On Turning Down Dialogue With Muslims

I got an e-mail this morning from a Muslim friend who was distraught to discover that every member of Oklahoma's Congressional delegation declined to accept his invitation to a dinner and dialogue with moderate Muslims.

My friend, Vahap Uysal, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, travelled to Washington, D.C. to personally extend invitations asking Congressional leaders to participate in an Iftar Dinner -- the sumptuous meal taken by Muslims to break their fast during their month of Ramadan. Muslims associated with the Turkish scholar Fetulah Gulen and the Institute of Interfaith Dialog have been hosting such dinner and dialog events for several years in cities around the United States.

Fetulah Gulen is a moderate Sufi Muslim who has devoted his life to promoting a peaceful "Dialogue of Civilizations" rather than the violent "Clash of Civilizations" that some in both Christian and Islamic societies believe to be inevitable as East and West come together in a global economy.

Since the attacks by Islamic extremists on 9-11, Fetulah Gulen has been at the forefront of the mainstream, moderate Muslim community that condemns committing violence in the name of God.

The Institute of Interfaith Dialog was organized to promote peace by fostering respectful dialogue between Christians and Muslims. The Institute sponsors Iftar dinners, conferences, and trips to Turkey -- where Eastern and Western civilizations meet -- to promote interfaith understanding. Their Iftar dinners and discussions bring people from a broader political range and from more diverse religious perspectives than any other events taking place in Oklahoma. These Muslims consistently take the initiative in helping to find common ground, in building bridges of understanding, and in fostering a climate conducive to the creation of peaceful, equitable and just relations between people of different civilizations.

I have been to several Iftar dinners, have attended several Institute conferences, and have travelled to Bosnia, Croatia, Romania and Turkey with associates of Fetulah Gulen. In every instance and on every occasion, I have found them to be humble and gracious hosts. While they respect people of all faiths and are tolerant of a widely divergent range of political perspectives, they are very quick to denounce any suggestion that violence in the name of God is tolerable or appropriate.

It is hard for me to understand why the elected representatives of the state of Oklahoma would turn a deaf ear to people who are so demonstrably committed to reducing the kind of misunderstandings that lead to conflict and violence.

Our representatives have a legal and moral obligation to work to secure peace and to preserve the kind of tranquility that makes civilized life possible. They also have a legal and moral responsibility to secure peace and preserve tranquility with as little force and violence as possible.

Unfortunately, they do not seem to be as conscientious as are these Muslims in fulfilling their duties and responsibilities.

On Baptist-Muslim Dialogue

Kudos to Robert Parham for his recent speech at the Islamic Society of North America Convention.

Too many Baptists are fanning the flames of conflict between Christianity and Islam. Parham is prominent among those Baptists who are working for world peace by finding common ground and building bridges of understanding between Christians and Muslims.

I hope someone in the Islamic community will take up Parham's offer to post opinion columns, commentaries, and movie reviews from an Islamic perspective on the Ethics Daily website. Baptists and Muslims will always disagree about many religious beliefs, but we could both benefit from fully understanding our divergences and from acknowledging every possible convergence. We can uphold each other's right to liberty of conscience and conviction while respectfully disagreeing with one another on matters of faith and practice.

Pictured above is T Thomas, Coordinator of the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma, speaking to a girl who introduced herself to us in Kutaya, Turkey.

On the Gulen School in Sarajevo

On my recent visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina with the Institute of Interfaith Dialog we visited the Gulen inspired school in Sarajevo. The building above is the new school building that is scheduled to open in September.

According to our guide, the school itself began in the middle of the Balkan civil war (1992-1995) while Sarajevo was under siege. Seven men from Turkey, inspired by the teachings and Fetulah Gulen, entered Sarajevo through the tunnel (middle picture) under the airport that Bosnian Muslims dug to provide food, medical supplies, weapons and ammunition to the residents of Sarajevo while they were under bombardment and sniper attacks from the Serbian army.


According to our guide, the seven Turks did not enter the city with any weapons. Their only desire was to help the children that were beseiged, suffering, and orphaned by giving them a modern education. Pictured below on the left is one of the original seven men who started the school (unfortunately, I lost my record of his name), in the center is our guide, Ahmed, and on the right is David Goin, superintendant of the Public Schools in Edmond, Oklahoma.


Today, the Gulen school is the only school in the city that is fully integrated. Public schools keep children segregated by teaching the Muslim and Christian students at different hours of the day.

U.S. Court Issues Ruling Favorable to Fetulah Gulen

Todays Zaman is reporting that a U.S. Federal Court has ruled that the Bush administration improperly rejected Fetulah Gulen's application toward permanent residence in the United States. The court ordered the government to reverse the decision.

Fetulah Gulen is a prominent Turkish religious scholar who promotes a moderate Sufi form of Islam that works for world peace by emphasizing respectful dialogue between persons of different faiths. Gulen also inspired the creation of hundreds of schools that emphasize educational excellence. The schools are placing students in prestigious universities around the world.

Immigration made a serious mistake when it rejected Gulen's application for permanent residence. Hopefully, his application will be quickly approved by the Department of Justice and Homeland Security.

Gulen has been building bridges of understanding between Muslims and Christians and making internationally significant contributions to world peace. All Americans should be interested in affirming the growth of moderate Islam as opposed to the extremist forms that receive so much attention from the media.

1463 Treaty Between Ottoman Sultan and Bosnian Christians

One of our visits on our trip to Bosnia-Hersegovina was to the mosque at the village of Milodraza. The mosque is in the process of building a monument to memorialize a treaty that is among the oldest decrees to grant religious liberty. Here's what is written on the temporary memorial that they have erected at the site:

AHDNAMA OF THE SULTAN MEHMED II EL FATIH

MEHMET THE SON OF MURAT-KHAN, ALWAYS VICTORIOUS!

THE COMMAND OF THE HONORABLE, SUBLIME SULTAN'S SIGN AND SHINING SEAL OF THE CONQUEROR OF THE WORLD IS AS FOLLOWS:

I. THE SULTAN MEHMET - KHAN INFORM ALL THE WORLD THAT THE ONES WHO POSSESS THIS IMPERIAL EDICT, THE BOSNIAN FRANCISCANS, HAVE GOT INTO MY GOOD GRACES, SO I COMMAND:

LET NOBODY BOTHER OR DISTURB THOSE WHO ARE MENTIONED, NOT THEIR CHURCHES. LET THEM DWELL IN PEACE IN MY EMPIRE. AND LET THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME REFUGEES BE AND SAFE. LET THEM RETURN AND LET THEM SETTLE DOWN THEIR MONASTERIES WITHOUT FEAR IN ALL THE COUNTRIES OF MY EMPIRE.

NEITHER MY ROYAL HIGHNESS, NOR MY VIZIERS OR EMPLOYEES, NOR MY SERVANTS, NOR ANY OF THE CITIZENS OF MY EMPIRE SHALL INSULT OR DISTURB THEM. LET NOBODY ATTACK INSULT OR ENDANGER NEITHER THEIR LIFE OR THEIR PROPERTY OR THE PROPERTY OF THEIR CHURCH. EVEN IF THEY BRING SOMEBODY FROM ABROAD INTO MY COUNTRY, THEY ARE ALLOWED TO DO SO.

AS, THUS, I HAVE GRACIOUSLY ISSUED THIS IMPERIAL EDICT, HEREBY TAKE MY GREAT OATH.

IN THE NAME OF THE CREATOR OF THE EARTH AND HEAVEN, THE ONE WHO FEEDS ALL CREATURES, AND IN THE NAME OF THE SEVEN MUSTAFAS AND OUR GREAT MESSENGER, AND IN THE NAME OF THE SWORD I PUT, NOBODY SHALL DO CONTRARY TO WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN, AS LONG AS THEY ARE OBEDIENT AND FAITHFUL TO MY COMMAND.

This ahdnama (treaty) which brings independence and tolerance to the ones who are from another religion, belief and race, is written by Fatih Sultan Mehmet, after the conquest of Bosnia-Herzogovina, in May 28, 1463. The origin of the ahdnama is at the Franciscan Catholic Church in Foznica, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The edict issued the Sultan Mehmed II El Fatih to protect the basic rights of the Bosnian people when he conquered them in 1463. The original edict is still kept in the Franciscan Monastery in the vicinity of Foznica. The ahdnama of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, oldest human right declaration known in history, written in 1463. It was announced 326 years before the 1789 French Revolution, 485 years before the International Human Rights Declaration.

Memorial for Victims of the Ahmici Massacre

On April 16, 1995 scores of Bosnian Muslims were burned alive by Croatians in what has come to be known as the Ahmici Massacre. The Institute of Interfaith Dialog recently took a group of Oklahomans to Bosnia-Herzegovina to visit the memorials there to the victims of ethnic and religious cleansing. I was among that group.

Pictured above is the memorial to the victims on the Ahmici Massacre that stands beside the reconstructed mosque of the village (pictured below). The original minaret was destroyed by explosives and the mosque was torched with many of the victims inside. Here's a description of the crimes against humanity at Ahmici:

Other bodies were found in the houses so badly charred they could not be identified and in positions suggesting that they had been burned alive 855 . The victims included many women and children 856 . The British UNPROFOR battalion reported that: "SoCf the 89 bodies which have been recovered from the village, most are those of elderly people, women, children and infants" 857 . An ECMM observer said he had seen the bodies of children who, from their position, seemed to have died in agony in the flames: "some of the houses were absolute scenes of horror, because not only were the people dead, but there were those who were burned and obviously some had been - - according to what the monitors said, they had been burned with flame launchers, which had charred the bodies and this was the case of several of the bodies" 858 .

Words cannot express the sorrow and shame I feel as a Christian when I visit sites like this.