups, violent acts against the minority groups etc. Restrictions against religious minority groups are present throughout the world in where ⅓ of countries examined contain governmental restrictions, with ⅔ of the countries in the report that contain social hostilities within their borders. All of the countries that experienced a significant increase in anti-minority hostilities are not isolated cases Henne says, but rather tend to go hand-in-hand with the broader restrictions that are placed on a given society outside of the context of religion. By looking at the median level of restrictions in different regions around the world where high levels of government and social hostilities are happening the report found that the Middle East/North African region topped the list as the most restrictive, with the Asian-Pacific region in 2nd and Europe taking the 3rd spot.

While religious freedom is a very complex topic to measure, the report is aims to be an information source that is primarily objective in nature and a source that can be used when engaging in debate about this very diverse and complicated issue. The report, Henne mentioned does not go into the strict causes of why religious restrictions are changing in certain countries, or why restrictions are happening where they are, nor did the report address the broader economic context of each country–which could, he suggested play a role in affecting religious restrictions. The Pew Research Center’s work on global restrictions on religion is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world. The initiative is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation. This report is a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals from the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. Find related reports online at pewresearch.org/religion About the Pew Research Center: Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does not take policy positions. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. The center studies U.S. politics and policy views; media and journalism; internet and technology; religion and public life; Hispanic trends; global attitudes; and U.S. social and demographic trends.

All of the center’s reports are available at www.pewresearch.org. Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

 Peter Henne is a Research Associate with the Pew Research Center, where he runs an ongoing  project on global restrictions on religion. He has published numerous scholarly articles on religion  and international relations, and has discussed global religious issues on NPR, Southern California  Public Radio and other media outlets. Peter has a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown  University.

 Paul Marshall is Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom,  Washington DC, Distinguished Senior Fellow the Institute for the Study of Religion at Baylor  University, Senior Fellow at the Leimena Institute, Jakarta, and Visiting Professor at the Graduate  School of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta, Indonesia. He is the author  and editor of more than twenty books on religion and politics, especially religious freedom, and his writings have been translated into 22 languages.

http://rumiforum.org/cross-cultural-dialogue-on-the-virtues-the-contribution-of-fethullah-gulen/

Trudy Conway talked about the virtues based approach of Fethullah Gulen in dialogue on February 4, 2015. Professor Conway presented her book “Cross-cultural Dialogue on the Virtues: The Contribution of Fethullah Gulen” at the Rumi Forum offices

The book explores the development of the influential worldwide Hizmet movement inspired by the Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen, known for his moderate Islamic emphasis on peaceful relations among diverse people. It provides a detailed study of Gülen’s account of the virtues and argues that they provide the key to understanding this thinker and the movement he inspired, from its initial establishment of hospitality houses through the growth of worldwide schools, hospitals, media outlets, charitable associations and dialogue centers.

In addition, the book analyzes the distinctive virtues that shaped the Hizmet movement’s ethos as well as continue to sustain its expansive energy, from the core virtues of tolerance, hospitality, compassion and charity to a host of related virtues, including wisdom, humility, mildness, patience, mercy, integrity and hope. It also examines the Islamic and Sufi roots of Gülen’s understanding of the virtues as well as presents a comparative study of Gülen’s account of the virtues in dialogue with prominent thinkers of the Western philosophical tradition and the religious traditions of Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism.

The Hizmet movement provides living witness to the power and efficacy of tolerance, dialogue and peaceful relations among diverse people. This book offers an insightful portrait of the core virtues of this movement and the scholar who fully explored them within his writing. It will appeal to readers interested in virtue ethics, character education, cross-cultural studies, interfaith dialogue and the role of moderate Islam today.

Event Summary:

Trudy Conway, a Professor of Philosophy takes a very different approach to the analysis of Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen movement. Her recent book uses her philosophical lens of inquiry to explore the fundamental virtue orientation, which she finds to be “central to the Gulen Movement”. In Conway’s opinion, this focus on virtues is the best way to understand the key foundation of the movement and thus understand its ultimate goal.

Conway is convinced that understanding the “fundamental orientation of the movement” will give the best insights into the group. Furthermore, the source of this foundation is virtues. There is the fundamental question as to how virtues play out across different cultures, and one of especial importance, in pertinence to the Gulen movement, is the virtue of hospitality. Conway’s interest in this particular virtue was peaked while she lived and traveled in the Middle East. All of her exposure “convinced [her] that what is really central to the Islamic culture is the virtue of hospitality”, which transcends all Islamic groups. In Gulen movement’s literature, there is an emphasis on tolerance, however “what we [western societies] mean by tolerance is not what Islamic cultures are emphasizing”. According to Conway, tolerance is mistranslated.

When tolerance is discussed in Western Society it is often used to describe the modern era, however the word itself has a negative origin. Tolerance is discussed as “forbearance”, “putting up with people” etc. However in the Islamic world, tolerance has a much more “positive, robust, richer [meaning], than just putting up with somebody.” This association with tolerance led Conway to question whether or not the main virtue was actually hospitality instead of tolerance. “The virtue [hospitality] is the condition, which enables the possibility of understanding in dialogue.” Conway read this quote on hospitality, which greatly emphasizes why hospitality is the key virtue of the movement; “hospitality involves the creation of a free space, where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.”

This emphasis on virtues was key in Conway’s’ realization that the Gulen movement was not a political one. It is an inclusive movement that is cross-cultural in nature because “all societies value these basic, fundamental human goods… and virtues are manifestations of these preoccupations with these goods.” Conway believes the virtue of hospitality is the most integral of these because it “keeps you rooted with your own community while still being open to diversity of others”. This is not a political endeavor because “Gulen is calling us to a deepened understanding… he recognizes the importance of policies and laws… but political solutions are not sufficient, the possibilities of enduring peaceful interactions among persons depend on the far more demanding and substantial task of cultivating virtues within our individual selves, within our families, our societies.”

The Gulen movement should be understood as a “grass-roots, organic movement that’s locally based” with a focus on creating deeper solutions. These solutions will endure overtime “through the fostering and cultivation of virtues”. This movement is applicable on a personal level, with the idea that “happiness and virtueness are linked”. The Gulen movement and Gulen’s ideas are crucial in the present global environment, in order to provide a different face to Islam. One that is much more moderate than the “superficial face” that is disseminated by the media. The ultimate goal of the Gulen movement that Conway was able to discover by studying the foundation of values is “the goal to create hospitable spaces to foster these virtues”. The Gulen movement creates a space for hospitality through education, and human development. This also fits into the Gulen’s ideas that suggest that to solve terrorism and violence, you need nonviolence and a furthering of education and human development, as well as a reduction of injustices that create initial human sufferings. The Gulen movement inspires Muslims to commit themselves to the goal of Peace and creates face-to-face encounters with the religion. The central idea and point of the movement and religion Conway identifies is virtue.

 Trudy Conway began teaching at Mount Saint Mary’s in 1979. Prior to that she taught at Shiraz  University in Iran. She works in the area of contemporary philosophy and has published a book and  articles on the works of Wittgenstein and Gadamer. She has published on the topic of intercultural  understanding and dialogue and the hermeneutical issues and virtues associated with them. She has  also written on, and is actively involved in the issue of the death penalty. She regularly teaches  courses in the Veritascurriculum and a non-west course focusing on intercultural dialogue. She has offered a wide range of electives on topics in contemporary philosophy, specific moral virtues, and perspectives on the death penalty.

You can find her book on Amazon at this link: http://amzn.com/B00QU668FE

Hakan Yesilova explained how Fethullah Gulen teaches us to see "the other". Respect and love for all the creation and especially humanity shapes Gulen's views. That's why his religious understanding is one of promoting peace, love and hospitality.

http://rumiforum.org/rumis-influence-on-south-asian-sufism-with-dr-hasan-aziz/

David Smock, who is the vice president, Governance, Law & Society and director of the Religion and Peacebuilding Center, explained how the program was first established and lead by Professor David Little in 1991 addressing religion, ethics, and human rights. The program’s initial focus was derived from the notion that religion is a source of conflict. This was later changed in two different ways. First: To focus on action in the field rather than just scholarship, and second: to focus on religion as a factor in peacebuilding. Religious leaders can be peacebuilding actors, or agents promoting peace. This program is now led by David Smock, and he brings several examples to remind us not to exaggerate the role of religion in conflict. His work in Nigeria proved how the killing of many Muslims by Christians was caused by factors other than religion. It was not a conflict over theology but over advancement and political power. The two parties’ religious identities were only used to differentiate and mobilize each group.

Dr. Smock further described how his work with local partners is pertinent in helping to identify who the players are and what best strategies to approach and utilize. The program currently has three different local partners in Nigeria. Furthermore, this program works to promote inter-faith and intra-faith relations in Iraq, Sri Lanka, and Burma. Their objective is to enhance religious leaders’ effectiveness as peacemakers as well as to enhance the role of women as religious peacemakers and leaders, such as in Colombia. It is important to look at religion as one dimension in addressing extremism.

Susan Hayward develops conflict prevention, resolution and reconciliation projects specifically targeting the religious sector; she is the senior program officer in USIP’s Religion and Peacemaking Program. Her experience in the field also shows how all religions have capacities to be used to legitimize violence in some form of justice. In fact, often times, issues that bring about conflict are structural injustices and a big stumbling block is conflict within religious countries. Her work has revealed the importance of enabling policy environment that gives space to religious roles, such as in Iraq. There is a need to support policy development since there is a huge gulf between secular and religious sectors. Civil society actors play an influential role as well.

Palwasha Kakar is also a senior program officer for Religion and Peacebuilding at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Kakar joined USIP after four years with The Asia Foundation where she was the Afghanistan director for Women’s Empowerment and Development. She has been working and engaging with Afghan religious leaders in the discussion on forgiveness, consultation, conflict resolution, and protecting Islamic rights, especially pertaining to gender. Dealing with high ideal between martyrdom or peaceful resolution within Islamic framework has been challenging. Her approach was to develop school curriculum promoting peaceful framework in madrassas, and working with madrassas to create textbooks for the purpose of training teachers. These books can go as far as Nigeria, Egypt, and Libya, used by ministers of education to help promote more peaceful Islamic values. Through these teachings, women’s rights are protected with laws that do not go against Islam. Curriculum is carefully put together to be appropriately applied to the indigenous people. Working with women’s rights advocates, religious leaders, and legal advocates makes this a more possible endeavor .

The Religion and Peacebuilding Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace was launched in July 2000 to analyze religious dynamics in conflict and to advance the peacebuilding roles of religious actors and organizations in conflict zones. For the past 14 years, the U.S. Institute of Peace has been organizing programs to address zones of conflict from a religious perspective.

The Center conducts research, identifies best practices, and develops peacebuilding tools for religious leaders and organizations. The Center also works in multiple zones of conflict to strengthen peacebuilding programming that engages religious actors, organizations and institutions. Over the past fourteen years, the Center has helped define and shape the field of religious peacebuilding.

USIP has worked in Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Burma, Colombia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Libya, and Iraq to promote religious peacebuilding. This presentation will present some of the lessons learned from this effort.

Biographies of Speakers:

David R. Smock is the vice president, Governance, Law & Society and director of the Religion and Peacebuilding Center. Previously he served as director of the USIP’s Grant Program and coordinator of Africa activities. He has worked on African issues for more than 30 years and lived in Africa for 11 years. As a staff member of the Ford Foundation from 1964 to 1980, he served in Ghana, Kenya, Lebanon, Nigeria and New York. He received master of divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary and a doctorate in anthropology from Cornell University.

Palwasha L. Kakar is the senior program officer for Religion and Peacebuildingat the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). Kakar joined USIP after four years with The Asia Foundation where she was the Afghanistan director for Women’s Empowerment and Development. Prior to joining the Foundation, Kakar led the Gender Mainstreaming and Civil Society Unit in the United Nation Development Program’s Afghanistan Subnational Governance Program managing a small grants program for Afghanistan’s civil society initiatives. She earned a Master’s degree focusing on gender, politics and religion from Harvard University’s Divinity School and a Bachelor’s degree in Religion and Global Studies focusing on peace and conflict from Bethel College in North Newton, KS.

Susan Hayward develops conflict prevention, resolution and reconciliation projects specifically targeting the religious sector. Since joining the Institute in 2007, her work has focused on Colombia, Iraq, Burma/Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. She also coordinates an initiative exploring the intersection of women, religion, conflict, and peacebuilding in partnership with the Berkley Center at Georgetown University and the World Faiths Development Dialogue. Hayward holds a bachelor’s degree in comparative religions from Tufts University, a master’s degree in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts and a master of divinity from Harvard Divinity School.

Ambassador David Shinn talked about the activities of Gulen Movement in Africa on May 14 2014.

Ambassador David Shinn discuessed activities of Gulen/Hizmet Movement in Africa on May 14, 2014.

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Ambassador Shinn touched on the implications of the multifaceted activities in Africa of the followers of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who has lived in rural Pennsylvania since 1999. In 2008, Foreign Policy magazine named Gülen as the world’s top public intellectual. Gülen and the followers of his philosophy refer to the movement as Hizmet or “volunteers service” while others tend to call it the Gülen movement. The discussion looked at Hizmet in both North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. There are more than 100 Gülen-inspired primary, middle and secondary schools in Africa and the number is growing rapidly. Some African cities have a Gülen-affiliated dialogue or interfaith center and organization of businessmen who follow Gülen’s principles. There is a global charitable organization—Kimse Yok Mu—that has extensive operations in Africa. The Gülen-affiliated media organizations based in Turkey and New Jersey is also reaching out to Africa.

David Shinn has been teaching in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University since 2001. He served for 37 years in the U.S. Foreign Service with assignments at embassies in Lebanon, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritania, Cameroon, Sudan and as ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. The author of numerous book chapters and articles in academic and policy journals, he is also the co-author of China and Africa: A Century of Engagement (2012) and an Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia (2013). He serves as adviser to or on a half dozen non-governmental organization boards. Ambassador Shinn has a PhD in political science from George Washington University and blogs at http://davidshinn.blogspot.com.