A Potsdam Conference

My Turkish friend "Nureddin", known to the readers of my Quran-Blog under this pen name, and I will go to Potsdam tomorrow. We will participate in a Jewish-Christian-Muslim conference that deals with the thoughts and teachings of Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish contemporary Philosopher.


"Today's Zaman" from Istanbul is reporting today. Zaman means "time".

Academics to discuss Gülen movement in Germany

The University of Potsdam's Institute of Religion and the Forum for Intercultural Dialogue Berlin are organizing an international conference on “Muslims Between Tradition and Modernity -- The Gülen Movement as a Bridge Between Cultures.” The conference, which will be held at the University of Potsdam on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, is supported by the German Orient-Institute, the Abraham Geiger College and the Protestant Academy of Berlin. The conference is hoped to provide a platform for the objective and rigorous examination of the activities of the Gülen movement. It is the first of its kind in that it has no Turkish or Muslim names on its editorial board, which instead features academics such as Professor Karl-Josef Kuschel from Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Professor Christina von Braun from Berlin's Humboldt University and Professor Markus Witte from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt. The organizers of the conference have referred to Fethullah Gülen as one of the voices that have promoted peaceful coexistence in Europe and throughout the world.

Over 20 academics will present papers at the two-day conference. The first panel of the conference will discuss whether the Gülen movement can offer a solution for the problem of European Muslim integration. Professor Karel Steenbrink of Utrecht University will present a paper titled “A Turkish Solution for a Dutch Problem.” Participants at the conference will also discuss whether dialogue can help overcome the clash of civilizations. In this part of the conference Professor Reuven Firestone will present a paper titled “Religious Identity in a Competitive, Pluralistic World: Cultural Capitalism, the Gülen Movement and Religious Education,” and Professor Claudia Derichs will present her impressions and findings from the activities of the Gülen movement in Australia. Professor Johann Hafner will discuss attitudes toward apostasy as a criterion of religious tolerance, whereas Dr. Klas Grinell will try to read Fethullah Gülen as a political thinker as a postcolonial option in reference to conservatism and democracy. Journalist and academic Dr. Reiner Hermann will assess the place of Fethullah Gülen and the movement named after him in modern Turkey.

25.05.2009 News TODAY'S ZAMAN