September 8, 2013

Fethullah Gulen’s and Spinoza’s Ideas on Tolerance and Dialogue

Kate Kirk* Gurkan Celik**


Dialogue and Tolerance: Spinoza and Gülen

…In his writings and speeches, Fethullah Gülen highlights the tension between Islamophobia and the reality of Muslims in the West that needs to be addressed in order to make sustainable peaceful coexistence possible. Gülen’s ‘alliance of civilizations’—as opposed to the ‘clash of civilizations’—offers a perspective from which this peaceful coexistence is possible. Gülen’s perspective shows that through dialogue groups can come to see that they share common virtues and ideas not simply incompatible differences (Ünal & Williams 2000; Carroll 2007). Gülen, a contemporary theologian, clearly comes from an Islamic perspective: the Qur’an, the Sunnah, ijtihad (independent reasoning, see Yilmaz 2003), and Islamic piety are his reference points, just as reason was the basis of Spinoza’s philosophy. He like Spinoza tries to conceptualize modern peaceful coexistence by conjoining tolerance and dialogue.

Turkish charity sends aid supplies to Syrian refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan

A truck filled with aid packages sent by Turkish charity Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There) arrived at the Kawrgosk refugee camp in northern Iraq on Thursday, and its contents were distributed to Syrian refugees who have fled ongoing fighting amongst various factions in Syria.