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Persian philosopher Al-Ghazali speaks of the Tree of Knowledge, and he says the fruits
of that tree are the actions. There is no knowledge without good actions. And I think
that is very well exemplified in the Hizmet Movement.
I am Tamara Albertini, a professor of Islamic philosophy and Renaissance philosophy at the
University of Hawaii. I grew up in Tunisia. That's something I always like to mention
when it comes to my profession, because it explains the background I have that I can
tap into when I do my research on Islam. While I was in Tunisia, I went to Tunisian schools,
which meant learning Arabic language, attending Qur'anic classes, and that, of course, is
a wonderful background to have to study Islam, not just in the past, but also in the present.
When it wasn't called Hizmet yet, it was referred to as the Gülen Movement. I was at an airport
in Germany. I saw a special issue of der Spiegel, famous German magazine, had dedicated to Fethullah
Gülen, and I was very intrigued that there would be a whole magazine about this person.
So I bought it and all the way back to Hawaii I read through it, and that's when I, for
the first time, got a sense of this extraordinary movement that grew, I would say, exponentially
within a few years. And then I found out about the very good work that the group that's called
Hizmet today does.
After I went to Turkey and traveled with somebody from Hizmet and got to meet many more people--I
wouldn't say members. People always think Hizmet is an organization, with memberships
and dues and lists. I don't think that is the case. My understanding is that it's really
about local networking, people just getting together for a project. And I've seen many
of the results of those ideas, that just started off, probably, with a little discussion around
a cup of tea or a cup of coffee. So the results are schools, great charity works.. So I have
an excellent opinion about Hizmet.
About Mr. Gülen. You see, I know that there are so many conflicted views about him. And
so my position is rather neutral at this point. It is that he's so withdrawn. You see, one
is used in the West, I would say, especially the United States, of founders or leaders
being really much more active in the media world, representing themselves. That's not
happening with Mr. Gülen. And so, while I'm sure one has to respect his wishes, it is
unusual to have someone be really present through his absence.
What happens with Hizmet is that it has really kind of the franchise model. It's not just
something that is designed for Turkey only, the country of origin. It's not just something
that can work only in an Islamic setting. And I think that is remarkable. For a young
organization like Hizmet to understand so early that it has to adapt to whatever new
settings, you know, projects that are being built, that is extraordinary. I'm not sure
that there are a lot of other organizations that can say that to their credit.
Civil society is, of course, a big theme in a Western setting. And I remember that publications
around twenty years ago, we're talking about the 1990s, would regularly point out that
Islamic world doesn't have a notion of civil society, and that there is nothing really
in place to help in that respect. Of course, that's exaggerated as a position, because
many Western analysts and even scholars are not always aware of the traditional ways in
which Muslims always had some networking in place. If you think about any region that
was once part of the Ottoman Empire, there is a notion of the mahalla, which is the neighborhood.
And there was always somebody in charge of a neighborhood. There was kind of like a leading
male figure for anything that affected men, and there was always a leading female figure
for anything that affected women. So these things were in place. Now, every society ends
up modernizing and changing, and so maybe Hizmet is really trying to give the Islamic
world a new model. It is Western-inspired to a certain extent, but it's not, you know,
it's not inspired in such a way that it looks like an import. That would make it fail. So
I think there is, there are healthy ingredients of both worlds, Islamic and Western.
Charity. I think it's just fantastic to have an Islamic organization now rush to the rescue
of people. Until now, it was Caritas, the Catholic charity organization. Of course,
the Red Cross, or the Green Crescent, but it certainly is good to have one more major
organization, well-funded organization, that can also go to places like Haiti and many
other emergency situations in the world.
Of course, you could think of doing charity without any religious background, or religious
basis. In the case of Hizmet, there is both. And I think that's perfectly all right. It's
perfectly all right for an organization to stand to the faith that it lives by, and also
clarify that that faith is also inspiring the good works. You see, like in many great
world religions, in Islam, too, you can't be a good Muslim unless you are also good
through your actions. You can't be just good through abiding by whatever rituals are expected
of you, so five daily prayers and all of that. So you have to have also the fruits of knowledge.
Persian philosopher Al-Ghazali speaks of the Tree of Knowledge, and he says the fruits
of that tree are the actions. There is no knowledge without good actions. And I think
that is very well exemplified in the Hizmet Movement.
Somewhere in an Anatolian village, and say, “We have to take care of our irrigation
problem.” That of course is vital to that community, but no one will find out about
it. Same thing with the schools. It serves a local community, but once you have something
like Hizmet go international, on a large scale, I think that is the best possible visibility,
and I would say not just for Hizmet, but really for Islam. It really brings, I shall say,
it brings back the original spirit of Islamic charity.
I like that education becomes available to Muslims and non-Muslims. I've seen students
from Indonesia and, I think, Georgia, when I was visiting one high school that was sponsored
by Hizmet in Turkey. I like the emphasis on sciences, mathematics, technology, because
that obviously is something that we all depend on and will depend evermore in the future.
With my husband, we traveled to Central Asia on several occasions. And I remember a visit
in the late 90s, in Tashkent. Friends of ours, we became friends with a family there, told
us proudly that they had sent their two sons to a Turkish high school that was brand new,
and that had this incredible emphasis on mathematics and sciences and English, and computers were
available for the students. My husband and I were intrigued. We said, “Oh, interesting.
Turkey is building schools in Central Asia.” But of course, after we understood, it wasn't
Turkey in the sense of Turkish government. This was the Hizmet Movement, as it is called
today. I saw that it did really great things in Tashkent.
I've seen that Hizmet invites rabbis and pastors and priests and Hindu and Buddhist representatives
to its events, and I think that's really beautiful. What I haven't seen is events of that nature
happen in Turkey or any other Islamic country. I think there is still a lot of room there
to be explored. I wish that there could be one day a major mosque in Istanbul. Let's
think very ambitious. Blue Mosque. And that the Blue Mosque would be a place to welcome
priests and pastors from various religions, Buddhists, Hindus, Rabbis. I think the day
that happens, then we'll be looking at an Islamic world that has already transformed
itself.
I think interfaith dialog is one thing among others. Sometimes when one says “interfaith
dialog,” it's almost like setting up soccer teams to play. Let's have a Muslim, let's
have a Jew, let's have a Christian, let's have a dialog, or trialog.
It's hard to find fault with Hizmet's approach to charity. Hizmet doesn't ask, what religion
are you? Hizmet does not ask what, are you friendly to our ideas of politics, of civil
rights? Hizmet looks at troubled spots and Hizmet provides.