Taipei, Dec. 12 (CNA)
Supporters of a civic movement inspired by Fethullah Gulen, one of the most
important Muslim figures in Turkey, will not cease their efforts to build
schools as long as there is a demand for such service around the world,
according to a Turkish scholar dedicated to the movement.
The Hizmet movement places great emphasis on
education, said Sait Yavuz, a lecturer and president of the Gulen Institute at
University of Houston, in a recent interview with the CNA.
It was only in recent decades that Turkey
began allowing the establishment of private schools, Yavuz said. He said the
ban restricted the development of students with special talents.
"There are students who are promising
students, who could become great scientists, but giving them the same
curriculum is putting them into a narrow box," Yavuz said.
After the government lifted the ban on private
schools, Gulen and others, many of them business people, began working on the
idea of setting up private schools and they opened the first one in 1982,
according to Yavuz.
Although the schools had to follow a
government-set curriculum, they were able to employ dedicated teachers and thus
offered a better education than public schools, he said.
Students from the Gulen-inspired schools won
Turkey's first gold medal in the International Science Olympiads, Yavuz said.
Asked about the movement's next goal, Yavuz said
"there is no next step, because this step is not going to end. ... It will
end when we don't need any more educational facilities, which will not happen.
So we'll continue."
Supporters of Gulen, an Islamic scholar,
educator and author with millions of followers worldwide, are believed to have
established schools and educational institutions in some 140 countries around
the world.
The movement has also inspired the
establishment of charities, hospitals and media enterprises, including one of
Turkey's largest newspapers Zaman.
Gulen, 71, preaches a moderate brand of Islam
and the need for interfaith and intercultural dialogue.
Mark Owen Webb, chairman of the Department of
Philosophy at Texas Tech University, said he thinks the biggest appeal of the
movement is its educational efforts to raise a golden generation of children.
Webb, who has visited schools established by
Gulen's supporters and who has been involved in the movement for a decade now,
said parents frustrated with public schools may find Gulen-inspired schools
attractive.
He said that during a visit to one such a
school in Ukraine, he noticed that the students spoke multiple languages.
"I met one of the kids and he was
practicing English, and he could have passed for an American boy," Webb
said, adding that dedicated teachers are the biggest advantage of the
Gulen-inspired schools.
Asked about the Hizmet movement in a country
like Taiwan that does not have a large Muslim population, Webb said many of
Hizmet's values are similar to Buddhist philosophies, such as the idea of
reducing suffering.
Anyone can also respect and understand the
notion that justice and compassion are important, said Webb, who described
himself as an agnostic.
Meanwhile, Jon Pahl, a Christianity history
professor and director of MA programs at Lutheran Theological Seminary in
Philadelphia, said he hopes Hizmet will contribute to "a growing movement
toward interreligious understanding."
As a Christian, he said, he was impressed by
the commitment of Hizmet volunteers.
Pahl said he thinks religious peace-building
in the 20th century has largely been overlooked and that the Hizmet movement is
part of the religious commitment to creating a more just and peaceful society.
The scholars were in Taiwan for an
international conference that was held Dec. 8-9 to discuss the Hizmet movement
and Gulen's philosophy.
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