Taraf

Earlier this year a new newspaper was started in Istanbul called Taraf, a liberal daily that has been and continues to be at the forefront of some very tumultuous political happenings here in Turkey. "Taraf" literally means "side" as in "taking sides". The Turkish Daily News ran a front-page feature about them earlier this week, complete with a clever Samuel Beckett allusion. Basically a bunch of people from a Marxist Turkish daily, Evrensel, and a left-leaning news magazine, Nokta, left to create this newspaper, and have been courageously pushing the boundaries of journalistic freedom here for the last four months. For example, they published military documents revealing the potential failure of officials to prepare for an attack on the Dağlıca army base that resulted in the deaths of 13 soldiers and the kidnapping of an additional 8.

Taraf even has its own Facebook group (which for some reason I can't join, but how many daily papers can say that in the first place?) The group links to other youth and radical social change organizations, so even if you can't understand everything there, that's worth checking out as well. A news editor is quoted at the end of the feature as saying "A raid on our offices may be legally legitimate, but it doesn't mean we can't object to the fact that such things are happening in a democratic country." I find the fact that liberal media outlets in any coutnry are challenging not just restrictions on the freedom of speech but the legality of the regulations themselves to be encouraging. Even more so in Turkey, where the lack of public discourse about such issues can at times be maddening.

The Gülenist Movement

Often, when peace activists discuss the traditions of non-violent thought in Western religions, they are eager to cite Jesus' Sermon on the Mount or Rabbi Hillel's patience and love of peace, but more vague about Islamic sources. One Muslim theologian and scholar who contributes to peace in a meaningful way is Fethullah Gülen. I have stumbled across his name several times this year, first in The Economist and more recently in a Turkish Daily News article discussing a conference on the "Kurdish Question".

The TDN article refers to a conference in Abant supported by the Journalists and Writers Foundation, a group started by Gülen in 1994 to "promote dialoge and tolerance among all strata of society." At a time when having constructive dialogue around issues involving terrorism is something that most countries struggle with mightily, having created a group that can bring together a conference like this is quite an accomplishment. Gülen is probably the most important voice in the public sphere right now for maintaining the image of Turkey as a moderate nation of Muslims that can play a unique and constructive role in inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue. He describes those who resort to violence as "intellectually bankrupt" and Democracy as "the only viable political system, and people should strive to modernize and consolidate democratic institutions in order to build a society where individual rights and freedoms are respected and protected, where equal opportunity for all is more than a dream." This is the kind of rhetoric the next president should seize on and emphasize in building bridges with the Islamic world. When I get to the NSP, I hope to foster a connection with his organization as well.

So why does he remain relatively obscure to those of us living in the US? The main reason is that, in addition to all the things listed above, he can also be accurately described as a Muslim evangelist. The introduction to his biography of Muhammad has sections like "Muhammad as the most beloved of hearts" and "Mhammad describes the meaning of creation". However much emphasis he might place on peace and inter-cultural dialogue, it is hard to picture Americans, especially in this day and age, responding positively to such one-sided praise. The genuine love and fervor that he conveys are uplifting and inspiring, but to my mind they over-emphasize the singularness of Muhammad. I prefer to understand the theological aspects of Islam through the lense of Mevlana Rumi, but the contemporary geo-political and cultural issues of the religion receive a sizable boost from the teachings of Fethullah Bey.