LPDR leader Vladimir Jirnovski, Oriental Studies Institute President Rostislav Ribakov, Igor Chubais, the director of the Center for Russian Studies Peoples’ Friendship at the University of Russia, instructors from the Oriental Studies Institute Valery Kasin, Felix Yurlov and Yevgeniya Yurlova, and Dialogue Eurasia Platform Russia representative Ali Sami Yıldırım were among the participants at the symposium.

Delivering a speech at the event, Yıldırım pointed out that there was no room for radicalism, fundamentalism or violence in Gülen’s teachings, claiming that Gülen was the first Islamic scholar to condemn the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US and the Beslan massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 334 hostages when Chechen rebels attacked a school in the town of Beslan in 2004. “Gülen sees terror as a humanitarian crime. In his view, killing one person is equal to massacring all of humanity,” Yıldırım said in remarks that drew a huge round of applause from the audience.

In his speech, Jirnovski complained about people’s lack of knowledge of intellectual values. “If you ask our citizens who have visited Goa, a tourist resort in India, they will definitely know about the bars selling drugs there. But if you ask them about Gandhi, they will remain silent. I wish they had known something about Gandhi. The same situation applies for Turkey. Our intellectuals do not know Fethullah Gülen. Tourist spots in Turkey become news, negative news about Turkey is brought to the agenda, such as ‘our kids were not admitted to the hotel’ or ‘our bus crashed.’ We keep these things in mind, but we are not informed about the ideas of the philosophers and intellectuals who will bring the most benefit to us.”

Gülen’s ideas exceed Turkey’s borders

Ribakov, who made a presentation at the symposium, said there was a similarity between Gülen and Gandhi and that this was not his personal view, but something shared by the majority of Western academics. “Gülen wants humanity to reach new heights. He wants this to happen by opposing violence. And he makes efforts to make people understand this intellectually. This is what unites Gülen with Gandhi. Clearly I am not talking about an exact overlapping. Gülen’s ideas have exceeded the boundaries of the world. His ideas are such that the entire world can stand up for them,” he said.

Leonid Sukyanin, a professor of Islamic studies at the Russian Economy University, said there was a similarity between Gülen and Gandhi in their opposition to the use of violence. However, he added that Gülen was not a politician like Gandhi. “Gülen is an intellectual, a thinker, a writer and a community leader. In his books, he always emphasizes that he is outside of politics. It is necessary to see this similarity between Gülen and Gandhi. Gandhi produced solutions for the problems of the society in his time. In Gülen’s teachings and books, we can also find solutions for the problems facing today’s world,” he explained.

“Both leaders produced solutions for the problems of their era by setting out from their own cultures. Gandhi relied on the thousands-of-years-old tradition of Hinduism and Gülen deals with the problems of today from the mirror of Islam’s fundamentals. But he does not settle for looking at the Islamic fundamentals, he interprets them in accordance with today’s circumstances and renders them more understandable. This is what makes these two great individuals similar,” Sukyanin added.

During an exclusive interview with Today’s Zaman, Jirnovski said he was hoping to see Gülen in Moscow. “We would like to see him in Moscow. He could speak to our youth. He is the spiritual wealth of Turkey. We do not have such figures in our country. We have writers and composers, but we do not have religious leaders. Mr. Gülen is a very good person, like Gandhi. There should not be any revolutions; as Gülen said, minds should be conquered.”

Comments

Add New Search

Ashok Kothary   |09-26-2008 13:13:58 It is a very aspiring report. With leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Gulen appearing on the earth to bring the human beings on the path God would like human beings to be on, the hope for survival of human race gets reassurance. Reply 0   0

Write comment
Name:
Email:
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."