Islam in the Age of Global Challenges

Abstract

On 14-15 November 2008, Georgetown University’s Copley Formal Lounge and Philodemic Room served as the venues for an extraordinary conference on a unique Muslim leader who is finally becoming better known in the United States: Fethullah Gulen. Beginning in the early 1950s, this graduate of the Turkish seminary system began encouraging Turkish businessmen and others to build schools to provide a modern education to as many students as possible. People listened, and there are now over 600 schools in 100 countries. This conference, “Islam in the Age of Global Challenges: Alternative Perspectives of the Gulen Movement,” which was sponsored by the Georgetown University President’s Office, the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and the Rumi Forum, attracted both Muslim and non-Muslim academics and others. Of the 170 papers submitted, forty were chosen the address the movement from the following viewpoints: (1) the man, his thoughts and ideas, and how he formed his community and (2) what the movement is doing visà- vis bringingmeaning to people’s lives, who/what were/are his sources, tolerance, dealing with non-Muslims, issues of religious freedom, women, peace issues, interfaith dialogue, the role of his schools in peacemaking, charitable organizations, financial sources, and globalization ...