The Gulen Movement-Inspired Schools Effect: Muslims and Christians connect for peace

Fountain Magazine held a conference recently, titled "Peacebuilding Through Education", in New York in cooperation with the Peace Islands Institute. Some institutions were honored with the best practice award, as they have served the peacebuilding under difficult conditions. Among the honorees was The Filipino–Turkish Tolerance School (FTTS), Zamboanga, The Philippines. Below is an article about this school serve peacebuilding. The article also includes a story about some Kurdish youth in South Eastern Turkey.

Filipino-Turkish Tolerance School

By Suat Erguvan for Silent Heroes, Invisible Bridge

Most children of the picturesque city of Zamboanga in the Philippines' troubled south are groomed to be cautious in making friends believing in a different religion.

Zamboanga Peninsula, the sixth most populous region and the third geographically largest in the Philippines, is home to 70 percent Christians and 30 percent Buddhist and Muslim people.

The peninsula has been in the headlines for Moro Islamic Liberation Front's militancy against security agencies. The Muslim outfit brands its actions as 'freedom struggle' which has taken heavy toll on civilian lives over the past two decades.

The Christian and Muslim communities have adapted to live in a tense equilibrium, with fire fights and bomb blasts claiming precious lives on one hand, and soaring number of unconstitutional disappearances on the other.

Wherever the two enraged communities live side by side, traffic on the roads dividing them becomes litmus test for peace or unrest in the vicinity.

While compatriot tourists visit the country's southern peninsula exercising caution, some foreigners are seen calmly working in a Zamboanga school.

Since 1997, Turk educationists are sowing the seeds of tolerance and co-existence through the Filipino-Turkish Tolerance High School located in the heart strife-torn region.

With humble beginning of 89 students, the institution today has boarding and teaching facilities for over 1,000 students. The school gets equal attention of Christian and Muslims parents and their offsprings.

"It also has one of the best dormitories not only in Zamboanga, but in Mindanao. The Filipino-Turkish Tolerance School, considered one of the best in the region, has produced a number of students that topped in many international competitions and were even cited for their excellent educational skills," noted The Mindanao Examiner newspaper in one of its story in 2007.

Encouraged by the vision of a Turkish Muslim scholar, M. Fethullah Gülen, over 1,500 non-governmental Turkish educational institutions have spread to almost 115 countries worldwide.

The schools, also working in collaboration with local businessmen, strive to provide students with a learning environment to "make them acquire solid competencies in critical thinking, creative problem solving, consensus building, informed decision making and technical literacy."

Fr. Thomas Michel, Ph.D, Secretary General of Interfaith Dialogue Council in Rome, Italy, visited the Turkish tolerance schools in 1995, in Zamboanga.

"The Turkish and Filipino staff's proud claim was a stunning reality for me as Muslims and Christian students were getting education with true spirit of a culture of dialogue and tolerance," Fr. Michel shared these remarks with gatherings around the world.

He noted that children befriended their class fellows regardless of religious divides, thus their parents not only started communicating with each other but also eventually cooperate for children and community's future both.

During a visit to Turkey in September 2009, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroy expressed need for increase in the number of Turkish schools to help "strengthen mutual relations". She vowed to learn from Turkey's experience "in helping the people of different faiths in our nation to accept one another."

Last October, Philippines' Ambassador to Turkey Pedro Chan said his country wanted to open honorary consulates in Turkey's northern province of Samsun and northwestern province of Bursa.

The Philippines is not an exception in strengthening bilateral relations with Turkey after fruitful contribution of schools. Many African nations saw following the Turkish embassy years after the voluntary Turkish schools made their mark.

Recollecting his experiences in the Philippines, Ahmet Yamakoglu, former Principal of the Phillipines-Turkish Tolerance School, recalls a meeting of Kayseri philanthropist businessmen with Governor of Zamboanga Mrs Maria Clara Lobregat.

Ahmet quotes the governor as saying, "You have changed the misconceptions formed in our minds owing to the unfortunate clashes between the Muslims and Christians, and you made us love Muslims and Islam."

On occasion of the Philippines National Day, Ahmet recollects, "When our students were parading before her, she stood up and announced to the public: And now my new children are passing out before us!"

This success did not come in platter for the Turkish educationists. Long after submitting papers for opening schools in Manila, the Turks received no results owing to the deep-seated suspicions of the central government about Muslims.

Only in 2001, the final decision for opening the school was passed; however then slow-moving bureaucracy still had question marks about presence of Muslims educationists in the conflict zone. Until Mrs Maria assigned her parliamentarian son Celso Lobregat to facilitate her Turkish friends with the processes, hopes were dim.

Celso Lobregat told his politician colleagues, "We fought with Muslims for many years in the Mindanao region. There might have been no bloodshed in the south if we had them many years ago."

Thus, the Turkish NGO got permission in style to open more branches back then.

Before dying Mrs Maria bequeathed her wish to Celso Lobregat to be the beneficiary of the Turkish schools in the Philippines. Lobregat became the Governor of Zamboanga and Turkish school quietly spread their message of co-existence and tolerance.

Such experiences have borne fruit in Turkey as well where Kurdish militants are attacking civilian and security personnel indiscriminately, alleged at the behest of external factors.

Abdullah Aymaz, a Turkish educationist, recalls a touching incident involving two Kurdish-speaking students who went on rampage in school 15 days after enrolling and lodging in the school.

Realising sensitive nature of the region, the principal treated the students with affection.

One of the students, whose name has been kept anonymous, is quoted as saying: "We were told so many negative things about you that we hated you and we came to burn the school, but we couldn't."

In another incident, a student from Cizre - a Turkish town near the Syrian border - wrote to the principal, "Until recently, I used to see Turks as our sworn enemies but now I loved you all. If you had come here earlier, terrorism might not have been here." The youngster regretted about his uncle who has adopted Kurdish guerilla lifestyle in the mountains.

The bar of expectations from the Turkish schools' peacebuilding role is rising world over as many Muslim and non-Muslim geographies, too, long for tranquility and peaceful coexistence.


Published on Silent Heroes, 04 October 2012, Thursday

Related Acticles:
New York conference highlights Turkish schools' contribution to world peace
Fethullah Gulen's message to the conference entitled "Peacebuilding through Education"
Fethullah Gulen schools or Gulen-inspired schools?

Video Source:
http://www.youtube.com/gulenmovement
http://www.youtube.com/gulen4worldpeace

There is so much to write about the Fethullah Gulen and Gulen Movement

Dr. Karen Fontenot* speaking at the dinner reception of the conference Mapping the Gülen Movement: A Multidimensional Approach in Amsterdam:

"This was one of the most informative and provocative and useful conferences on the issue I have been to up to date. I've been involved in the movement since 2005, and I'm fortunate to live with my coauthor, my husband Dr. Michael Fontenot, and we were asked to present a paper at that conference in 2005 at Rice University. After we were finished, I told Mike: 'This was such an interesting topic, it's a shame there is nothing more to write about.' Well five years ago, we were just finding out we just hit the surface.

There is so much to write about the [Gulen] Hizmet Movement; and in part I think it's because it's such a dynamic movement. It's a movement that is not static, it doesn't stay still, and as the panelists discussed today, it is a movement that is composed of individuals.

I think that Dr. Ebaugh had a very good point, and I will follow up on that, when she said that members of the Hizmet Movement (which I consider myself one as Fr. Tomas Michel -I agree with him; I am not a Muslim and I am not a Turk, but I believe I am a member of the Hizmet Movement, she said all the members seem to share something in common, you cold recognize them. I think we have to tribute that to Fethullah Gulen, because he is the one saw need, who communicated the vision, who has done it so eloquently, and also who has provided a place for every single member. He is also the one who has allowed the individuals to feel appreciated in every single effort, no matter what you do. Fr. Tomas Michel points out often that the people who greet us at the airport are serving a very important function, the people who contribute money are serving a very important function, and the women who provide the food for iftar dinners are often times unseen and unrecognized, they are providing a very important Hizmet. Although it is a vertical communication, certainly there is no one person that is a leader; there is somebody who has the vision and who has been able to inspire and transform the movement, we need to say that.

To conclude, I'll give a personal account: A few weeks ago, somebody that I work with on the [Gulen] schools, he looked me and said 'you'd make a very good Muslim wife', and I was immensely flattered; I came home and told my husband. But so flattered because I know these women, I worked with these women and they are among the most accomplished, intelligent, educated, hard-working women, I admire them so much. I don't know how they find those hours in a day and I asked one 'you're a professor, you're writing, you take care of the family, how do you do it?' and she said "Well, Fethullah Gulen is writing books and he doesn't sleep very much, so why should I?" So I conclude on that note. Thank you very much."

* Dr. Karen Fontenot is Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Southeastern Louisiana University and professor of communication. Before entering academia she worked as a newspaper reporter and magazine writer and editor. She received her Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Louisiana State University and her master's degree in journalism from the Manship School of Journalism at LSU. Her areas of expertise are cross-cultural communication, organizational communication, and interpersonal communication. She has published widely in these areas, and is the author or co-author of more than sixty articles and conference papers. She is particularly interested in the impact and influence that culture and religion have on human behavior.

Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lSMf_s6zBE