Gulen Schools Moderating Islam in Pakistan

The New York Times has published a story entitled "Turkish Schools Offer Pakistan a Gentler Islam." The schools are inspired by the schools that the Islamic scholar Fetulah Gulen started in Turkey and are now spreading around the world. Here's a quote:

The model is the brainchild of a Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gulen. A preacher with millions of followers in Turkey, Mr. Gulen, 69, comes from a tradition of Sufism, an introspective, mystical strain of Islam. He has lived in exile in the United States since 2000, after getting in trouble with secular Turkish officials.

Mr. Gulen's idea, Mr. Aytav said, is that "without science, religion turns to radicalism, and without religion, science is blind and brings the world to danger."

The schools are putting into practice a Turkish Sufi philosophy that took its most modern form during the last century, after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's founder, crushed the Islamic caliphate in the 1920s. Islamic thinkers responded by trying to bring Western science into the faith they were trying to defend. In the 1950s, while Arab Islamic intellectuals like Sayyid Qutub were firmly rejecting the West, Turkish ones like Said Nursi were seeking ways to coexist with it.

The article quotes some Turkish scholars who are wary that the Gulen movement is employing education to attain power and influence. I think their fears are unfounded.

There is nothing wrong with Muslims teaching a moderate and tolerant faith in private religious schools. Neither is there anything wrong with empowering people to better their lives through education. The same principle, though without a religious emphasis, can be found in schools involved with the Knowledge is Power Program here in the U.S.