Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Education and Dialogue in the Gulen Movement

James Harrington speaking at
Pacifica Institute, Salt Lake City
On Feb. 25, 2012, James Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project and Adjunct Professor at the School of Law in the University of Texas, Austin spoke at the Pacifica Institute for the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable’s Interfaith Month celebrations. Mr. Harrington spoke about the Gulen Movement and how to build civil society. James Harrington is also the author of Wrestling with Free Speech, Religious Freedom, and Democracy in Turkey: The Political Trials and Times of Fethullah Gulen, This event was covered in detail by the Hizmet Movement Blog and can be read in its entirely here.

Fethullah Gülen added to Peace Curriculum


“Peace Learning Center in Eagle Creek Illinois is teaching thousands of young people on how to be peacemakers. [Amongst the leaders they learn about are] Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King and now the Peace Center has added Fethullah Gülen.”
The Executive Director of the Peace Learning Center, Mr. Tim Nation says, “Fethullah Gülen’s work promoting interfaith dialog and community service make him an excellent peace maker.”

Friday, February 10, 2012

An Interfaith Journey Across the United States

Christopher P. Scheitle and Roger Finke took a trip across the 50 United States in an interfaith journey of self-discovery. The two talk about their travels and share some beautiful photos in the Huffington Post here. A belief that “underneath this veneer of homogeneity lies a rich and varied topography of American religion” led them to this journey.

On their journey they realize:

Immigration has understandably had a persistent role in shaping America’s religious geography. Catholics began arriving in large numbers by the middle of the 19th century and settled in Boston and other East Coast enclaves, while Chinese and Japanese immigrants began to shape the religious composition of San Francisco and other West Coast communities. Religious innovation and creativity has also played its part in America’s geography.

These changes continue into the present day. We have all experienced these changes in our daily lives but this journey made by two Americans and their reflections on this journey remind all of us the importance of not only accepting the different religions in our communities but to also experience them, and to learn about them.

These changes are continuing and we need to become not only more tolerant but more open minded and embracing. As the two point out in this piece these changes in American religious topography is continuing to change:

Hispanic immigrants, not to mention Asian, African and Middle-Eastern immigrants, are reshaping the religious landscape once again. Religious groups are also still innovating, establishing megachurches and so-called ‘parachurch’ nonprofit organizations.