Response to Paul Stenhouses article Islam's Trojan Horse?

Turkish Nationalism and the Nakshibendi Sufi Order

Reference: Quadrant Magazine Religion December 2007 - Volume LI Number 12 [Responses to the original text of the article are shown in a blue text marked with square brackets. Notwithstanding the need to produce a comprehensive response to the numerous allegations made in this article, a factual analysis is seen sufficient to demonstrate the weakness of Stenhouses arguments and hence conclusions. The response is compiled by Affinity Intercultural Foundation.] ON AUGUST 5, 2007, an advertisement appeared in an Istanbul newspaper, Zaman,calling for applications for a newly established Fethullah Glen Chair of Islamic Studies and Interfaith Dialogue, within a Centre of Inter-Religious Dialogue at the Fitzroy campus of the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. The position had been advertised in Australia on the website of the Chronicle of Higher Education on June 8. The deadline for applicants was September 7.

The objectives of the Centre are stated to be as follows: To promote the further development of inter-religious harmony and dialogue in Australia and in the Pacific-Asia region. Its aim is also to educate future leaders in the humanities, business, health sciences, social sciences and theological sciences in the writings of Islam, as expounded in Fethullah Glens writing and in the teachings of Said Nursi.

As this was the first I had heard of such a Centre or Chair (set up, evidently, on August 31, 2006) I could not help but be impressed by its thoroughgoing commitment to promoting a certain kind of Islam through a Catholic university, and filtering it through all the faculties to

future leaders. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, it also offered a base from which the relatively little-known Turkish organisation that negotiated the setting up of the Centre and Chairthe Australian Inter-cultural Society (AIS)could have outreach with some credibility throughout Australia, the Pacific and Asia.

I recalled a by-now virtually unobtainable book, Moslems in Europe and America by Ali alMontasser al-Kattani, published in Iraq in 1976 by Dar Idris. It called for the establishment of chairs of Islamic Studies in universities in Europe, America, the West Indies and other countries, and the setting up of committees of Muslims to select other Muslims to occupy these chairs. At the same time it called for an end to any aid, moral or financial, that might already be being given to established chairs of Islamic Studies held by Christians or Jews. [Moslems in Europe and America by Ali al-Montasser al-Kattani there are no instances of this book or its author on the internet. Influential books are usually referenced on internet medium or they are obtainable from libraries. It becomes impossible to check the veracity of this reference especially as it implies a long-standing plan and strategy. There is also no evidence that Muslims who were instrumental in the establishment of the chair have been influenced by this obscure writer.] On November 3, 2006, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne met with the AIS and expressed the wish that Catholics cooperate with Muslims and therefore with the members of the Intercultural Society in every way possible.

It now appears that the AIS, which is connected to the Fethullah Glen and Said Nursi group, is also linked to the equally innocuously named but more up-front Turkish Muslim Affinity Intercultural Federation. The Executive Officer of Affinity, Mehmet Ozalp, and its Vice-President, Zuleyha Keskin, are regularly featured as speakers or representatives at ecumenical, inter-faith and intercultural/multicultural functions. In 2005 Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, received an award from Affinity for his support of inter-faith activities.

[Affinity Intercultural Foundation has never claimed to be a Turkish organisation. Affinity members all speak English in their meetings, correspondence and events. Executives and leadership of Affinity come from 13 different ethnic backgrounds including Turkish, Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian, Afghani, Bosnian, Pakistani.] Affinity regularly describes itself as an organisation founded in 2001 by a group of young Australian Muslims specifically to promote cultural and religious awareness and understanding across the entire Australian community. On occasion it adds that it is a Muslim Organisation for Religious Education and Interfaith Dialogue.

On September 11, 2005, Affinity and the Feza Foundation sponsored a National Security and Harmony Summit entitled Muslims in Australia, at the Seymour Centre in Sydney. The AIS and Affinity were represented among the speakers by board members. [Speakers at this conference came from a diversity of organisations and institutions. Speakers included heads of most Muslim organisations including Al-Ghazzali Centre, Punchbowl Mosque, Lebanese Muslim Association spokesperson Keysar Trad, Auburn Gallipoli Mosque, Bosnian Mosques in Sydney as well as the Australian Bosnian Islamic Council President etc. It also included speakers from politicians and public servants such as Laurie Ferguson Federal MP for Reid, the NSW Greens leader Senator Kerry Nettle, Stepan Kerkyasharian who is the Chair for the NSW CRC, the Sydney US Consulate Michael Belgrade. The summit was jointly sponsored by the NSW Community Relations Commission.] Irfan Yusuf, a Sydney-based lawyer, revealed in 2005 that Affinityis in fact the Interfaith wing of:

a Turkey-based religious congregation (or cemat) linked to [the]Turkish Islamic scholar Muhammad Fethullah Glen. Thatcemats interests are represented in Australia by the Feza Foundation Limited which runs two schools, including Sule College, in Sydney. These schools claim to be non-denominational, though [they] are modelled on other Islamic schools run under the auspices of the Glen-led cemat.

Yusuf mentions that he acted for the Feza Foundation Limited and for Sule College for some five years, and that he has close friends from university who are heavily involved in the Affinity Foundation. [Affinity Intercultural Foundation has no organic links with any local or international organisation. Affinity was specifically established as an interfaith and intercultural organisation by its founders. Hence it is only natural that it takes inspiration from a Muslim scholar who is at the forefront of interfaith dialogue. We could also say that it is inspired by the teachings of M. Fethullah Gulen in a way similar to Dalai Lama inspiring many Buddhist organisations to do peaceful work around the Globe. M. Fethullah Gulen is an acclaimed Muslim scholar and spiritual leader who has set a very good example and precedence in interfaith dialogue by interfaith visits he has conducted and relations he has engaged in with late Pope John Paul II and Patriarch of the Greek Church Barthalemous in particular. These were public events widely covered in Turkish and world media enabling fair minded Muslims to think about and see them as examples of how Muslims should relate to the world and non-Muslims. It would be in the interest of the world that an open and pro-dialogue Muslim scholar like M. Fethullah Gulen becomes a role model for Muslims rather than Osama bin Laden.] Bediz-zaman Said Nursi

AS SAID NURSI (originally known as Said Kurdi, Said the Kurd) and Fethullah Glen figure prominently in the official designation of the Chair and in references to it, it may be useful to examine their background and teachings. It is proposed that future leaders in the humanities, business, health sciences, social sciences and theological sciences at the ACU are going to be educated in Islam as expounded in their writings. As Said Nursi is the master, and Glen the disciple, I see some advantage in dealing more fully with Nursis background and teachings. [In the Ottoman era where people did not have any surnames, Nursi was known with many titles and nick-names. His most famous title is Bediuzzaman meaning wonder of the

time. The usual convention for naming and remembering scholars is to give them a surname of the place they were born, hence the name Nursi (referring to his birth place Nurs)] [Gulen was not a disciple or a student of Nursi. Actually they never met. Nevertheless, Gulen was partly influenced by the writings of Said Nursi after Nursis death. Their activism is quite different in their nature. Perhaps, the best way to state the work of the two is as the Catholic Jesuit Fr Thomas Michel, S.J. stated in an article that Nursi is a Thinker and Gulen is an Activist. Nursis focus and activism was very much the spread of his theological writings whereas Gulens activism is more of a social nature focused on education and dialogue.] What follows needs to be read in tandem with an article I had published in Quadrant (June 2007): Ignoring Signposts on the Road: DawaJihad with a Velvet Glove. Concerning dawa I wrote:

The shadow of dawathe public face of the understated, more subtle promotion of Islamist ideology hangs like a pall over much of the information about Islam disseminated in the West by fundamentalists and their gullible supporters. Lenin and subsequent Soviet governments talked up peace with capitalist nations, while at the same time encouraging workers of these countries, through organisations like the Communist International, to overthrow these same capitalist governments. Radical Islam has opened up a second Jihadist front. Through dawa it hopes to achieve by sleight of hand what will ultimately prove to be unattainable by brute force ... Some Western politicians, academics, clergy and media, oblivious of the currents surging through modern-day Islamist circles ... appear to be unfazed by the often reciprocal relationship between various Islamic dawist NGOs and terrorist organisations. Many others simply pretend nothing is happening or when confronted by irrefutable proof of links between Islamic dawist charities and suicide-bombers, terrorist cells, revolutionary agendas and the enlisting and training ofmujahidun, rarely go beyond impotent gestures and wrist-slapping. In the case of some particularly ill-informed peoplereligious people

among themthey go into denial mode and accuse critics of prejudice and worse.

[The inference here is that Muslim activists in the West always appear nice but they have sinister goals. This is what can be called intention reading attributing sinister intentions to people when there is not even circumstantial evidence. This is the worst thing that can be done to people. How does one prove his intentions if no one believes his words and actions. In linking Islamic activism to Communist propaganda and methods, Stenhouse is almost advocating McCarthyism.] The largest dawa organisation in the world is the Tabligh-i-Jamaat, based in Pakistan. Tabligh, like dawa, means propagation and propaganda.Tabligh-i-Jamaat was founded in 1927 by a prominent Deobandi cleric and scholar, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalawi (18851944).

According to Alex Alexiev, the extremist attitudes that characterise Deobandism permeate Tabligh philosophy. Ilyass followers are intolerant of other Muslims and especially of Shiites, as well as of adherents of other faiths:

The Wests misreading of Tablighi Jamaat actions and motives has serious implications for the war on terrorism. Tablighi Jamaat has always adopted an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam, but in the past two decades, it has radicalized to the point where it is now a driving force of Islamic extremism and a major recruiting agency for terrorist causes worldwide. For a majority of young Muslim extremists, joining Tablighi Jamaat is the first step on the road to extremism. Perhaps 80 percent of the Islamist extremists in France come from Tablighi ranks, prompting French intelligence officers to call Tablighi Jamaat the antechamber of fundamentalism.

[We are at a loss as to the relevance of the references made to Tablighi Jamaat and link them to Said Nursi and the movement he inspired. Tablighi Jamaat originated in Indian subcontinent. It has no historic and religious ties with Said Nursi. There is no evidence to suggest that one was inspired by the other or somehow they were linked. It is not even necessary to go into the marked differences between the two movements with respect to their revivalist teachings and methods. Reality of the matter is that by the turn of twentieth century, numerous independent Islamic revivalist movements began in all Muslim lands as a reaction to colonialism. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the end of the caliphate and the ensuing suffering and indignation of Muslims, gave the impression that Islam was in grave danger of being lost.] The largest dawa organization in Turkey and throughout Central Asia is the Nur (light) Movement (Nurcu Hareketi) founded just before Tabligh-i-Jamaat, in 1926, by Bedizzaman Said Nursi (18761960). [Said Nursi never established a dawa organisation. He was accused, by the Turkish courts, of establishing an organisation to overthrow the state regime through underground movement. He was trialled three times (from 1935 to 1952) together with some of his students with this charge. However, he was not found guilty on all three occasions even though the courts were secular and biased in the single party rule of Turkey in the 1930s40s. In his defence arguments published as part of his book Rays he calls his work as hizmet (Service) to God and humanity and that his relationship with his followers is the scholar-student relationship. He says that at most it can only be called a brotherhood not an organisation.] Nursi is an enigmatic figure, part spiritualist and part political eminence grise. In his early years, mainly through attending a Nakshibendi seminary in the Kurdish region of Turkey, he became devoted to the teaching of Mvlana Halid, the Nakshibendi Sufi leader from Saleymaniye in Kurdish Iraq.

[In late 19th century, Sufism (tasawwuf) was the mainstream. All Muslims, especially in the eastern parts of the Empire, belonged to a Sufi order (tariqah) one way or the other. Said Nursi followed the madrasa style education rather than belonging to a Sufi order. His education was an unconventional one, in that he travelled through many madrasas studying books very quickly because of his extraordinary intellect and photographic memory. He finished fifteen years of madrasa curriculum by the time he was fifteen years old, hence the title Bediuzzaman, wonder of the time. He became an independent scholar at such an early age (for more information, refer to his biography translated by Sukran Wahide).] [Having said that Naqshbandi Sufi order was established in 1380 and was instrumental in dealing with the artermath of the Mongol invasion of the Muslim world. It helped to popularise Sufism. Naturally, over time Naqshbandi Sufi orders spread across the vast Muslim world under many branches similar to the impact of St Frances of Asisi on the Christian world. Naqshbandi Sufism is characterised by a silent dhikr (rememberence of God) and a sober form of sufism.] [Mawln Khlid-i Baghdd (d 1827) was one of the greatest Naqshbandi Sufi masters. The spread of his following was vast, reaching from the Balkans and the Crimea to South East Asia just one generation after his death. His primary following was in the Islamic heartlands - the Arab, Turkish, and Kurdish provinces of the Ottoman empire and the Kurdish areas of Iran. Nearly everywhere in Anatolia the Khalidi branch of the Naqshbandi came to supersede branches of more senior origin. Hence it is only natural that there is some element of influence of this Sufi order on Said Nursi. Nevertheless, he did not formally belong to any Sufi order.]

It should be noted that as a Nakshibendi, Nursi was in distinguished company: former Prime Minister and President Turgut Ozal (died 1993); former Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan (1996-97); present Islamist Prime Minister (since 2003) Recep Tayyip Erdogan; Parliamentary Speaker Bulent Arinc (200207); former Foreign Minister (200307) and now President (sworn in August 29, 2007) Abdullah Gulall either come from, or are much

influenced by, the Nakshibendi Sufi sect.

[This is an absurd and baseless allegation. There are no factual evidences to back up this claim.] A point seldom noted, however, but germane to our enquiry, is that the Nakshibendi Sufi order, according to Serif Mardin, is a Turkish variant of modern Islamic fundamentalism. It originated in the twelfth century. [By linking Said Nursi to Naqshbandi Sufism and Naqshbandism to fundamentalism, Stenhouse is implying that Nursi was a fundamentalist. This argument has no bearing as Nursi was not a Naqshbandi in his early life nor later. In fact, Nursi says that it is not time for tariqah (Sufi orders or Sufism in general), it is the time for hakikah (truth). He also said that Sufism is like the fruit whereas faith is like the bread. A man can live without fruit but not without bread. In this he was making the point that the main religious problem of the time is lack of faith. One cannot build spiritual excellence (through Sufism) without faith as Sufism assumes one has faith to begin with. In his book Letters (29th Letter), Nursi makes a critique of Sufism and discusses its benefits and dangers as a scholar of theology not as an adherent.]

Sufism is usually regarded by non-Muslim journalists and politicians as a mystical form of Islam that corresponds more or less to monasticism in Christianity but this is to ignore Muhammads own warning that the monasticism of this community is jihad. Historian Christopher Dawson comments: [We could not find this narrative in the six accepted hadith books. This Prophetic tradition occurred in one of the Hadith collections (Musnad Ibn Hanbal, Hadith no:13306). We checked the authenticity of this hadith and it is generally considered a weak hadith because of the existence of a man called Zayd al-Ammiyy in the chain of transmitters. (Majma alZawaid, V.278) Furthermore, almost all of the commentators of this report interpreted it in a

way very different from Stanhouse and the scholars he quoted from. According to their interpretation this hadith encourage the people to participate in daily life not to live in seclusion. (See Fayd al-Qadir, V.368) There is not one Muslim scholar who explains the word jihad as a war. The context of hadith is also very clear to support the meaning of being active in life. Nevertheless, assuming that this hadith was uttered by the Prophet the meaning of the monasticism of this community is jihad totally changes when the word jihad is translated accurately. The word jihad means to endeavour or to strive. The word "jihad" does not mean "holy war". It does not even mean "war". The word for "war" in Arabic is "harb" and the word for fighting is "qital". In the words of the Prophet Muhammad, there are greater and lesser aspects of jihad. Greater jihad being the struggle with ones self, that is fighting superstition, wrong convictions, carnal desires and evil inclinations of the self in pursuit of intellectual and spiritual enlightenment. Since monastic life tried to achieve just that, it would be true to say that the concept of jihad as a way to achieve spiritual excellence is the monasticism in Islam.] Nothing could be less mystical than [Muhammads] religious teaching. It was a religion of fear rather than of love, and the goal of its striving was not the vision of God but the sensible delights of the shady gardens of paradise the duty of man was not the transformation of his interior life but the objective establishment of the reign of God on earth by the sword and submission to the law of Islam it is a militant Puritanism of the same type as the modern Wahhabite movement. But it was never a purely external system. Its Puritanism was not only that of the warrior, it was also that of the unworldly ascetic who spends his time in prayer and fasting.

[It is very difficult to accept Christopher Dawson's (1889-1970) objectivity when he comments about Islamic spirituality and the Prophet Muhammad. In his writings, he dutifully carried on the Orientalist methods and styles when dealing with Islam.] Sufism was a return to the early puritanism of the Kharijites, who reacted against the growing worldliness of Islam. Its founder, Abu Said Hasan, lived in Basra (643728 AD).

Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah (184485) the self-styled Mahdi whose dervish army killed Gordon and took Khartoum in 1885, was a Sufi. [It is very imaginative to link Sufism to Kharijites, who were a political group emerged in late 7th century rather than spiritual one at that. In 1881, Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah proclaimed himself the Mahdi the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will appear at end times. He declared a jihad against Ottoman rulers and deemed all "Turks" infidels and called for their execution. He raised an army and led a successful religious war to topple the Ottoman-Egyptian occupation of Sudan. According to the general Muslim approach, one who proclaims himself as a Mahdi, has lost the plot and is definitely not a Mahdi. The recitation of the shahada (creed) was modified to include and Muhammad Ahmad is the Mahdi of God and the representative of His Prophet. By making such a statement, he is said to have deviated from the mainstream Islam. Moreover, there are some Sufi sects who have left the orthodox and mainstream Islam and there are Sufis like Rumi, who are the epitome of true Islamic spirituality and is much loved by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. One needs to be careful when making bold statements about Sufis. We should not generalise, just as we cant generalise within any faith group.] Current Prime Minister Erdogan is on record as stating We are Sharia-ists; We will turn Istanbul into Medina; I am the Imam of Istanbul; Our only goal is an Islamic State.

[Prime Minister Erdogan was part of the Erbakan political line of Islamist politics at the time when he was the Mayor of Istanbul. These quotations are not proven and denied by Mr Erdogan, who nevertheless, went through a transformation through late 1990s. He is currently a very successful and popular Prime Minister of Turkey who recently won a landslide victory in the 2007 elections with 47% of the votes. A very hard achievement in Turkey if one is known to be an extremist as the references imply.] Nursi was to play a part in the rebellion (actually the counter-coup) of March 31, 1909 (April 13, 1909, according to our Gregorian calendar) which attempted to re-affirm Abdulhamid II as an absolute monarch. This involvement, and what we can learn of his subsequent life, give the lie to the claim by Bulent Aras and Omer Caha that Said Nursi became one of the

most insistent supporters of the parliamentary system at that time and later of the republican regime in Turkey. The truth seems to be, rather, that Nursi was to become one of the most painful thorns in the side of the Turkish Republic.

[Being an influential scholar and public orator and writer in newspapers, Nursi was arrested after the 1909 rebellion. He was one of the few who were not found guilty after a military trial. Many were executed. He was a supporter of the democratic parliamentary system. We see this in his book Sunuhat which was published before World War I.] According to some, he was also involved in the Sheikh Said rebellion of 1924-25, whose aims ranged from Kurdish separatism to the restoration of the Caliphate. I remain unconvinced. The Kurdish Nakshibendi leader Said Nursimay be being confused with the other Kurdish Nakshibendi leader, Sheikh Said Piranalso known as Sheykh Said of Palu from the Diyarbakir region of Turkey. Said Piran was captured in mid-April 1925 and hanged along with the other leaders of the rebellion. [There has been much confusion in Turkey between Sheykh Said of Palu and Bediuzzaman Said Nursi because of the name Said, which was and still is a common Muslim name. They are in fact two different people with very differing views on the future of Turkey and Islam. Said Nursi narrates his encounter with Sheykh Said of Palu, who asks for support for his impending rebellion. Nursi, who was also a Kurd, refused to take part stating that Kurds and Turks are one people who have lived together side by side for 1000 years and that the Kurds in the South Eastern Turkey need to be educated and a University needs to be established for them otherwise through a lack of education, anarchy would prevail and they will be a big social problem in the future. History proved Nursis prediction to be correct as a handful of Kurds formed a secularist and political group called PKK, who terrorised Turkish civilians in South Eastern Turkey. PKK under its former leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was responsible for the death of 30,000 innocent Turkish and Kurdish civilian lives.]

Whatever may be the truth of his alleged involvement in the rebellion, Nursi was deported to the West by the Kemalist regime. Considered a threat to the stability of the secular state, he was again arrested in 1935 and imprisoned until 1946. While he was in prison his thoughts turned to a more indirect Islamisation of the statethrough education. [Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first President of Turkey, had offered Nursi a position as the head of the Religious Affairs Ministry, a post that Nursi turned down saying that he has no Worldly endeavours and that he only wanted to worship God in seclusion. However, after the Sheikh Said of Palu rebellion, thousands of influential people from the Eastern Turkey were sent into exile to prevent the possibility of future rebellions. However this did not prevent Nursi to write his 14 volume of books called the Risale-i Nur Collection (commentary which expounds the faith propositions of the Quran). These are still amongst the best-selling books in Turkey and have been read by people from all forms of life. Nursi never earned any royalties from the sales of these books.] [It is factually incorrect to say that he was imprisoned for 11 years from 1935 to 1946. In 1935, he was arrested and imprisoned while trial was in progress. He was released in 1935 after the courts found him not guilty.] CLAIMS THAT THE REVIVAL of Islam in Turkey has been sui generis in its causes and results, and that no Turkish Sayyid Qutb (the most influential of the Islamist revolutionary ideologues thrown up by the turmoil in Egypt in the twentieth century), or al-Mawdudi (founder of Islamic radicalism in British India) has appeared on the scene, are called into question by Anis Ahmad.

Ahmad, Director of the Academy of Dawa in the Islamabad International Islamic University, Pakistan, speaks of Bediz-zaman Said Nursi in the same breath as Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (founder of Wahhabism in Arabia), Hasan al-Banna (founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers) and al-Mawdudi. [In a recent survey published by pro-secular Milliyet newspaper in Turkey, more than 56% of people said they are very religious and a further 24% said they were religious. Yet only

8% of people wanted a state based on Shariah (Islamic law). This shows that people in Turkey are overwhelmingly religious but do not want a theocratic state. This outcome is very unique to Turkey and by and large the product of the teachings of Said Nursi, Fethullah Gulen and other peaceful religious movements (mainly Sufi).] It should be noted that Ahmad is the former Dean of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (conceived in 1982 by the self-styled moderate and former Deputy Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim) and former Director of the Islamic Social Sciences Association of America.

Ahmad points out, as do all proponents of Nursis teachings, that the master promoted social change without focusing on political struggle. This does not mean, he adds, that he separates between [sic] Islam and politics. [In his famous Damascus Sermon delivered in around 1910 to a largely Arab audience, Said Nursi makes it clear that politics and Islam should not be mixed. He himself is famous for saying, I seek refuge in God from the evil of Satan and politics. Also in his major work Letters, Nursi answers questions about himself at length and his lack of engaging in society and its affairs (Refer to 16th and 17th Letters). At the dismay of his students he never read papers during World War II. When asked why, his answer was that he had a more serious matter to think about everlasting salvation of himself and others. No mainstream Muslim theologian, including Said Nursi, agrees with a complete separation of religion and human affairs and society.] Nursi promoted the view that there is what the Nurwebsite calls an ineluctable interlinkage between Islamic revival, reinterpretive reading of the religious sourcesthe Quran in particularand the formation of religiopolitical organizations. According to Khalil Hamidi, Nursi recommended to his followers the ideas and writings of al-Mawdudi and expressed his full agreement with the methodology suggested by al-Maududi [sic]in his remarkable treatise The Process of Islamic Revolution. Nursi, however, expected his followers to use wisdom (hikmah) in translating the ideas of Mawdudi in a new context:

A comparison of the works of Mawdudi and Nursi is particularly apt Mawdudi focused on purifying the Islamic faith with a view to modernizing Islam while extracting Western influences from Muslim minds he would scientifically prove that Islam is eventually to emerge as the World Religion to cure man of all his maladies Mawdudis dawa (invitation to Islam) as the embodiment of his re-interpretation and revival of the Islamic faith ultimately became a movement directed at regimenting the lives of all those who had accepted Islamic ideals and molded their lives accordingly, erecting an Islamic order, and eventually revolutionizing human thought by instilling Islamic values into it. His scheme was holistic and all-inclusive. It began with the individual Muslim and culminated in a new universal order. [Said Nursi does not mention nor does he comment on Abou Ala Mawdudi (d. 1979) in his writings. In general his approach to other Muslim scholars and movements are positive. In his book Flashes, (in 21st Flash) he lays out his ecumenical principle, a person has the right to say I am on the right way, but does not have the right to say only my way is the right way. In line with this principle, he does not publicly become critical of other Islamic movements and their leaders. Regardless, Mawdudi is, by and large, a well respected scholar in the Muslim world. His political ideas were the product of the debate about whether Muslims and Hindus in the Subcontinent should split into separate states. This was a very important debate at the time and quite natural for Mawdudi to take part in the debate.] This smacks of the ad hoc, softly-softly approach advocated in Egypt by revolutionary groups, among them the dawa wing of the Ikhwan al-Muslimin, the Muslim Brothers, who realised that the overt violence inherent in the Islamic Puritanism of Sayyid Qutb and others was not winning converts. Sayyid Qutb was half-right in his rejection of this way of conciliation propounded by the dawists. In itself it would not win over those Muslims who found his puritanism not to their liking. But, as I wrote in Quadrant:

He would surely be amazed to see how effective such indirect tactics have proven to be in the more ignorant and gullible secular Westspiritually deracinated, and in thrall to its own

PR machines. He would not, however, be deceived, as the West is deceived, into thinking that abandonment of overt violence means abandonment of the goals of the violence. What we are witnessing, as Daniel Pipes has made clear, is a change of policy, not a change of heart. Some radicals think that more subtle means are called for if their goal of world hegemony is to be achieved.

Mawdudi and Nursi were critical of traditional Islambasically aiming to eliminate from Islam everything through which Islamic teaching had been filtered since the time of Muhammad. Philosophy, literature, the arts, mysticism and especially time-honoured customs and cultural mores were all condemned as syncretistic and impure adulteration of the Islamic faith, distracting Muslims from the Divine to the mundane. [Nowhere does Said Nursi say that Islamic tradition and contribution of Muslims throughout the Muslim history should be removed in a puritanical fashion. Nursi more than once refers to Imam Al-Ghazzali (d. 1111), Abi ibn Abu Talib (d. 661), Abd al-Qadr Jilani (d. 1166) as his teachers. His theological writings are highly philosophical and somewhat mystical. It could be even said that he gives a unique and original synthesis of Islamic theology, philosophy and mysticism. The fact that his theological writings add up to 6,000 pages is a refutation of the allegation of Puritanism. Puritanical Muslims such as Wahhabis for example simply list articles of creed without any philosophical discourse.] According to Mawdudi, politics was the only legitimate vehicle for the manifestation of Islamic revelation, and the sole means of the expression of Islamic spirituality a position that correlated piety with political activity, the cleansing of the soul with political freedom, and salvation with Utopia.

Criticism by Nursis followers of Mawdudis Jamaat-i-Islamis failure to spearhead Islamists drive to power, despite its considerable organisational strength, highlights, I suggest the ambiguity inherent in the teaching of Said Nursi, and pinpoints the reasons for Nursis espousing of more subtlety in achieving his declared goal of Islamic supremacy.

The co-operation and dialogue between Muslims and Christians for which Nursi appeals has as its goal the dominance of Islam over Christianitywhich he hopes will eventually be transformed into a form of Islam. Nursi is quoted as saying, The West is expectant with Islam. He looks to a Christianity subordinated to Islam that will help conquer the world for Islam. [Nursi never used the word West in his writings. He usually uses the word Europe. In around 1909, a visiting head of Azhar university asks what he thinks about the future of Ottomans and the Europe to test Nursis knowledge and intellect. It is turbulent times. Nursi replies by saying The Ottomans are pregnant to a European state and Europe is pregnant to an Islamic state. They will give birth when the time comes. He said this at a time when he was lobbying Ottoman Sultan to fund the establishment of a new university in the Eastern provinces where religion and science would be taught together let alone being worried about the Islamisasation of Europe. Elsewhere he elaborates on what he means by Islamic Europe. He says that there are two Europes. One is materialistic, decadent and violent (referring to colonisation times) and the other is Muslim Europe in that it has all the good attributes that a Muslim should have such as being just, compassionate, hardworking, giving importance to knowledge etc. He makes the point that these attributes in Europe comes from true Christianity.] In a discussion of the verse in the Quran that says, O ye who believe, take not Jews nor Christians for your friends, Nursi has recourse to a verbal sleight of hand, claiming that the verse is not an amm (a general rule that cannot be disobeyed) but a mutlaq (a law that is controlled). I dont understand what he means by a law that is controlled but I see what he is trying to do. However, even mutlaq means without exception, absolute, under all circumstances, although it also can mean free, and unrestricted. Nursi concludes, after some argumentation along esoteric lines: [The half quoted verse is 5:51. The key word in this verse is awliya, which was mistranslated as friends above. It more specifically means protectors, allies as Yusuf Ali and Muhammad Asad have preferred to translate it respectively. This verse is qualified by the Quran itself in 60:8-9 where the prohibition is only confined to those who are hostile

to Muslims. Nevertheless, 5:51 is often quoted by Muslims who are against interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians (or Jews). The purpose of Nursis long analysis is to argue that this verse is not a barrier in establishing good relations between Muslims and Christians. This is a very significant and courageous position to take at a time when European Colonisation of the Muslim world was at its hay-day and the ensuing suffering endured by Muslims at the hands of Europeans (interpreted at the time as Christians).] Therefore the quranic prohibition is concerning not Jews and Christians themselves, but it concerns the religion of Christianity and Judaism One can be beloved not because of ones essence but because of ones attributes and profession.

Christians or Jews, it seems, may be befriended by Muslims but only despite their Christian or Jewish faiththeir essence, to use Nursis termwhich remains haram, or interdicted and unlawful by quranic lawand therefore sinful. [The argument here, even though misquoted, addresses those Muslims who may not like Christians because they are Christians. Said Nursi separates attributes and beliefs of a person to his or her zhat (person). He does this when discussing the beliefs and practices of Muslims as well. His main argument is that a person may have some undesirable attributes to ones subjective perspective, but at the same time the same person may hold many good attributes and above all he is a human, an honoured creation of God, hence should be loved for Gods sake if nothing else. Just as a boat with 9 innocent people but 1 criminal cannot be sunk, a person with 1 undesirable (to ones subjective perspective) attribute but 9 good attributes cannot be deemed as a bad person.] [Nursi gives a striking example to demonstrate that not only Muslims and Christians can be friends but also a Muslim can actually love a Christian. After mentioning the allowance in Islamic law for a Muslim man to marry a Christian or Jewish woman, he asks will you not love the wife you are married to?] Clearly such Jews and Christians who uncritically accept this patronising and humiliating concession are abandoning their identity in their quest for friendship, and accepting

monologue for dialogue. They are selling their patrimony, like Esau, for a mess of pottage.

[In all of activities that Affinity and for that matter AIS have conducted in Australia, there have been no monologues. All activities are either actual dialogues where each faith tradition represents their perspective or there is a partnership arrangement in place (a dialogue of cooperation). For example, we have visited Churches during Christmas and Easter Mass, Synagogues during Hanukah and Sukkot and Churches and Synagogues have visited our Mosques. We have had dialogue meetings at home and in large halls. We have given information seminars on Islam at Catholic and Uniting Church schools and other Universities, but on all occasions as a result of invitations of the parties involved. Stenhouse would do well if he at least attended to one of these dialogue events himself so that he can see what is really happening on the ground.]

If there can be no friendship between Islam and Christianity, or between Islam and Judaism, the pragmatism and opportunism inherent in Nursis outreach to Christians and Jews is evident. It is also evident in Mehmet Ozalps rather brazen questioning whether Cardinal Pell differentiates between a religion in theory and religion as understood, experienced and practiced [sic] by its followers. If there is a dark side, he adds, begging the question, it belongs to the human being, not to Islam. But there is a dark side (according to Nursis interpretation of Quran 5, 51) that resides not necessarily in Christians and Jews, but certainly in Christianity and Judaism. [This conclusion is no longer valid based on the previous response. Mehmet Ozalp took great risk for the possibility of criticism from Muslim community to interview Cardinal Pell when the controversy broke out over his public comments about linking Islam to communism. The purpose of this interview was to enable Cardinal Pell to elaborate his views to the Muslim community so that the delicate bridges built were not damaged permanently. The interview did contribute greatly to the restoration and further development of Catholic-Muslim relations.]

No hint of this belief in the dark side of Judaism and Christianity seems to emerge from the Abrahamic Conferences, or the numerous contacts between the AIS and Affinity and organisations such as universities, police or immigration departments, multicultural departments, Christian and Jewish schools, churches and synagogues, youth groups and other organisations. Nor does it peep out of the text of Nursi supporters like Thomas Michel, SJ, a native of St Louis who belongs to the Indonesian Jesuit Province and is Secretary for Interreligious Dialogue for the Jesuits in Rome.

When asked if it were permissible for non-Muslims to serve in the (Turkish) army, Nursi replied that there was no shame in getting help from women, children or gypsies against an enemy, so (a fortiori) (with greater reason or more convincing force used in drawing a conclusion that is inferred to be even more certain than another) non-Muslims could be used. Also, he goes on, historically, janissaries (Christian boys handed over annually as tribute by subject nations, forcibly converted and drafted into Ottoman service) proved of benefit in military service. And (a final reason) if only Muslims fight in the army this would cause a decrease in the Muslims wealth and population. [There is no reference to this in the writings of Said Nursi that is in circulation today. Bulk of his lifetime works is in post 1925. Around 1919 to 1021 Said Nursi went through a spiritual transformation. He calls the time prior to this the Old Said and the transformed one as the New Said. The Old Said is characterised by social and political involvement. The New Said on the other hand was more spiritual and preferring solitude of the old age. This particular quotation can only be as part of the debate in the context of a very difficult time for the Ottomans who were fighting wars at many fronts prior to WWI. Ottoman Empire had Islamic legal system in which non-Muslims were exempted from the army service in lue of a payment of a special tax. They had a special citizenship category dzimmi (protected citizens) much like Permanent Resident category in Australia. Along with a complex millet (nation) system, Ottomans were able to display a sophisticated pluralistic society that peacefully lasted for six centuries.]

On November 20 and 25, 2003, four suicide bombings occurred in Istanbul, killing more than sixty people. First two synagogues were attacked, then five days later the British consulate and the Istanbul headquarters of the HSBC Bank. The Islamist group responsible was made up of people who belonged to various radical Kurdish Islamist groups, including Kurdish Hizbollah. Incorporated in Hizbollahs training manuals are passages from such disparate thinkers as Sayyid Qutb, Ayatollah Khomeini, and to a lesser degree, since the police crackdown in 2000, Said Nursi, the founder of the Nurcu movement in Turkey. [The facts are again not true. The 2003 bombings were committed by Syrians Loai al-Saqa and Hamid Obysi, and a Turk, Harun Ilhan. They were linked to Al-Qaeda. On February 16, 2007, Al-Saqa and Ilhan were convicted and sentenced to life in prison, as were five other Turkish men convicted of organizing the bombing. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6370117.stm)] Said Nursi is quoted by Hizbollah as teaching that The right path for my followers is the path of the people who face the greatest zulm [that is, oppression] who suffer most imprisonment and have the most martyrs. This is the community that fights for Allah. [The influence of Said Nursi in Turkey now is ubiquitous. He is universally accepted as one of the greatest Muslim scholars produced by Turkey and the Muslim world. In 2005, a secular Turkish newspaper, Sabah, published a long series on Said Nursi and Fethullah Gulen which was objective in its style. This universal acceptance renders every religious group to refer and link themselves or their religious position to Said Nursi in order to receive public legitimacy. So, if Hizbullah in Turkey sees necessary to refer itself to Said Nursi, this only shows the extent of Said Nursis acceptance in Turkey. Otherwise Hizbullah in Turkey was a marginal terrorist group with a handful of followers.] Said Nursi, who reputedly possessed all the necessary qualities of a daiyaone who preaches dawawrote a Guide for Youth in 1952 in which he praised traditional Islamic dress for women, and called for the rejection of Westernisation and secularism in Turkey. He died in March 1960 in Sanliurfa and his body was later moved (allegedly by the military) to an unknown location in Isparta.

[Advocating traditional Islamic dress for women is expected from a Muslim scholar as it is largely believed that covering certain portions of the body for both men and women (although to different degrees) is compulsory in Islam by Quranic injunction. In none of his writings Said Nursi was critical of the government or the pro-secular and pro-Western regime in Turkey. In 1952, he was arrested for the third and last time for writing the Guide for the Youth on similar allegations as before but again released on being found not guilty.] Fethullah Glen

THE PROPOSED NEW Chair of Islamic Studies at ACU Fitzroy is to be called the Fethullah Glen Chair in the Study of Islam and MuslimCatholic Relations.

Fethullah Glen was born in Erzurum in eastern Turkey in 1938, and even though he never met Said Nursi he was deeply influenced by his ideas. At the age of fifteen he took up a position as a government preacher. By the age of twenty he was teaching in a mosque in Edirne. In the 1970s he was a preacher in a mosque in Kestanepazari, near Izmir. [The choice of the words government preacher gives the impression that Gulen was working for the government directly. He was employed by Diyanet religious affairs commission in Turkey after passing qualification exams. Diyanet provides imams and other staff for the mosques in Turkey.] Like his master, Nursi, the disciples life, teachings and work are the subject of much controversy. The Nurcu Group (as followers of Said Nursi are called) that is headed by Fethullah Glen is one of a number of competing sects of the Nakshibandia dissident branch in Izmir which was rumoured to have links with the intelligence component of the political establishment. [It is unfortunate that a mere rumour is presented as fact on such a serious allegation. Please refer to previous comments about the Nakshibandi Sufism. Furthermore, Fethullah Gulen has never claimed to be a Nakshibandi himself nor did he try to establish a Sufi group. Sufi orders are quite distinct in their structure and mystical practices. Gulen with his emphasis on social activism and simple Islamic spirituality is quite different to spiritual

masters that come from Sufi orders. Having said that, Gulen has published a multi-volume book on Sufism titled Key Concepts of Sufism. Even a cursory look at this book would reveal that he outlines the general principles of Sufism (tasawwuf) as the science of Islamic spirituality where he often quotes Muslim mystics from a diversity of Sufi orders. This would be highly unlikely if he was a Nakshibandi.] One of the other splinter Nurcu groups attained prominence in the autumn of 1990 when it organised a celebration of Muhammads birthday not on the actual birthdaythe twelfth day of Rabi al-Awwal, the third Islamic month, that fell on October 2, 1990but on the day of Atatrks death, November 10, which is actually the twenty-first day of Rabi al-Akhir, the fourth Islamic month. The state prosecutor started proceedings against the group for attempting to undermine the secular foundations of the state. [Any public religious activity in Turkey is a precarious endeavour indeed and has been problematic since 1923. The kind of secularism applied in Turkey is quite different to Western understanding and application. For example, state controls Diyanet commission which is essentially a religious organisation. Public arrests and trials for simple religious activism were a common feature of the social landscape in Turkey until recently.] To some, Glen is a revered Turkish mystic and scholar interested only in education and preaching tolerance; to others he is a reclusive figure who secretly wants to reinstitute the Caliphate and establish an Islamic state in Turkey: an Islamic state that will extend from the Balkans, via Turkey, to all the Central Asiatic republics that were formerly part of the USSR, and on to China. Wendy Kristianasen, editorial director of Le Monde Diplomatiques English edition asks, Will Glen then be the new Sultan?

[This is again an example of intention reading. How does one know the intentions of people when they never articulated them while there are many extant examples otherwise? If a person holds such a significant intention, it is bound for him to slip it out in his lifetime. We dont see this in the writings or sermons of Gulen. On the contrary, he is a very old man

with multiple illnesses at present. In the book Kucuk Dunyam (My Little World) which is based on interviews on his life until 1980, he mentions that he was offered many times senior political leadership roles and he refused saying that he prefers to be a humble citizen and servant of God.] An investigative series by Turkish columnist Hikmet Cetinkaya reveals that Glen was convicted in the 1970s for Islamist activities in Turkey, and spent seven months in prison. During this decade Glen organised his followers in vakif (private foundations) and conducted clandestine summer camps in the mountains of western Turkey where children as young as primary school age were taught Islam, and taught to hate unbelievers and to become jihad fighters. The camps were protected by armed brothers and some were run in co-operation with the Suleymancilar Sufi sect, one of whose leaders was a founder of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) of the present Prime Minister, Erdogan: [Hikmet Cetinkaya writes for a marginal newspaper called Cumhuriyet, which has less than 1% of all newspaper circulation in Turkey. The perspective he represents is a very marginal view within Turkey. Gulen many times sued Hikmet Cetinkaya for defamation and Cetinkaya was ordered by secular courts to pay compensation or publish public apology in the same newspaper. The conviction in 1970 is mentioned in the book My Small World. This conviction came after a military coup in 1970 which forced the government to resign. It was followed by a crack down on all civil organisations. Gulen was arrested with many others, religious or not, under these undemocratic circumstances.] Glen has faced criminal charges several times of seeking to overthrow Turkeys established political order. The latest charges against him, made in 1999, were nullified after recent legal reforms there, according to Turkey scholars who say Glen lives in the United Statesin Pennsylvania and New Jerseyso he can be treated for a heart condition.

[Again, the latest charges came after another military intervention in 1997 that forced the coalition of Erbakan and Tansu Ciller to resign which followed another crack down on religious activism and civil institutions. Under these undemocratic circumstances, for example, Tayyib Erdogan, future Prime Minister of Turkey, was arrested and convicted for a year for merely reading a poem written by celebrated secularist Turkish poet Tevfik Fikret. Turkish legal system which curtailed human rights and democracy was reformed in the post 2002 era as part of the European Union membership endeavour spearheaded ironically by Tayyip Erdogan. This allowed charges against Gulen to be dropped on grounds of freedom of speech.] The above is one version of what occurred in 1999. According to other Turkish analysts, during the Cold War the USA benefited from the Islamist activities of Fethullah Glens organisation against the then Soviet Union, among the Muslims of the Crimea and other Muslims in adjacent regions of the Soviet Union. Following pressure from the Turkish authorities who wanted to arrest him on charges of subverting the secular state, the USA aided Glens escape from Turkey before to his trial, and permitted him to settle in Pennsylvania. Some anti-Islamist circles in Turkey also believe that Glen helped Erdogan get invited to the White House despite his Islamist background, and before he was even an MP. [Such diverse and quite opposite allegations about the same person only shows that these are based on conjectures rather than facts. Stenhouse seems to only quote marginal views and unfounded rumours rather than well respected and authentic sources in order to support his theory of Islams Trojan Horse.] Despite the fact that Glen had gone to the USA before 1999, in 2000 Bulent Aras and Omer Caha would have us believe, in yet another version, that at the time of writing, he was now retired and living in both Izmir and Istanbul in modest homes given to him by followers while continuing to write extensively. The lie was given (perhaps inadvertently) to this by Fethullah Glens own website. On November 15, 2005, it described Fethullah Glen as having been living in the US for six years because of his health problems.

[In the book, My Small World Gulen claims that he has no worldly possession/wealth. He has endowed the sizable royalties from his best selling books to educational institutions formed in Turkey and beyond. His minimal pension salary from serving at Diyanet is used to pay for the rent living in one of the rooms of the Camp site that he is staying at in Pennsylvania. He has lived in US continuously since 1997 and has not returned to Turkey as of 2008.] Other sources claim that Glen is one of the richest Turks in the world, living on a large estate in Pennsylvania and running from there his million-member organisation. The perception in political circles in Turkey is that Fethullah Glen, far from being retired, is the power behind many Islamist politicians, especially the AKP. [Again a completely unproven claim.] The occasion of Fethullah Glens being sought by Turkish authorities in 1999 was the airing on Turkish television of footage of sermons he preached to his supporters in which he revealed his aspirations for an Islamist Turkey under Sharia law:

You must move in the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centers until the conditions are ripe, they [the followers] must continue like this. If they do something prematurely, the world will crush our heads, and Muslims will suffer everywhere, like in the tragedies in Algeria, like in 1982 [in] Syria like in the yearly disasters and tragedies in Egypt. The time is not yet right. You must wait for the time when you are complete, and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it You must wait until such time as you have gotten all the state power, until you have brought to your side all the power of the constitutional institutions in Turkey Until that time, any step taken would be too earlylike breaking an egg without waiting the full 40 days for it to hatch. It would be like killing the chick inside. The work to be done is [in] confronting the world. Now, I have expressed my feelings and thoughts to you allin confidence trusting your loyalty and sensitivity to secrecy. I know that when you leave here [just] as you discard your empty juice boxes, you must discard the thoughts and feelings expressed here.

[The footage referred to here was the basis of the charges laid against Gulen in 1999 from which he was subsequently released as previously mentioned. The period from 1997 to 2000 was an undemocratic phase in the politics of Turkey with the army intervention infamously named 28 Subat (February 28th). The naming is after the declaration of hard undemocratic measures released after the National Security Council meeting held on 28th of February 1997. A few months later, the government was forced to resign. This was dubbed a postmodern coup by journalist Cengiz Candar. The extraordinary period ended in the year 2000 by the discovery of a secret army document now infamously known as The Andic. This document was authored by now retired major general Cevic Bir who commanded the 1993 UN army in Somalia. The document outlines in detail the psychological measures to effect public opinion and detailed action plan to crack down on civil organisations and individuals and to discredit them in public by linking them to the separatist terrorist group PKK or to political Islamism. All of this was to be done by supplying false information to the media and sometimes coercing the media to get them publish the material. An attempt at the life of the President of Human Rights Association, Akin Birdal was made soon after his public linking to PKK. Birdals name was mentioned in the document and the manner in which he was to be linked to PKK. The tape attributed to Gulen is the product of a similar smear campaign during this time. The tape was found to be a severely edited and tampered version from a few original tapes to give the impression that Gulen was secretly undermining the state.] In another sermon, he said:

The philosophy of our service is that we open a house somewhere and, with the patience of a spider, we lay our web, to wait for people to get caught in the web; and we teach those who do. We dont lay the web to eat or consume them, but to show them the way to their resurrection, to blow life into their dead bodies and souls, to give them a life.

By the time this was aired, Glen had already left for the USA, supposedly for health reasons. A year later, in 2000, he was indicted in absentia for attempting to change

Turkeys system of government and for forming an illegal organisation with the purpose of establishing an Islamist state. It was from that point that he built his international Islamist community. The indictment was eventually dropped by the Erdogan Islamist government, whose connections with Glen have been noted. [The charges were dropped by the court system not the Erdogan government. Gulens relationship with the Turkish state and governments has been a good relationship. Since 1994, he has met with Turkeys President Suleyman Demirel, two consecutive prime ministers who were from different political lines, the leaders of many parties, and important businessmen as part of a push for dialogue between members the diverse Turkish society in order to advocate a more tolerant society. He regularly gave interviews to the country's leading media outlets. In 1997, Turkey's President Suleyman Demirel accepted an award from Journalists and Writers Foundation where Gulen is the honorary president. Gulen also met with Bulent Ecevit, the long-time leader of Turkey's socialist party and the former prime minister, after which Ecevit reported that their meeting involved a "conversation that focused entirely on religion, philosophy and spirituality. The meeting had no political dimensions. He said I found Gulen to be a sincere and candid person. Our meeting was useful." These examples show that Gulen was apolitical and did not see himself inclined to any political persuasion.] CONCERN IN TURKISH ARMY circles at the infiltration of the state bureaucracy and mosques by another Nurcu offshoot calling itself Turkish Hizbollah, which is modelled on its Khomeini-inspired Lebanese namesake, and at the hosting of Islamist groups by political parties for the sake of votes, and at the Prime Ministers meeting with them, cannot be dismissed out of hand as militaristic chauvinism. Changing the secular democratic constitution of a country can be effected by violence and terror or through clandestine and overt political activity and manipulation of elections.

[Refer to previous comments on Turkish Hizbullah.]

In 2005, the BBC reported that an article by Sohbat Mammadov in the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta had warned that Azerbaijan might turn into an arena for struggle between various models and movements of IslamArab, Turkish and Iranian. The article mentioned that the Nur movement founded by Said Nursi was gaining ground, and that followers of the Nur leader Fethullah Glen, whose goal was declared by Nezavisimaya to be the establishment of a single Islamic Sharia state in the region, had imported his teachings into Azerbaijan from Turkey. [Gulen does not advocate a theocratic state. He points out that most Islamic regulations concern people's private lives and that only a small portion of them concern the state and government. These latter provisions need not be enforced because religion is practiced by individuals not the state, and its requirements should not be imposed on anyone. (Fethullah Gulen,Fasildan Fasila 1 (Izmir: Nil Yayinevi, 1995), p. 223.) He says that democracy is the best system of governance invented by humans to date. But he says that it should evolve to ensure happiness of humanity in this world and the next. (http://fethullahgulenconference.org/houston/proceedings/MCetin.pdf)] Nezavisimaya Gazeta went on to say that Nurwhich it described as a very strong and secretive organisationwas trying to counterbalance the increased activity of radical Iranian Shii organizations. Nurideology was described as preferring a peaceful assumption of power by actively promoting their people into government structures. Almost half of the Turkish business in the Azerbaijan market is concentrated, according to information from the Baku mass media, in the hands of the Fethullah Glen movement. [What some may call as infiltration is an avocation of Muslims positively dealing with modernity by taking part in normal human life as members of society and at the same time as believers in God. Muslims unable to deal with modernity and modern life is one of the key reasons for terrorism conducted by some Muslims according to Karen Armstrong in her book Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.] Retired Turkish General Guven Erkaya holds a similar view:

I see Fetullah Glen, he wrote, as a great danger, for [the] Turkish Republic when we

consider[the] future. He said that [the] Glen [organisation] advanced [by] establishing its own political ideology, adding that their goal for the coming five years is to establish 50 universities and 500 private schools. What is the source of this money?

[Gulen takes particular care not to antagonize the army. In fact, he tries hard to persuade the military leadership that his activities do not challenge the status quo and should not be regarded as irtija (reactionary) (a code word for Islamist). For example, he says that, if need be, he would ask to turn over his community's schools to the state. ( Milliyet, December 30, 1997) The source of the money are donations from businessmen around Turkey who believe in the good work that is being done by the Gulen movement.] More recently, according to a report in the Turkish daily Milliyet, the administration of Fethullah Glens Turkish school in St Petersburg had been taken over by Russian authorities allegedly because of its association with the Nur sect of which Fethullah Glen is the leader. [Russian translations of Nursis books have been recently banned in Russia. The ban is because Said Nursi speaks quite strongly against communism and the old Soviet Union because of its deliberate and global spread of disbelief in God. It is likely that his books were found in this school. Nevertheless, this is hardly an evidence against either Nursi nor Gulen but the undemocratic nature of Russian authorities. See http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=981] [According to Russian (tatar) historian Damir Ishakov, Fethullah Glen is the moderate face of Islam and is always in favor of peace. Turkish society opted for conciliation and Islam, which strictly supports peace, instead of following a radical path. And Fethullah Glen, who has great popularity in Turkey, represents Islam, which is moderate in essence. Although Turkey went through very troubled times in terms of religious freedom for decades, it never gravitated toward a radical path, unlike Saudi Arabia or other well-off Gulf countries. Turkish Islam has always represented the religion in a more moderate and correct manner. And today Glens understanding has greatly helped Turkeys society reconcile with modern

values. And this stance is against Wahhabism,.. I have read most of his books. Im 100 percent positive that Glen would never support the establishment of an Islamic state. His thoughts help to eradicate the fundamentalist and extremist streams.] For reasons of space we have said nothing of the misrepresentations and half-truths to be found in much of the literature emanating from the Fethullah Glen movement. Or of the duplicity that occasionally surfaces when organisations or individuals in debt to the movement promote it without declaring their special interest. [Once again, there is absolutely no evidence of this. It is quite easy to make unfounded statements without evidence.] Probably the leading Nakshibendi master of modern times is not Fethullah Glen, but Shaykh Mehmed Zahid Kotku (died 1980). He was part of the lower echelons of the Turkish General Directorate of Religious Affairs and seems to have been tolerated by the secular authorities, who were unaware of his many-sided Islamist strategies. In addition to his official duties, he organised Islamic discussion groups throughout Turkey, set up businesses, published a newspaper, and formed the first Islamic political party, the National Order Party. When this was dissolved by order of the Turkish Supreme Court it was reborn as the National Salvation Party. According to Esat Cosan, his son-in-law and successor, Kotku was instrumental in the selection of Necmettin Erbakan as its leader. Erbakan was to become Turkeys first Islamist Prime Minister (1996-97).

[As mentioned previously, Gulen is not a Nakshebendi. The late Mehmet Zahid Kotku was the leader of a particular branch of a Nakshebendi Sufi order.] From Kotkus collected SermonsCihad (that is, jihad) and Mminin Vasiflari (qualities of the believer)we learn that being religious for a Nakshi-bendi Sufi means being ready for jihad. Factories, he said, are not just distributors of consumer goods but places where this combat is to be waged. To do this requires that one learn worldly sciences like arts and commerce. The control thus achieved will be a means of gaining freedom for Muslims.

Believers should forgo consumption and encourage national identity. Every Turkish adult wears a watch. This means, he said, that we are giving away 4 billion liras to the Swiss. We should free ourselves from economic slavery to foreigners. Muslims should strive to reach the highest positions in social and political institutions in their country and establish control over the society.

[What is wrong with Turks building their own financial freedom? Both the secular and conservative Turkish society have talked about Industrialisation and a progressive economy. This is no different to the Australian government emphasising to buy Australian, so the money stays in Australia.] Conclusion

AFTER MENTIONING Pope Benedict XVIs wish for dialogue with Muslims, Archbishop Denis Hart, on the occasion referred to at the beginning of this article, reaffirmed the importance of that dialogue for all Catholics.

Dialogue has always been of paramount concern to Catholics. Nevertheless, goodwill alone, unsupported by accurate and comprehensive knowledge of Islam, is demonstrably not enough. In fact it can fatally distort the process for all participants in the dialogue, nonMuslims and Muslims alike. The latter immediately sense when good-hearted but ignorant and incautious non-Muslims are utterly unaware of, or are not in agreement about, what is at stake, or what the rules of the game are.

However we may wish it to be otherwise, it is a kind of mind game that we are playing. The stakes are highand none of the clichs and double-talk of coffee-table ecumenism will serve us well in this struggle of wits.

In a recent article entitled Pawns in a Political Game, a senior reporter for the Australian,

Hedley Thomas, advised journalists never [to] take at face value what[theyre] led to believe by politicians and their servants; nor should they underestimate the propensity of powerful figures to score points by whipping up fear. Why pick on politicians and their servants? His points, made in the context of the much-publicised Haneef affair, are well taken. But like all truisms, they apply across the board; even, and perhaps especially, to the media themselves.

Mutatis mutandis, the Director of the Centre for ArabChristian Documentation and Research in Beirut, Father Samir Khalil Samir, SJ, issued a similar caution. He noted that Christians often suffer from:

a false understanding of the concept of tolerance. All this is an error and leads to the loss of ones own identity. Never attack in word or deed, but seek the truth and always point out error. To say only half of what one is thinking is a lie; a complicit silence. Truth cannot coexist with lies, intolerance and injustice.

One is reminded of Vladimir Sakharovs comments about US so-called intelligence organisations in the 1960s. He reportedly watched with pain and dismay as Washington, apparently believing in dtente instead of its own intelligence data pursued a complacent, confusing, naive, inconsistent and suicidal Middle Eastern policy.

Dtente figures less and less in these post-September-11 days on the lists of options for the present US administration. US intelligence-gathering is lagging behind the terrorists because reliance on spy satellites, so-called smart weapons and assorted electronic gadgetry has replaced the irreplaceable spy on the ground. The dangerous complacent, confusing, naive, inconsistent and suicidal Middle Eastern policy deplored by Sakharov, on the other hand, has continued until now. In fact it has built up a terrifying head of steam especially under the Republican presidency of George W. Bush. This is borne out by daily news bulletins from Islamist flash-points across the globe.

A by-product of this toxic concoction of political correctness, fear and ignorance is the insistence by Western pundits and politicians that Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion; Muslims who are unfaithful to the true meaning of the Quran, we are constantly being reminded, are the problem. This has to be seen in conjunction with strategies like that of the Muslim Brothers that emerged recently during the on-going hearing in Dallas, Texas, against the Holy Land Foundation, an alleged Hamas front. A secret document (Exhibit No. 003-0085) outlined a full-blown conspiracy by the major Muslim groups in Americaall of which are considered mainstream by the media:

The Ikwhan [sic!] must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging their miserable house by the hands of the believers, so that it is eliminated and Allahs religion is made victorious over all religions.

Organisations included in the scope of the Brotherhoods strategic plan include: Islamic schools, kindergartens, womens organisations, Islamic banking, publishing and media organisations, interfaith dialogue groups, Islamic courts, political action groups, research centres, a training organisation for female preachers, an association of Muslim lawyers, and many others.

A similar criticism of Western naivety and suicidal complacence was articulated recently by Salim Mansur, a columnist in the Toronto Sun. Mansur is a Muslim and the relevance of his insight is not confined to Canada. He describes what he calls the appeasement mentality of the mainstream liberal-left media, and of politicians trolling for ethnic votes and of bureaucrats running public institutions in the West. He quotes Theodore Dalrymple, a retired physician and prolific writer, who reported in New Yorks City Journal:

In an effort to ensure that no Muslim doctors ever again try to bomb Glasgow Airport, bureaucrats at Glasgows public hospitals have decreed that henceforth no staff may eat lunch at their desks or in their offices during the holy month of Ramadan, so that fasting

Muslims shall not be offended by the sight or smell of their food. Vending machines will also disappear from the premises during that period.

[What does respect for another faith have to do with befriending an enemy? It is astounding that Stenhouse sees all Muslims as potential terrorists. We must remember that terrorism is a problem to both Muslims and non-Muslims. In a study by a Belgian Security expert, Prof. Rik Colsaet, there were 175,000 people who died due to terrorist activities since 1990 and only 4,000 of these were non-Muslims. So terrorism is an enemy of all especially Muslims themselves. (Zaman newspaper Wednesday July 27, 2005)] Imagine the uproar, comments Mansur, that would greet any suggestion that the mainstream liberal-left media, in appearance at least, is treasonously on side with the newest enemies of freedom and democracy.

In the light of the above, is one being over-cautious in recommending prudence on the part of Catholic and other Christian, Jewish and non-Islamic bodies generally, when they are invited to give moral support to, and to engage formally and publicly in dialogue with, Nakshibendi Sufi groups promoting the teachings of Said Nursi and his disciple Fethullah Glen? [Again Nursi was not a Naqshibandi and Gulen is not a disciple of Nursi. Gulen was inspired by Nursi and his works are very different to Nursis.] Prudence is especially called for if it be a question of a Catholic institutions establishing a university chair with unspecified knowledge of and financial support from a group that is ex professo dedicated to promoting an Islamist ideology. Efforts to identify the source and amount of funding the proposed Fethullah Glen Chair will receive have been stonewalled, at the time of writing, by the ACU authorities. [As far as we know, officials from the ACU have examined the works of Nursi and Gulen. A representative has also visited Gulen in the USA on behalf of the ACU prior to organising

this chair. A serious institution like ACU must have done their homework in allowing this Chair to be setup.] Fr Paul Stenhouse MSC is the Editor of Annals Australasia. A footnoted version of this article is available from the Quadrant office. [Regrettably, the only thing that can be concluded about this article is that its arguments are feeble, confused and based on rumours and allegations without confirmed sources and sound evidence. It should be dismissed on these grounds. It is nothing but a disservice to interfaith dialogue in Australia. Stenhouses comments are a reflection of his own paranoia, toiled with Islamaphobic gestures that would appease like minded.]