As cultural differences continue to be an important part of life, we need to examine how different cultures make sense of the world in terms of the meanings that represent the mind, and within which the concept of intelligence is defined. First, I will explore some basic philosophical views about the conception of intelligence which I believe constitute the root of cultural constructions of the notion.

Historical conceptions of intelligence

Some scholars of the past, such as philosophers, writers and theologians, explored intelligence but did not attempt to define the nature of intelligence. For example, in the Odyssey, Homer distinguished between good looks and good thinking. He remarked that one may have a poor physical appearance but may speak in an articulate way. Another man may be handsome but lack the ability to communicate well with others. Plato made his comments regarding the nature of intelligence in Theaetetus. In the dialogue, Socrates asks Theaetetus to imagine that there exists in the mind of man a block of wax that is of different sizes in different men. The block of wax can also differ in hardness, moistness and purity. Socrates suggests that when the wax is pure and sufficiently deep, the mind will learn easily and will not be subject to confusion. Because impressions in the wax are clear, it only will think things that are true. However, when the wax is impure or very soft or very hard, there will be defects in the intellect. People whose wax is soft will be good at learning but be apt to forget. People whose wax is hard will be slow to learn but will retain what they learn. People whose wax is shaggy or gritty, or whose wax is a mixture of earth and dung will have only indistinct impressions. Those with hard wax will have the same because there will be no depth to their thoughts (Sternberg 1985).

In the Posterior Analytics Book, Aristotle conceived of intelligence in terms of “quick wit.” For example, an intelligent person seeing someone in conversation with a man of wealth might conclude quickly that the person is seeking to borrow money from the wealthy man.

Cultural conceptualization of intelligence

In recent years, researchers have found that people in Eastern and Western cultures often have fundamentally different ideas about intelligence. Richard Nisbett, in The Geography of Thought, argues that these differences are due to the different cognitive styles of both cultures, including how intelligence is understood. He suggests that people in Western countries tend to view intelligence as a means for individuals to devise categories and to engage in rational debate, while people in Eastern cultures see it as a way for members of community to recognize contradiction and complexity and to play their social roles successfully.

I think, as Nisbett says these differences between Eastern and Western views of intelligence are related to differences in the basic cognitive processes of people in those cultures. In most cases, Western notions of intelligence are not shared by other cultures. For example, at the mental level, the Western emphasis on speed of mental processing (Sternberg 1981) is not shared by many cultures. In contrast, people in Eastern countries may even be suspicious of the quality of work done very quickly and emphasize depth rather than speed.

Similarly, Chen (1994) found three factors underlying Chinese conceptualizations of intelligence: nonverbal reasoning ability, verbal reasoning ability and memory. These factors differ substantially from American people’s conceptualizations of intelligence which have mostly mental attributions, such as: practical problem solving, verbal ability and social competence (Sternberg 1981).

About Eastern notions of intelligence, Das (1994) has suggested that in Buddhist and Hindu philosophies, intelligence involves waking up, noticing, recognizing, understanding, and comprehending but also includes such things like determination, mental effort, and even feelings and opinions (Sternberg and Kaufman 1998). In a related study, Yang and Sternberg reviewed Chinese philosophical conceptions of intelligence. The Confucian perspective emphasizes the characteristic of benevolence and of doing what is right. Again, Taoist culture emphasizes the importance of humility, freedom from conventional standards of judgment, and full knowledge of oneself which appears well-correlated with Plato’s “Know yourself” notion.
Differences between cultures in conceptions of intelligence have been recognized for some time. In a study, Gill and Keats (1980) reported that Australian University students value academic skills and the ability to adapt to new situations as critical to intelligence, while Malay students emphasize practical skills, such as speed and creativity, as well as both social and cognitive attributes in their conceptions of intelligence.

Studies done in Africa provide evidence of substantial differences in the notion of intelligence. Serpell (1974, 1977, and 1982) found that people in Zambia emphasize social responsibilities, cooperativeness, and obedience as important to intelligence; intelligent children are expected to be respectful of adults. In Zimbabwe, the word intelligence means to be prudent and cautious, especially in social relationships (Dasen 1984). As in many Eastern countries, service to the family and community, politeness and respect for elders are seen as the key to intelligence.

In his study. The Geography of Thought, researcher Nisbett, compares the Greeks and the Chinese in order toshow the different cognitive styles of East and West, which in turn causes different conceptions of intelligence. The Ancient Greeks were known for their strong sense of agency, the ability to exercise free will, while the Chinese found their belief system in harmony. The Greeks also had a curiosity about the nature of the world. They were not satisfied just to make systematic observations about the world; they were also interested in the underlying principles of their observations. Debate and confrontation were discouraged in Chinese society, whereas they were encouraged in Greece. The Eastern way of life is based on the principle that the life is ever-changing and filled with contradictions. It was interrelationships that defined the Chinese; who they were with would define who they were and what roles they were to fulfill. The sense of identity was defined by social context, by individual attributes while in Greece, objects and people would be analyzed separately. These fundamental differences in thought patterns have implications that extend to all aspects of life.

At this point, the differences seen in the individualistic culture of the West and the collectivistic (Petersen 2004) culture of the East need more attention to provide a better picture of the notion of intelligence in terms of its cultural construction.

Different thinking styles of East and West

There are some assumptions which are thought to be true by most Westerners. That is, they are individuals with characteristics that make them distinctive; moreover, we want to be unique. Westerners are in control of their own behavior and feel better when they believe that they can choose and control the outcomes of their actions. They are goal-oriented and success-driven (Nisbett 2004), and relationships can sometimes interfere with attaining success. Personal success and feeling positive about oneself are important for the sense of well-being.

Conversely, Easterners are less concerned with personal success; they are far more group driven (Nisbett 2004). Their sense of well-being is related to their being in harmony with those around them; moreover, rules that apply to relationships are not universal, instead relationships are dictated by the context and are unique to the roles each holds in that context. This collective sense of the East extends also to language. For example, in the Japanese language, there are many words for “I,” each dependent on the situation. Who “I” am is different when I am with a boss, co-worker, family member, or friend. In my home country, in Turkey which has strong Eastern roots; there is still the tradition of using “We” instead of ‘I’ in an effort to be humble and avoid egocentric ownership of success. In contrast, Americans rarely take context into account when asked for self descriptions. Moreover, Americans are more likely to overestimate their personal attributes (Nisbett 2004). On the other hand, it is the goal of harmony and fulfilling one’s role in social life to achieve collective success that prevails in Eastern culture.

Another notion of Eastern culture that has a substantial effect on its cultural conceptions of true intelligence and progress is self -criticism which is regarded as part of learning. Self-criticism is taught to Japanese children to help them learn how to solve problems and improve relationships with others. Again, in Turkey, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and some other Islamic scholars affect people’s conceptualizations of progress and success, such as, “Happy are those whose own faults preoccupy them too much to think of the faults of others” and “The strongest among you is the one who controls his anger.”

Differences in culture start early in life and continue throughout life. Western parents encourage their children to be independent. Generally they do this by focusing attention on objects. In Eastern cultures, parents focus attention on social relationships and feelings. When children grow up, the differences can be seen in experiments, for example, that Easterners’ have a superior ability to be aware of the emotions of groups of others (Peterson 2004). One theory that accounts for this difference is communication styles. In the West, it is the communicator who is responsible for making the information clear to the listener. In the East, it is the responsibility of the hearers to understand what they are told. The implication of these two contrasting styles can leave Americans feeling that Easterners are difficult to “read” because of their subtle and indirect communication styles. Conversely, Easterners may feel Americans are so direct that they may even be thought to be rude (Nisbett 2004).

Not surprisingly, the East and West have very different styles of dealing with conflict. As in ancient China, debate is still uncommon in the East. Because argument and debate pose a threat to group harmony, what Westerners consider controversial topics would not be brought up in conversation in the East (Becker 1986). Moreover, while debate is part of the rhetoric of science in the West, a skill Westerners are taught throughout their education, it is new to many Easterners that come to the West to pursue a scientific career.
Easterners and Westerners also differ in their perception of control. In Western culture, feeling in control promotes a feeling of well-being to a much greater extent than it does for Easterners (Nisbett 2004). On the other hand, Westerners have more difficulty tolerating ambiguous situations than Easterners. Westerners tend to believe that if things are going to change, it will be in the same direction and at the same level, whereas Easterners see the world as a complex dynamic system (Peterson 2004).

It is at this point that researchers (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, Norenzayan 2001) comment that Easterners appear to think more holistically, paying greater attention to relationship and context, relying more on experience-based knowledge than abstract logic and showing more tolerance for contradiction. Westerners are more analytic in their thinking, tending to separate objects from their context, to avoid contradictions and to rely more heavily on formal logic.

Conclusion

Taken all together, it is certain that people who grow up in different cultures do not just think about different things but they think differently. Thus, the connotations of the word intelligence do not only include a particular set of mental functions but also some value-based conceptions of appropriateness, such as competence, helpfulness, and so on. So, for example, when someone tells a parent that their child is very intelligent, they may be talking about child’s education, or their good relations with others, and sometimes their being a good listener, or lots of other meanings which all depend on the context of the culture in which people live.

References

• Becker, C. B., (1986). Reasons for the lack of argumentation and debate in the Far East. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 10, 75–92
• Chen, M. J. (1994). Chinese and Ausralian concepts of intelligence. Psychology and Developing Societies, 6, 101–117
• Choi, Nisbett, Norenzayan, Peng (2001). Culture of Thought. Psychological Review: 108, 291–310
• Curtis Mary E.; Glaser Robert. Changing conceptions of intelligence. Review of Research in Education, Vol. 9 (1981), 111–148
• Das, J.P. (1994). Eastern views of intelligence. In R.J. Sternberg (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human Intelligence (Vol.1, pp.387–391).New York: Macmillan
• Dasen, P. (1984). The cross- cultural study of intelligence: Piaget and Baoule. International Journal of Psychology, 19,407–434
• Gill R, Keats DM. 1980. Elements of intellectual competence: judgments by Australian and Malay university students. Journal of Cross – Cult. Psychology. 11:233–43
• Nisbett, Richard E. (2004). The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently…and Why. New York: Free Press
• Norenzayan, A., CHOI, i., & Nisbett, R. E (1994). Eastern and Western perceptions of causality for social behavior: Lay theories about personalities and social situations. In D. Prentice & D. Miller ( Ed.s), Cultural divides: Understanding and overcoming group conflict (pp.239–272). New York: Sage.
• Serpell, R. (1974). Aspects of intelligence in a developing country. African Social Research, No.17, 576–596
• Serpell, R. (1994). The cultural construction of intelligence. In W. J. Lonner & R. M. Malpass ( Eds.), Psychology and culture. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
• Sternberg, R. J. (1990). Metaphors of mind: Conceptions of the nature of the intelligence. New York: Cambridge U. Press
• Sternberg, R. J., Conway, B. E., Ketron, J. L., & Bernstein, M. (1981). People’s conceptions of intelligence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 37–55
• Sternberg, R. J., & Kaufman, J. C. (1998). Human abilities. Annual Review of Psychology, 49,479–502
• Sternberg, R. J. (1985c). Implicit theories of intelligence, creativity, wisdom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 607–627
• Yang, S. R. & Sternberg, R. J. (1997a). Conceptions of intelligence in ancient Chinese philosophy. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 17, 101–119

The quantum description of the universe is very different than the classically observed one, or our perceptions in everyday life. This new way of looking at nature has many consequences, both philosophically and practically. The modern technological development of the second half of the last century may be a very good example of the consequences of the discovery of the quantum world. Now we have a bunch of gadgets from cellular phones to long-lasting batteries, from engineered drugs to space missions, from pocket size computers to nanotechnology, a wide range of end-products of the quantum world. Certainly, these will not be the only changes in our life; quantum sciences will eventually affect the way we look at life.

One of the most dramatic potential changes in thought may arise from the discovery of the quantum entanglement of particles. Quantum entanglement can be described as non-classical correlations of different parties. It is very different than the classical description and can be explained by using the following analogy. Imagine an author writes a book of one hundred pages which includes the most precious arts or explains very important facts about the universe depending on one’s point of view. To make it more interesting or more realistic, he distributes each page of the book to one of his servants and asks them to read and understand the rules written in the book. That is, each servant has access only to one page of the book. If we assume the information on the pages is classical, every servant has one hundredth of the total information written in the book and if we let them communicate with each other, they can in principle reconstruct the written information. However, the situation is very strange in the quantum world. If the information in the book is written using entanglement principle of the quantum world, then none of the servants has any definite idea about the partial information on his page. It is as if the pages are empty. All the information about the content of the book is written on correlations of the pages, not physically on each page. So, the servants can have no idea, if they only look at their pages.

Einstein vs. Bohr

To understand this strange feature of quantum entanglement we should review the historical development of the concept. One of the earliest objections came from Einstein, who was one of the developers of quantum theory. Although he explained the photoelectric effect by introducing the concept of quantization of light, he did not believe in some of its consequences. Mainly, he was not sure about the completeness of quantum theory because of its contradictions with common sense and the theory of relativity. The famous 1927 Solvey Con ference was a turning point for debates between Einstein and Niels Bohr, who was also one of the developers of quantum theory and the Copenhagen interpretations of the theory.

Einstein tried to show this incompleteness by proposing different Gedanken (thought) experiments. Each of these questions was answered rigorously by Bohr. However, Einstein was never convinced by Bohr about the completeness of the theory. The last one of these Gedanken experiments was one related to our concept, quantum entanglement. It is called the EPR paradox and takes its name from the authors of the famous paper “Can a quantum mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete?” by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen in 1935.

Mainly, the paper was about faster-than-light communication between physically separated objects, two particles. If two particles are generated from a source affected by the existence of a conservation law, like the conservation of energy, or linear or angular momentum, the conserved property is carried by the particles independent of their separation. If the conserved quantity is observed by measuring one of the particles, the other particle arranges itself according to the result of this measurement independent of the distance between particles. According to Bohr, this arrangement happens instantaneously at the time of measurement, which conflicts with Einstein’s theory of special relativity that says nothing can travel faster than light. Apparently, the knowledge of the result of the first measurement is carried somehow to the second particle. Bohr’s reply is now called the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. He takes this property as a postulate of quantum mechanics by saying that the state of the particles includes all information about them. After this explanation Einstein never replied again.

If we look more closely at the proposed experiment, we can deduce that in reality information is not transferred faster than light because although the measurement result of the second particle is decided by the first measurement, this information is hidden for the second particle. The result of the second measurement makes sense only if the result of the first measurement reaches the second one. Otherwise, the second measurement can be described as a random outcome of possible results. Now it makes sense if we return to the book description. Here our book has only two pages. Each page is given to one servant. If they only look at their pages there is no information, which means that measurement results are random.

However, if the two servants work together and share their measurement results, then the initial information can be reconstructed.

Coins

Einstein’s point of view can be described in the following example. Imagine we have two coins with the usual heads and tails on different sides. Let us assume that there is a conservation law deduced from everyday experiments stating that if we flip these two coins we always have two opposite results; that is, if we get tails from the one that we measured, the other one is heads for sure and vice versa. In the real world, these coins can be identified as electrons, photons or atoms. Heads/tails corresponds to the spin components for electrons, polarization directions for photons or ground/excited states for atoms. Now, imagine these two coins are separated by a large distance.

Einstein says that as soon as separation occurs the result of flipping is decided but this result is hidden from us. One can measure or learn it by performing a measurement or looking at each coin. Moreover, looking at only one coin is enough to determine the measurement result of the other coin, since the results are correlated. Conjecturing that the side of the coin is determined at the time of measurement is against the causality principle of the theory of relativity which says that cause and effect cannot be simultaneous. However, I am of the opinion that reality is closer to what Bohr described. That is, the result of the measurement is decided at the measurement time not at the separation time. Before the measurement, each coin shows both heads and tails at the same time. The information, deduced at the point of measurement when one of the coins is measured, is transferred faster than light, in other words, at infinite speed.

The nature of each coin is also very strange before the measurement because it includes both sides at the same time with equal probabilities, but a classical coin has only one side at one time, either heads or tails. Here the classical coin means the flipped or measured coin. This property of the quantum world is called parallelism. As in the famous case of Schrödinger’s cat, sometimes two extreme situations can happen at the same time. Schrödinger’s cat is a very special cat which is dead and alive at the same time, like a quantum coin. However, when one measures such a cat, that is, observes the cat, its nature collapses to one of the known situations, either a dead cat or a live cat. This measuring process happens systematically due to interactions with its surroundings and is called decoherence.

Although the quantum world is very strange and different than the classical world, it encapsulates more reality than we experience in our everyday life. In the near future, we can expect that ways of looking at the world will be different than the present mechanical, deterministic, and materialistic view because of the unexpected outcomes of the quantum world. If you know how to look, you can already feel this change.

We turn our face from the Almighty to a self-proclaimed deity: our carnal self. We are entangled more and more every passing day in the occupations of this world, so much so that we are blindfolded by what is tangible; we satisfy our thirst for real knowledge with salty water, which is counter-productive, and we feel as if all that falls beyond what the eyes in our heads can perceive is not relevant to human existence at all. Human advances in technology, health, transportation and communication require a stronger bridge between belief and science, a bridge firmly raised on the foundations of the mind and the heart. A healthy human existence is only possible if we can have a balanced, holistic worldview in which the mind operates in harmony with the heart, so that we are concerned with human rights and welfare in a way that addresses the big question: What is our destination after death? Is it true that everything is “unplugged,” a complete blackout, when we die?

In order to deal more frequently with these complexities of human life, we are glad to announce that The Fountain will appear bi-monthly and in sixty-eight pages as of this issue. For several years now, our readers have been requesting more frequent publication and have complained about having to wait three months between issues. Our online survey also revealed the same result: even though it will be a little more expensive, the overwhelming majority of our subscribers asked for more frequent publication. For the last fifteen years The Fountain has been published as a quarterly and in fifty-two pages, so it was not an easy decision for us to take; anyone who is involved in the publication of a periodical can appreciate the difficulty of this change: a greater commitment to deadlines, more intense editorial work, more articles, more correspondence, and so on. We ask for your prayers and hands-on support for us to maintain the straight path The Fountain has demonstrated for the past decade and a half. We wish you a pleasant and safe journey across our bridge.

]]> https://fountainmagazine.com/all-issues/2008/issue-61-january-february-2008/a-communitarian-imperative-fethullah-gulens-model-of-modern-turkey/ Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000 http://107.21.79.195/all-issues/2008/issue-61-january-february-2008/a-communitarian-imperative-fethullah-gulens-model-of-modern-turkey/ If there has been one great political lesson the twentieth century has taught us, surely it is the undeniable truth of Lord Acton’s dictum, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We have seen notable examples in our recent history. It would seem only logical, then, that a benevolent thinker on the cusp of the twenty-first century would naturally distrust and eschew those political systems embracing some form of “central planning” warned about by F. A. Hayek and be drawn instead to one variety or another of a “classical liberal” or libertarian alternative.1 Those words “individual freedom,” when set against the term “totalitarianism,” do possess an appealing ring. But as the post-9/11 world has revealed, liberty does come with its own set of challenges.

Although throughout much of the 1990s a segment of the political sympathies in the US aligned with a libertarian spirit, over time, particularly with the Libertarian Party’s paltry response to 9/11, certain inadequacies in any strict adherence to that outlook began to reveal themselves. A libertarian system, almost by definition, presupposes a citizenry that is already educated, moral, ethical, informed, self-disciplined and respecting of the natural rights of every individual within that system. In that regard, it would seem to be a reward for a well-developed society rather than the beginning point for nurturing one.

Specifically, weaknesses in two main areas of libertarianism can be challenged. The first concerns exactly how a free society can inculcate a moral point of view among its people, especially the youth, such that the interactions within that society can be conducted from a common frame of reference. The second is the question of how a free society deals with citizens who refuse to observe its basic precepts in their conduct toward their fellow citizens. Under scrutiny it appeared that libertarianism could offer no satisfactory practical answer to either.

The third way

The Communitarian Network, founded by Amitai Etzioni in 1990, is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, transnational coalition of individuals and organizations who have come together to shore up the social, moral and political environment.2 The Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies, based at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. and headed by Etzioni, is a research organization dedicated to finding constructive solutions to social problems through morally informed policy analysis and open moral dialogue, bringing the best scholarship and analysis to bear on policy issues affecting family, schools, the community and the moral climate of society.

The Network and the Institute recognize that humans are first and foremost social beings with social needs to be addressed. People do, and should-regardless of individual preferences concerning degrees of autonomy-always exist within the body of a society. Furthermore, especially appealing to persons of faith was their recognition that man is additionally a moral and spiritual being. And any societal system that fails to take that into account is doomed to unravel.

The communitarian movement began to be more widely referenced in the political literature and discourse of the mid–1990s. Perhaps the greatest charge that could be leveled against communitarianism is its lack of specificity. It might be characterized as an attitude, not a policy-long on theory and ideals and short on practical detail, lacking a clear mechanism to effect its vision. Nevertheless, in 2003 a serendipitous chain of events commenced that would lead me to a whole new assessment of the possibilities for a living communitarian imperative.

The Turkish connection

Following the explosion of the evolution/education debate of 2000 in Kansas, I joined an Internet listserv to keep abreast of the ongoing controversy. I was intrigued by the frequent postings of a Turkish Muslim in Istanbul, a rising young journalist named Mustafa Akyol. We struck up an e-mail friendship and working journalistic relationship, which in turn led to my acquaintance with a group of Turkish students in my local area who were associated with the Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID)-an organization promoting the vision of compassion, education and peace espoused by the Turkish spiritual leader M. Fethullah Gulen. This connection eventually resulted in my joining with a group of clergy in December 2005 for an eleven-day tour of Turkey to witness the Gulen philosophy in action. It was for me an experience of profound import.

What the tour provided to the participants was an opportunity to experience directly the history, culture, faith and people from which the Gulen movement has taken root and flourished. We were privileged to visit Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Konya, Ankara, Gaziantep, Urfa and Harran. At every stop, the occasion for personal interaction with people was made available and encouraged, especially during home visits. Guides were at our elbow at every turn to answer our many questions and serve as interpreters.

The inspiration for the movement, M. Fethullah Gulen is often referred to as the “Mahatma Gandhi of Turkey” and “the modern Rumi.” Fethullah Gulen is a teacher, Islamic scholar, thinker, prolific writer and poet of broad and significant influence. The topics of his speeches and writings range beyond religious matters to include education, science, history, economics and social justice. His efforts in world interfaith dialogue and interfaith education have been groundbreaking and monumental. Gulen has observed, “There are so many things we have in common to emphasize.”3 A unique aspect of the movement inspired by his teachings is that it is self-sustaining and self-proliferating, not dependent upon the charisma of its founder but rather upon the efficacy of his vision.

A communitarian cousin

The core of the Gulen philosophy is a theistic view of the universe-specifically a moderate Islamic one, but one compatible with the other Abrahamic faiths-and of the moral order of man descending from that recognition of God. Gulen’s perspective on individualism contrasts with the libertarian stance:

It is impossible to have unrestricted individualism. This is because humans are either both free with no acceptance of any moral values and rebellious with no moral criteria, or they are servants who are dependent on God and seriously obedient to His commands.4

Much of his religious writing refers to Christian and Judaic, as well as Qur’anic, sources. The central corollary of his view on freedom and the individual is a great emphasis on education from cradle to grave. This education encompasses the whole person-intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually-and is geared toward invigorating the person’s heart and soul as well as mind, and to achieving competence useful to both her/himself and others. This education takes place optimally within the context of a strong family structure, a historical heritage and a democratic polity.5 It awakens the individual’s sense of responsibility because, according to Gulen, “Connecting or relating action to responsibility gives action its primary humane dimension.”6

This vision has spawned a host of humanitarian efforts on an international scale. More than seven hundred Gulen-inspired schools of every academic level, where students of all faiths are taught together (without religious indoctrination), often by teachers of Turkish background, have sprung up across Turkey and in other countries on every continent. The emphasis is on academic excellence, and students in Gulen-inspired schools take trophies in science, math, biology, chemistry and physics at World Olympiads. Gulen was quick to recognize the importance of mass media to society and helped found the Journalists and Writers Foundation in 1994. In the area of health care, Glen-inspired hospitals have been established.7 In the interests of world peace and understanding, numerous intercultural and interfaith dialogue activities have been established. Businessmen and industrialists, grassroots and community leaders have rallied to his call to fund and support the creation and maintenance of these programs. A community spirit of good will and desire for harmony and progress permeates the vision and activities of the Gulen movement.8

So, might there be a correlation with communitarian philosophy in Gulen’s perspective? A reading of The Responsive Communitarian Platform reveals the communitarian movement’s most salient concerns: the reciprocity of social life; renewed moral values; the importance of historical context; strong, participatory democracy; a vibrant family structure; schools and education; government involvement guided by degree of necessity; responsibilities of citizenship; protection of human rights; social justice; public safety and public health; and internationalizing the primacy of human community.9 It is a sensible outline of focus areas for community-minded attention that could indeed mesh well with the aims of the Gulen movement. In the words of Gulen himself, speaking of a spiritually-centered life, “Order is evident in every effort, and compassion resides in every achievement.”10 Elsewhere in an interview he states, “Personal and social responsibilities are inter-related…the life of heart and spirit, and social and governmental issues are all facets of one unit.”11 Words which, it strikes me, apply equally to Glen’s vision and the communitarian platform.

A communitarian fertile ground

What cultural milieu might best be suited to fostering a communitarian approach? Might the land which nurtured the heart and soul of Fethullah Gulen be a candidate? Although all societies to one degree or another bear some burden of past injustices and current internal strife-Turkey being no exception as is vividly depicted in Pamuk’s novel Snow (2004)-a focus on, and examination of life and interaction at the local, community level can yield propitious insights regarding communitarian possibilities.

The modern Republic of Turkey dates back to 1923 and owes much of its progressive societal advancements to the efforts of its revered founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk; however, the legacy of the once extensive Ottoman Empire still exerts a measurable influence on the area which was once at its heart.12 One quickly comes to appreciate certain bedrock strengths evident throughout the culture. To begin with, while Turkey prides itself on its secular governance, religiosity in daily life is pervasive. The call to prayer defines the structure of each day and provides a commonality to the flow of life. The moral obligations of one man to another, as revealed in the Qur’an, are taken very seriously and inform interactions at all social levels. Discretion is left to the individual in matters such as drinking alcohol or wearing the headscarf, but a spirit of comity is instilled at an early age and is evident everywhere, especially in domestic hospitality. When one is invited to a Turkish home for a meal, one comes away not only with a satisfied palate but also with a storehouse of good stories and lovely gifts. Tesekkür ederim, which means “thank you,” are the first Turkish words learned and the most frequently employed.

A great deal of emphasis is placed on individual responsibility and self-reliance throughout Turkish society. Family structure is extended, and sons are expected to care for their old. The family is also obliged to direct the religious training of the young and to oversee their schooling and education. Welfare assistance, when necessary, is often administered anonymously family to family or through the local mosque.13

The culture is rich with charming observances and customs that reveal a concern and charity toward one’s fellow human. The beautiful fruit trees and water fountains in public spaces, of which anyone may avail themselves without charge, are said to be provided so that no man need be left hungry or thirsty. The concept of neighborhood is inclusive of many dwellings round about any given home, so that a family may quite literally be acquainted with more than a hundred nearby families. On an occasion such as the Festival of Sacrifice, neighbors visit one another and exchange the meat from the sacrifice. That would seem to be, indeed, the very definition of “community.”14

Historically, the area now occupied by Turkey has been both a geographic and a cultural bridge between Europe and the Middle East. Countless armies and evangelists have crisscrossed these mountains and shores leaving behind their legacy in stone. The Turkish people are mindful always to take pride in and preserve their archeological treasures as stones in the foundation of their modern civilization.15 All in all, Turkey is a modern nation on a par with its European brethren, yet at the same time retaining many of its classical traditions. Its strength as a nation of caring people derives from its moderate form of Islam, the secular reforms of Ataturk and, now, the compassionate vision of Gulen.

During our visit there as we were departing a Turkish home one evening, an American priest remarked to me, “You know, there’s a ‘communitarian’ flavor to all of this.” This observation is shared by a number of other religious scholars writing on Glen and Turkey. Dr. Tom W. Boyd at the University of Oklahoma argues, “Gulen’s strategy is predominantly communitarian.”16 Marie-Elisabeth Maigre, alluding to Gulen’s analogy of society as an organism with interrelated parts “in need of one another,” characterizes his view as “a communitarian vision of society.”17

A call for action

Having been introduced to communitarianism, it was my acquaintance with students associated with the IID and my fortuitous travel to Turkey to experience the land and people that enabled me to envision its practical implementation. At its most fundamental, I see communitarianism as a mind-set and life style of individual social responsibility and reciprocal moral obligation. In many ways, I believe Turkish society infused by the Gulen movement offers a sterling example of this.

I believe with greater public awareness of the communitarian mind-set, its possibilities become manifest. However, achieving that balance in society will demand great joint effort. Nevertheless, it is an effort that can bear sweet fruit, like the trees along the thoroughfares in Turkey, for all. The Turkish word to describe the activities of the Gulen movement is hizmet. That translates into English as “service.” To me, that is a perfect word to describe communitarianism.

This is an abridged version of the paper presented at “Peaceful Coexistence: Fethullah Gulen’s Initiatives in the Contemporary World” conference, conducted at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, November 22-23, 2007. The complete paper can be downloaded at www.gulenconference.nl

Mark Scheel is the prose editor of Kansas City Voices magazine. He is the author of A Backward View: Stories and Poems and recipient of the J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award.

Notes

1. Hayek, F. A. The Road to Serfdom, New York: 1944, Routledge Classics, p. 34. [Last name Hayek first in order.]
2. The Communitarian Network Web site, home page.
3. Ã’nal, Ali, Alphonse Williams (compiled by), Advocate of Dialogue, Virgina: 2000, The Fountain. p. 205.
4. Saritoprak, Z. and Unal, A. (trans.) (2005) “An Interview with Fethullah Gulen.” The Muslim World, 95:3, 447-467.
5. M. Fethullah Gulen, Essays – Perspectives – Opinions, NJ: 2004, compiled by The Light, Inc.
6. Gulen, M. Fethullah, The Statue of Our Souls, The Light, Inc. NJ: 2005, p. 99. [Last name Gulen first in order.]
7. Scheel, M. (2006, April 17) “The Wonder of Anatolia: Land of Ataturk and Gulen.” At: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleld-281474976745124 [Period at end?]
8. Unal, p. 325.
9. The Communitarian Network Web site, Project and Activities page.
10. Gulen 2004, p. 55.
11. Saritoprak, p. 449.
12. Ergener, R.and Ergener, R. (2002) About Turkey: Geography, Economy, Politics, Religion, and Culture (Boulder, CO: Pilgrims’ Process, Inc.), p. 5.
13. Ibid, pp. 31–37.
14. Ibid, p. 38.
15. Ibid, p. 5.
16. Boyd 2006:48.
17. Maigre, M. (2006, February 17) “The Fethullaci, or the Project of an ‘Enlightened’ Turkey” Islam in Business Web site. http://islaminbusiness.blogspot.com/. (Last accessed September 26, 2007.)

Language is not only a means of speech and thought, it is a bridge with the significant function of bringing the wealth of the past to our day and conveying today’s heritage and our new compositions to the future. All of the cognitive, intellectual and scientific reserves and riches of a nation can become eternal only by means of a language powerful enough to embrace this heritage as a whole, a heritage that has descended from the forefathers and taken new forms in the hands of today’s generations. The more richly and colorfully a nation can speak, the more they can think; the more they can think, the broader is the span their speech can reach. Every single society leaves behind what they speak and think today for its validity to be probed, tested, and protected by future generations. In this way, a huge reserve of experience and learning are saved from being wasted; the knowledge and ideas of the past are utilized for the benefit of the present; what was right or wrong in the past is compared with the rights and wrongs of today so that we do not tread the same path and suffer from the same errors. This is valid for all nations of the world; the capacity of a language to express a thought is related to the level of development it has achieved, and a thought can become the instrument by which the language is tuned to this level of development. If a language has not developed with its inner Dynamics to voice the needs of all times, and therefore the users of that language cannot find the words corresponding to certain concepts, then that language is deprived of the support of thought, and its users are doomed to failure. In a time of industrialization, global commerce, and technological warehouses, no one should stay within the limited span of dictionaries in hand or what they hear and learn from the people around them. Otherwise, they will have to remain silent and merely listen to what others have to say such indifference to the requirements of the modern age leads to disqualification from participation in contemporary societies. The earnings of yesterday should be conserved as a cultural heritage and utilized today. Historical and social dynamics are the threads with which national ideals should be interlaced. By all means, this should be realized while opening up to tomorrow and embracing the modern age. As a matter of fact, yesterday has passed with all its frame of reference. What is more, reaching out to the future at full speed requires much more sustenance than we can draw from our homes, family, and immediate environment, though they may suffice for practical daily needs.

Failure is the inescapable end of the ill-fated and forlorn ones who are far from facing their era with their own language and thought. Just as important as ensuring language and thought survive is making them a property of the masses. Societies which do not think and speak will find others speak and think on their behalf. Logic is in disposal of the tongue in crowds where there is speech without thought. Those unfortunate ones who cannot put what they think into words are slaves of their incapability. Although not in great numbers, there are stil self-confident thinkers who can elaborate their thoughts. Nevertheless, they too are not free from problems. In many countries, those who look like the elite from the outside are in truth alien to their own society. The majority in their society respond to this elite with an inner reaction for they do not trust them, and their thoughts are perceived as nothing more than mere fantasy and imported views. You find the prose of these intellectuals written in their own language but with the mindset of an alien, and when they have to speak they feel the need to switch to the vernacular of their fellow countrymen; thus they travel in between several worlds in their inner presence, in a state of multiple belongings to different realms at the same time. They cannot adjust their hearts to beat in tune with the heart of their society, nor can they reflect the pattern of eloquence and power of expression embedded in their language. It would be nave to expect some sort of valuable service from such people who are entrapped in contradictions within their personal world of thought. For a language truly to become the medium of communication, the overwhelming majority of a society must be able to express themselves in it with full command, reflecting its true nature. Expressions in a complicated way like loading the real intention to diverse allusions or signs and relaying every subject in the form of interpretations are obviously not the most agreeable types of presentation.

Language is a phenomenon the worth of which lies intrinsically in itself, like other sciences, and perhaps its importance is even of a greater magnitude. Thus, any society should conceive of its language as a field of knowledge and the interest of the masses must be drawn to it as a pleasurable topic. This is possible only by way of a long list of tasks to do with language: a successful compilation of every single word, a careful study of manuscripts, a deep analysis of the methodology and stylistics of derivative forms in harmony with the peculiar nature of a language, to make widely known and used those words and idioms that have been in use over many centuries, firmly settled with all their nuances, and with their specific meanings revealed best in that language. It is of paramount importance for a nation to be respectful towards all these components of preserving a language. If all these can be achieved, then a language can stand on its own principles and rules, as rich, soft, and amiable as a language can be. Thus, a language can become the lingua franca of an age while maintaining its inherent logic; it will be in use delightfully and will be transferred from one generation to the next. Although this expectation does not seem theoretically or logically exaggerated, it is not easy to realize it; there will be challenges while putting it into practice.

Something being logical might not always mean the same thing as the logic of its development, transformation, and maturation-the unfolding of events may follow a different path. In the case of constant change, the logic of development must be given priority above absolute logic, the reins controlling it must be loosed a little, and space for maneuver must be enlarged. If not, language and thought, both living phenomena, will become stagnant, as solidified as rock, and will lose their soul. Language has a determining influence on the national thought and worldview and their logical, intellectual structure. Language has to be in its prime to go beyond historical value and respond positively to every favorable development. Nations that can manage to develop their language and make it accommodating while at the same time staying faithful to the roots of it are the most communicative societies that are also most dynamic in thought. The relationship between language and thought comprises cognitive and intellectual reflections on existence and events, transforming these reflections into sources of information, and becoming productive while forming links between the cosmos and our knowledge. The future prospects of a nation are very much dependent on evaluating these relationships. We should not cast everything that is old into oblivion, nor turn our face to the past and close our doors to what is new. Let us embrace the past with the utmost sincerity and at the same time salute the coming days welcoming new developments and transformations. Let us not cause any conflict between language and thought, between our past that is filled with exalted memories and our future that we strive so hard for; let us not sacrifice one for the other.

The roots that make up the national spirit should be determined with the help of research. While relying firmly on those roots, a society should endeavor to go beyond them. We should be conscious that revivification is necessary to survive and we must live in order to bear fruit. Our hearts should beat connected to our roots of spirit and meaning, and our eyes should be fixed beyond the horizon. We should aim to live and flourish with an insatiable thirst for opening out; this is how it can be possible to make future generations survive, those generations to whose sake we should bind our existence.

Those spirits, who are devoted to making others live and expect nothing in return are the ones who are truly conscious of living with life’s inner depths.

Hungry for ceaseless beauty

In love with eternity

Refugee in a tower of agony

In an early, rainy morning

When the birds started singing

He woke into a vision crying

In an early, rainy morning

Stepping down the hill slowly

Pondering over his troubles calmly

He was seeking for a canopy

Stepping down the hill slowly

As the uncertain end nears

Rocks, trees, leaves, rivers…

None but One hears his fears

As the uncertain end nears

In need of a fundamental change

Past life and fears scream with rage

Ivory tower is no different than a cage

In need of a fundamental change

Not knowing the final destination

In the turbulent life-story ocean

Re-discovering a one-to-one relation

Descent from ivory tower becomes Ascension

Because stem cells are rare in the tissues (one out of ten thousand) and we are constantly losing them, our body cannot grow, maintain, and repair itself continuously. This is the main reason for the wear and tear on our bodies as we get older. Nevertheless, assuming that there should be a cure for any illness except death, the clinical research on stem cells is quite promising with respect to many diseases. The One Who has placed stem cells in our body as a source of auto-regeneration, has also given us the idea that we can possibly discover the laws of stem cell production for use in medical treatment. Stem cells are the cells that all cells stem from. What makes them different from other cell types is their capacity to divide infinitely, their ability to differentiate when they are subjected to biochemical and environmental signals. Stem cells can form other cell types with specific biological functions. They can give rise to all the mature cells for the heart, the skin, the nerves, the cornea, and so on.

The potential of stem cells for new therapeutic approaches is highly encouraging and stem cell studies have become one of the most active areas of research in biomedical sciences. Researchers are attempting to identify the unique features of stem cells which can be used in medical applications. It is believed that the correct use of stem cells will enable doctors to heal and regenerate damaged tissues and organs, and cure many genetic disorders. In the near future, stem cell studies are expected to provide direct solutions for conditions caused by other cells’ lacking the ability to divide and self-renew. These conditions include Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries, heart attacks and heart disease as well as blood cancer, diabetes, and bone loss.

Moreover, the potential of stem cells to reduce the effects of aging make it seem likely that in future there may be seventy-five-year-olds with the healthy bodies of teenagers. Stem cells as an alternative to organ transplants The most straightforward application of stem cell research has been as a new source for tissue and organ transplants. This is a great alternative for patients who are waiting for a donor organ. It is known that in the case of organ transplant from a donor, even from the closest of relatives, the body rejects any foreign tissue and special drugs are needed to suppress attack by the immune system and to lower the rate of rejection. Since stem cells are genetically the patient’s own cell, rejection is not an issue in stem cell transplants. One of the best studied areas of stem cell research is the treatment of heart failure. Cardiac muscle cells are complex and unable to generate new cells. Cell death in cardiac muscle causes serious heart failure due to ineffective muscle contraction in the heart. In addition, when a patient has successive heart attacks and myocardial infarctions (death of cardiac muscle resulting from interruption of the blood supply), the number of dead cells increases because of the decreased level of oxygen reaching the heart tissue. This usually leads to the death of the patient after the third heart attack. The conventional therapy uses the insertion of a small tube, a stent, to fix the artery and to increase the level of oxygen reaching the muscle cells.

However, this method cannot effectively compensate for the dead cells. To recover cellular losses, potential stem cells from bone marrow were collected and then processed to prepare cardiac muscle stem cells. They were then injected into the damaged area which led to the production of new healthy muscle tissue. The size of the dead area decreased notably and the performance of the heart improved. In one study performed at the University of Wisconsin, initial trials resulted in patients feeling better with less chest pain and improved exercise capacity. Skin production for severe burns Severe burns to the skin require long and painful treatments and usually result in scarring and disability. Although current treatments, such as skin grafting and the use of artificial skin technologies, suffice to re-cover the injured area, they are not adequate for the regeneration of functional skin following burns. Scientists aim to produce skin cells in the laboratory by using the patient’s own stem cells. This would lead to replacing the damaged area of skin with fully functional tissue readily, without pain or long-lasting treatment procedures. Type I diabetes and stem cell therapy In type I diabetes, cells that produce the insulin hormone are destroyed by white blood cells. So, the body can no longer produce insulin to balance the sugar level in the blood.

People with type I diabetes need to take insulin injections daily. However, in one recent study, a team of American and Brazilian scientists used stem cells obtained from patients’ own blood to regenerate insulin-producing cells in their bodies. According to the study leader, Dr. Julio Voltarelli of the University of Sao Paolo, results are very encouraging. For example, one patient has been free from insulin injections for 35 months. Fourteen out of fifteen patients were cured. Although some still have different level of insulin dependence, they no longer need a daily insulin intake.Ethical concerns about stem cells Stem cells can be produced from various sources. The human embryo is probably the best source to obtain stem cells, since embryonic stem cells (ESC) have a higher ability to divide and readily undergo cell differentiation during early development. The embryos that are used for research are generally obtained from the remnants of in vitro fertilizations or from abortions (premature termination of a pregnancy). However, the use of human embryos for stem cell research is very controversial. Objections to embryonic studies arise because the studies involve interference with human life at the early stages and uncertainties about when life begins. Ethical and legal disputes have resulted in the prohibition of ESC research in several countries. Embryos are not the sole source of stem cells. They can also be obtained from many adult tissues, especially bone marrow, the placenta, and umbilical cord. These sources are not considered ethically problematic, but stem cells obtained from adult tissues have less ability to differentiate into various cell types. In addition, adult stem cells cannot be isolated easily from tissues, and the growth of these cells in culture takes more time than that of embryonic stem cells. The challenge is to find the balance between hope for cure and respect for life. The question when life starts or a fetus has been given a soul is a subject for religion and philosophy. According to Catholics, for instance, the human embryo is valuable and one must consider the zygote (a single cell that is the result of fertilization) a human being. Thus, embryos or zygotes cannot be killed, stored, or used for any purpose. However, the Catholic Church allows that research on adult stem cells can be carried out for medical research. In contrast, Jewish religious leaders do not consider the zygote or blastocyst a complete human being. They hold that embryonic stem cell research can be done if it is beneficial for humans and if it does not cause any problem for human life. Islam favors all studies beneficial for humanity and society if they do not raise ethical or spiritual issues. Islam especially supports the use of adult stem cells for stem cell studies. It also allows studies on blastocysts remaining after in vitro fertilization if there is no cure available by other means and there is no economic gain from the donation of blastocysts for research and stem cell therapies. Consequently, ethical issues related to ESCs have resulted in a search for alternative sources for stem cells that has the utmost importance for the scientific, religious and social sphere.

Placental and umbilical cord blood stem cells

Even though intensive care units for new born babies are developed with the most recent technology, they are yet way too primitive and insufficient, compared to a several-kilogram organ in mother’s womb. This organ, which is also featured as the real hero of birth by scientists, is called placenta. The placenta is an organ whose main role in pregnancy is the exchange of any material required for embryonic growth such as gases, nutrients and hormones from the mother’s blood and the removal of toxins and biological waste from the fetus. It also functions as a barrier against any immunologic attack on the embryo by the mother’s immune system so that a foreign body (a baby) can survive in the mother’s womb. In addition, it has important metabolic and hormonal functions. Fifteen years ago, researchers discovered that the placenta has a large number of high quality stem cells. These cells could be extremely important for the baby in the case of any genetic or metabolic problem causing tissue loss or damage later in life. The placenta can be stored just after birth. In addition, it is very probable that these stem cells will be a good source for cell therapies for relatives. Who could have thought that the remnants of birth would have such importance in medicine fifty years ago? The One Who, with the highest wisdom, creates every single thing with many purposes has made placenta and cord blood a useful source of stem cells.

The advantages of stem cells from cord blood

Stem cells isolated from cord blood are the youngest after ESCs. They have a higher ability to divide than commonly used adult stem cells from bone marrow. In contrast to bone marrow, stem cells isolated from cord blood can be used for family members because they do not interact with the immune system and they do not cause any negative response. Moreover, they are more durable than adult stem cells and can be stored for a long time by freezing the placenta and umbilical cord. They also do not contain tumors or viruses. These juvenile stem cells can easily transform into many cell types and tissues if they are sent the correct biological and genetic signals in the culture environment. Nowadays, stem cells isolated from cord blood are most commonly used to support the blood and immune systems in patients with cancer who are being treated with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Recently, some clinical studies have shown that they can also be useful for treating blood cancer. The flexibility of stem cells obtained from cord blood offers hope that stem cell studies will increase the prospects of treatment of these diseases.

Restoring vital body functions: What does the future promise?

Discoveries are emerging every day about stem cells. As we have shown, stem cells might be the key to the replacement of lost cells in many devastating diseases. Some day, diseases like Parkinson’s, diabetes, chronic heart failure, and liver failure may be history because of stem cell technologies. The aging process might be slowed by compensating for the effect of tissue loss with stem cells. There is also great hope of finding an alternative to organ transplantation, for which currently there is a lack of sufficient and suitable donor organs. For instance, in the case of liver failure, healthy cells produced from stem cells can be injected into the patient. Moreover, by using a liver-like environment, it may be possible to produce a complete or partial liver for transplant. Another fascinating potential benefit of stem cells lies in the possibility of regenerating nerve cells in the spinal cord after injury. There is always hope of a cure. The scriptures contain many examples of miraculous treatments of disease at the hands of the Prophets.

These miracles are not only proof of their prophethood, but also indicate the upper limits that humans can reach by means of knowledge. For instance, recently a scientist in London was able to cure some patients of blindness using their own cells. In this case, age-related degeneration of retinal cells was causing the blindness. Professor Peter Coffee, from the Institute of Ophthalmology, reported that they reversed the condition by transplanting cells taken from the side of the patient’s eye and embryonic stem cells into retina to replace the dead cells. This kind of study reminds us of the miracle of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him who healed the eyesight of a blind person simply by his touch.

Thanks to the Human Genome Project, we now have tools to manipulate the deciphered sequence of our DNA. The combination of our knowledge about the genome with stem cell technology may allow us to approach the limits defined by the miracles of these perfect examples of humanity. In the meantime, future research should be carried out with due regard for its effects on society, humanity and environment and keeping in mind all the possible ethical issues and consequences of our actions.

Ali Fethi Toprak is a PhD candidate at Southwestern Medical Center, Texas University.

References

Regenerative Medicine. Department of Health and Human Services.

August 2006. http://info/scireport/2006report.

Intimate Universe, The Human Body, Volume 1, 1998. British

Broadcasting Corporation.

“Genetik Bilimi Nereye Gidiyor?”, Kopru Journal, Volume 83,

Summer 2003. www.koprudergisi.com

Placenta.Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placenta

Stem Cell Therapies Today. genetics.utah.edu/units/stemcells/

sctoday

Cordon Blood. Ãlmi Mercek Journal. http://ilmimercek.net/index.

php

Lawrence first provides a summary of Prophet Muhammad’s life (peace be upon him) in chapters 1 and 2. In the following chapters, he offers succinct summaries of divergent interpretations of the Qur’an throughout history. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with examples of earlier interpretations of the Qur’an, by the Shi’ite scholar Jafar as-Sadiq and the Sunni Abu Jafar at-Tabari, respectively. The next two chapters cover rather mystic interpretations of the Qur’an. Chapter 8 surveys probably the greatest Islamic mystic Ibn al-Arabi, “a deep sea diver in the ocean of the Qur’an” (p. 109). Chapter 9 is about another mystic, Jalal ad-Din Rumi (or Mawlana), who sought to display the “everyday wonders” of the Qur’an in his Mathnawi. The last four chapters cover four different modern interpreters of the Qur’an. Chapters 11 and 12 deal with two Indian/Pakistani scholars. Ahmad Khan of chapter 11 offers an early rationalist (“militantly rationalist” in Lawrence’s words) critique of traditional interpretations in the face of Western intrusion into the Muslim world. By contrast, Muhammad Iqbal of chapter 12 makes a case for a redefined spiritual Islam in the late-colonial period and calls for revivification of moral Islamic values among Muslims. In chapter 13, the American interpreter W. D. Muhammad offers yet another interpretation that stresses racial equality more than anything else. Lastly, in chapter 14, Lawrence depicts the mind of the notorious Osama bin Laden, in whose interpretations military jihad takes precedence over all other issues. Lawrence argues that bin Laden “selects only those verses that fit his message, and then cites them exclusively for his own purpose” (p. 180).

In one unusual chapter (chapter 7), Lawrence portrays a Christian interpreter of the Qur’an, Robert of Ketton, who was the first person to translate the Qur’an into a Western language (Latin) in the twelfth century. An Englishman, Robert of Ketton moves to Toledo and becomes part of a Christian group that translates scientific texts from Arabic into Latin. He eventually finds himself heading a team project to translate the Qur’an into Latin. In a time of heated and continuous warfare between Christians and Muslims, Robert of Ketton takes a more noble way of engaging with Muslims. Islam was to be approached “not by arms, but by words; not by force, but by reason” (p. 100).

In an era when both adherents and critics of the Qur’an make claims as to what “real Islam” is, Bruce Lawrence’s survey of Qur’anic interpretations reminds us that all interpretations of the Qur’an are but partial representations that favor certain sections and meanings over others. In so doing, The Qur’an: A Biography becomes a friendly reminder that it takes more humility than most of us assume to understand and appreciate the richness of the verses of the Qur’an.

As a final note, for the more academic reader the book has a significant flaw. Although he provides a “further reading” list which includes most of the books he cites, except for the verses from the Qur’an, Professor Lawrence does not provide direct references for other quotes or opinions. I hope he will remedy this gap in a future edition.

In this essay, I will embark on the task of clarifying some common problems associated with the study of Islam and democracy, and introduce alternative ways of looking at the relative absence of democratic regimes in Muslim-majority countries. In doing so, I will make use of two important recent works. The first is Islam and the Challenge of Democracy by Khaled Abou El Fadl (2004). Abou El Fadl discusses opportunities within the Islamic theological doctrine for a democratic form of government; in fact, he suggests that democracy best suits the social and political values set forth by the Islamic doctrine. The second piece includes the ideas of the well-known Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen compiled in a special issue of The Muslim World journal dedicated to Gulen in 2005. To a series of questions regarding the individual, the state, and the type of regime, Gulen approaches the question from a different perspective, emphasizing “universal values” in both Islamic fundamentals and democratic ideals, and he rejects the incompatibility between Islam and democracy. I will also briefly discuss the implications of the debate on Islam and democracy from a broader perspective, bringing the religion, in general terms, to the discussion, and I will explain what the implications might be from an interfaith perspective.

Political Islam? Misconstrued Islam of the modern times

One common problem in the analyses of Islam is the misjudgment of what is observed in the last century or so, predominantly through the eyes of Orientalist writers. In essence, this perspective focuses on Islam more as a political ideology and less as a religion, whereby individuals organize their lives around the pillars of the faith. According to this new scheme, Islam is confined to a system of political ideas, and the problems of Muslims worldwide are to be solved by this emerging concept of Islam. Interestingly, this perspective has been embraced by some Muslims, as well as by observers from the West. The Islamic authenticity of this perception is never questioned.

A closely related problem arises in viewing the states that emerge in Muslim-majority countries as Islamic, regardless of any objective criteria to judge them as Islamic. In many cases, the Islamic rhetoric used by government officials is considered enough to categorize them as Islamic, even though no legal Islamic authority has been implemented in such states. In essence, many authoritarian rulers disguise themselves as representing Islam when they do not even come close to being Islamic in their actions. Having an Islamic population or a Muslim leader does not equate to an Islamic state; in this vein, not every state that uses Islam in its discourse should be regarded as Islamic. Esposito and Voll draw attention to this problem. According to them, what we observe in Muslim-majority countries is the coupling of authoritarian regimes with more secular understandings, and democratic demands with the more Islamic portions of the populations: “As a result, authoritarian political establishments have become identified with secularist approaches to politics and modernization…The most effective opposition to authoritarian regimes is expressed through a reaffirmation of the Islamic identity and heritage.”2 Politicians in every country make use of religious rhetoric as best as they can because it provides a significant amount of legitimacy to their political strategies. Hence, just as President Bush’s or German Chancellor Merkel’s3 occasional references to religion do not make their rule non-secular, nor their countries theocracies, similar references by the various rulers in the Muslim-majority countries should be regarded in a parallel way.

An alternative problematic conceptualization concerns the principle of secularism, and the separation of religious and political spheres. One commonly asserted claim is that most Muslim-majority countries are ruled with a fusion of these two spheres. Samuel Huntington is a leading figure in pursuing this line of argument. In arguing against the possibility of democratic regimes in Muslim-majority countries, Huntington claims that Islam also rejects any distinction between the religious community and the political community. Hence there is no equipoise between Caesar and God, and political participation is linked to religious affiliation.”4 However, in Steven Fish’s observation, it is, in fact, difficult to come up with more than a couple examples of states in the Islamic world that intertwine religious and political powers, such as Iran and the Taliban’s Afghanistan.5

Culture and Islam

Ronald Inglehart, who is among the pioneers of cultural arguments, claims that diverse Islamic cultures do not go well with democratic practices. In an article in Foreign Affairs in 2003, Inglehart and Norris claim that various cultural elements stand between democracy and Muslim countries, including divorce, abortion, gender equality, and gay rights.6 From a different cultural perspective, Manus Midlarsky claims that a low level of tolerance has been the root cause of the inconsistency of Islam with democracy.7 In other contexts, hierarchy and obedience were introduced as Islamic cultural elements that are incompatible with democracy and economic development.

There are two kinds of problems with these cultural arguments. First, in a direct sense, some of these cultural attributes do exist in Muslim-majority countries, yet their connection with Islam has not been well established by the proponents of such arguments. For example, on the issue of intolerance and gender inequality, it would take considerable effort to find theological evidence from the scripture or the practices of the Prophet to support any behavior that is disrespectful and intolerant toward non-Muslims, or suggesting the superiority of men over women. In this sense, even though it may be argued that such cultural traits are not consistent with a democratic culture, relating these attitudes to an Islamic culture seems unfounded.9

Secondly, it seems rather unusual to conceptualize the issues of divorce, abortion and gay rights together with democracy. In many instances, the comparison groups used to evaluate the relative merits of such cultural traits are irrelevant. Take for example, Inglehart and Norris’ comparison of contemporary Western societies, which made the transition to democracy a long time ago, contrasted with contemporary Muslim societies, most of which have not experienced democracy yet. When we consider contemporary Western societies, we cannot show that current or similar cultural attitudes were dominant a century ago, when most democratization happened in these countries. In this regard, it is important initially to establish the causal relationship between “cultural” factors such as divorce, abortion, and gay rights, and democratization in contemporary Western democracies; otherwise, simple correlational analysis will not provide useful evidence for this end.10 It may easily be the case that these new “post-materialist”11 cultural values in Western societies, A la Inglehart, are only a product of various phenomena, including economic development and democracy, and not a cause of them.

In essence, the distinction between religion, that is, Islam, and culture-which varies with respect to the conditions in which a society lives, such as geography, education, wealth, and history-has to be emphasized. This misunderstanding underlies most of the judgments against the incompatibility of Islam and democracy.

Doctrinal underpinnings

It is important to evaluate the relationship between Islam and democracy from the vantage point of existing political systems. There is no doubt that democracy provides the most appropriate alternative among the myriad of political systems that exist today. Two recent analyses by Gulen and Abou El Fadl make this point very clear. Both Islam and democracy emphasize and embrace values and ideals, such as human rights, the protection of minorities, freedom of expression and religious practice, and the rule of law.

A common concern about the relationship between Islam and democracy is where sharia rule fits in this context. Abou El Fadl draws attention to the contradiction between the contemporary states which call themselves “Islamist,” and the historical practice in prioritizing the legislative powers of the state versus the “divine law”: “For instance, the claim of precautionary measures (blocking the means) is used in Saudi Arabia to justify a wide range of restrictive laws against women, including the prohibition against driving cars. This is a relatively novel invention in Islamic state practices and in many instances, it amounts to the use of sharia in passing laws that create an oppressive condition-a condition that itself is contrary to the principles of justice under sharia.”

On sharia, Gulen argues that if a (democratic) state gives an individual the “opportunity” to learn and practice his or her religion, then the political system is “not considered to be against the teaching of the Qur’an.” Moreover, when a political system is consistent with “universal norms of law,” particularly in human rights and freedoms, there is no need for another form of state: “Even if such a renewal is not considered tashri’ (based on sharia), it is not conceived of as being against it.”14 Moving beyond black or white, and yes or no, Gulen argues that a political system that does not stem from sharia does not necessarily imply being against sharia; hence, a political system, such as democracy, may in fact be congruent with the basic tenets of the religion. Sharia, Gulen suggests, for the most part, relates to the personal religious life “supported by God’s commands, the Prophet’s sayings and practices, and the consensus of the Muslim community.” Principles regarding politics and state administration account for only five percent of the whole, whereas the rest focuses on issues related to “the articles of faith, the pillars of Islam, and the moral principles of religion.”15 As a result, most of the concern about Sharia is unfounded.

The final point in this section concerns the role of the individual and the nature of the relationship between the state and the individual. Islam regards government as a contract between the ruler and the ruled. Both have duties, responsibilities, and rights. In contrast to the common practice in many Muslim-majority countries, both the ruler and the ruled are subject to the rule of law. Hence, dictatorship and arbitrary rule are illegitimate forms of government: “In an Islamic administration, those who are at the top have to obey the law like ordinary people: They cannot violate these principles and cannot act in their practice against these principles.”16 In a similar vein, the right to rule does not belong to any kind of spiritual leaders, that is, the ulama, or to any other religious institution. Instead, the value and importance of the individual human being, and his/her righteousness, has been emphasized on various occasions. In this context, Abou El Fadl, like Gulen, addresses the ulama and its role in Islamic rule. He argues that while the ulama might have played a mediatory role between the rulers and the ruled, and even “thwarted tyrannous measures” in the past, unfortunately, in modern times, they have turned into “salaried state functionaries who play a primarily conservative, legitimist role for the ruling regimes in the Islamic world.”17 Based on this discussion, it becomes important to recognize the fact that Islam, on doctrinal grounds, underscores human rights, freedom of expression and religion, and individual accountability.18 This indicates the compatibility of Islam within a democratic political system.

Alternatives

Instead of trying to find the root-causes of the democratic gap in Islam, one should carefully analyze alternative factors to account for the dearth of democratic politics in Muslim-majority countries. Various alternative explanations have been discussed in the literature to account for democratization. One such model is Modernization Theory, which takes economic development to the center and asserts that education, social mobilization, urbanization, and communication are all considered integral parts of the modernization process that marks the transition from traditional forms of life to modern ones. This entire modernization process generates new social groups such as urban workers and union members that have different needs and demands from the political system compared to the old “social strata.”19 The political system, now, is placed at the center of the demands of these new social groups. In order to respond to the newly-emerging needs of the modern citizen, who has incidentally become aware of his/her capacity, the political system takes a more responsive and democratic form.

An alternative explanation comes in the form of “resource curse,” a term coined during the 1990s to explain various problems associated with countries endowed with rich natural resources. In contrast to what is observed in the rest of the world, in the Middle East, the idea of a rentier state prevails thanks to the abundance of natural energy resources. The state, in the region, does not depend on its subjects for revenues, that is, taxes. The state, and to a large extent the ruling elite, collect the revenues from the sale of natural resources in world markets. Lisa Anderson, in her analysis of state-building in the Middle East, brings forth the idea of democratic accountability of the ruling elite and the role it plays, or its lack thereof.

The distribution of these massive revenues entails an important benefit for the state. The state becomes “autonomous” from the society by means of “winning popular acquiescence through distribution rather than support through taxation and representation.” The absence of dependence on society on the part of the state results in the absence of democratic accountability to the people. The underlying rationale behind the “distributive state” is that everyone in the society receives roughly the same amount of benefits from the state, or “egalitarian current consumption” in Anderson’s terms. The result is an authoritarian political system with no internal mechanism to press for democratic development.

Religion and democracy

Concerns about the compatibility of democracy with various other religions have been frequently raised, namely with regard to such religions as Catholicism, Christian Orthodoxy, Confucianism, and Buddhism.21 Similar issues, as in the case of Islam, have been raised about these religions, and their cultural spheres: the hierarchical structure of the church, the emphasis on communal life rather than individualism, and the prominence of obedience and respect.22 Such criticisms over the course of this century, in fact, have a common implication from an interfaith dialogue perspective. Although in certain instances the concerns invoked against these cultural and religious traits may hold, we should bear in mind the fact that these religions embody a complex set of ideas, and doctrines; more than anything else, these religions indeed have the capacity to renew themselves over time to synchronize themselves with the requirements of the present. Hence, judging against religions too soon may prove inaccurate.

In this essay, I have tried to correct a number of misconceptions about Islam and its compatibility with democracy. In doing so, I have relied on the recent writings of two Islamic scholars of our time, Gulen and Abou El Fadl. Often, cultural traits of Muslims worldwide are accepted as Islam itself; similarly, Muslim-majority countries are, by default, regarded as being “Islamic” even though nothing in their constitutions or practices suggests this conclusion. The absence of stable democratic regimes among Muslim-majority countries is, in my opinion, due to non-religious reasons such as oil-dependency in the case of Middle East, and low levels of education and economic development more generally.

A. Kadir Yildirim is doctoral candidate at the Ohio State University in Political Science. He studies politics of globalization and social protection in developing countries, and politics of the Middle East. He can be reached at yildirim.10@osu.edu

Notes

1.Throughout the modern era, a number of Muslim-populated countries experienced democratic regimes such as Turkey, Indonesia, Algeria, and Pakistan. However, most of such regimes are far from being recognized as stable democracies, where the chances for an authoritarian backlash are significantly lower than the unstable and precarious regimes in many Muslim-majority countries. In this regard, even though the current political regime – as opposed to the Suharto era – is democracy in Indonesia, the regime is qualitatively different than the ones we observe in Australia or Britain. Hence, the emphasis here is not merely on procedural elements of democracy, but on democracy as a comprehensive and stable political system with both its substantive and procedural elements. For more on democracy and elements of democratic regimes, please see Robert Dahl, 1971, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, Yale University Press; Dankwart A. Rustow, 1970, “Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model,” Comparative Politics, vol. 2(3); Samuel P. Huntington, 1968, Political Order in Changing Societies, Yale University Press; Larry Diamond, 1999, Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation, Johns Hopkins University Press.

2.John L. Esposito and John O. Voll, 1996, Islam and Democracy, p.16.

3.For an article by Ron Suskind on President Bush’s occasional references to religion, please see the 10/17/2004 issue of NY Times’ Magazine section. Merkel’s reference to the Christian roots of the EU: “I can’t deny that I would have preferred to see a clearer reference to God based on Christian ideals in the constitution.” For complete text, please see the following webpage: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=319152007

4Samuel Huntington, 1991, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, p. 307. A similar point is raised by Bernard Lewis in “Islam and Liberal Democracy: A Historical Overview,” Journal of Democracy, vol. 7(2), (1996).

5.M. Steven Fish, 2002, “Islam and Authoritarianism,” World Politics, vol. 55 (October).

6.Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, 2003, “The True Clash of Civilizations,” Foreign Affairs, March-April issue, p. 63.

7.Manus Midlarsky, 1998, “Democracy and Islam: Implications for Civilizational Conflict and the Democratic Peace,” International Studies Quarterly, vol. 42(3), pp. 485-511.

8.Jim Granato, Ronald Inglehart, and David Leblang, 1996, “The Effect of Cultural Values on Economic Development: Theory, Hypotheses, and Some Empirical Tests,” American Journal of Political Science, vol. 40(3), pp. 607-631.

9.To see how women’s rights and treatment of non-Muslims are dealt with in Islam, please see the Farewell Sermon of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh): Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith number 1623, 1626, 6361; Sahih of Imam Muslim also refers to this sermon in Hadith number 98.

10.Correlational analysis can only demonstrate that we observe divorce, abortion, gay rights and democracy in Western democracies; in and of itself, such an analysis can neither provide a causal mechanism to prove that these cultural traits lead to democratization, nor that the relationship is historically accurate.

11.These are the values that emphasize self-expression and quality of life in contrast to materialist values which center around economic and physical security. See Ronald Inglehart, 1997, Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies, Princeton University Press.

12.See The Muslim World, vol. 95(3), pp. 450-456 for Gulen’s comments. Also, see Islam and the Challenge of Democracy, Princeton University Press (2004), pp. 3-5 for Khaled Abou El Fadl’s comments on this point.

13.Islam and the Challenge of Democracy, p. 15.

14.The Muslim World, vol. 95(3), p.451.

15.Ibid, p. 451.

16.Ibid, p. 450. A similar point is raised by Abou El Fadl, p. 3.

17.Islam and the Challenge of Democracy, p. 16.

18.For further treatment of the subject, please see John L. Esposito and John O. Voll, 1996, Islam and Democracy; Omer Caha, 2003, “Islam and Democracy: A Theoretical Discussion on the Compatability of Islam and Democracy,” Alternatives, vol. 2(3-4); Fethullah Gulen, 2001, “A Comparative Approach to Islam and Democracy,” SAIS Review, Vol. 21(2); Ermin Sinanovic, 2004, “The Majority Principle in Islamic Legal and Political Thought,” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relation, vol. 15(2).

19.Karl Deutsch, 1961, “Social Mobilization and Political Development,” American Political Science Review, vol. 55(3), pp. 493-514.

20.Lisa Anderson, 1987, “The State in the Middle East and North Africa,” Comparative Politics, vol. 20(1), pp. 1-18.

21.See Nader A. Hashemi’s commentary on Abou El Fadl’s article in Islam and the Challenge of Democracy, p. 51.

22.Various studies have analyzed the relationship between religions and democratic origins and compatibility. For examples, please see Max Weber, 2001, Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Routledge; Jim Granato, Ronald Inglehart, David Leblang, 1996, “Cultural Values, Stable Democracy, and Economic Development: A Reply,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 40(3); Steve Bruce, 2004, “Did Protestantism Create Democracy,” Democratization, vol. 11(4); Michael Minkenberg, 2007, “Democracy and Religion – Theoretical and Empirical Observations on the Relationship Between Christianity, Islam and Liberal Democracy,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies; Bruce, S., 2004 “Did Protestantism Create Democracy?” in Anderson, J. (ed.) Religion, Democracy, and Democratization, Frank Cass; Chaibong, H., 2004 “The Ironies of Confucianism,” Journal of Democracy, vol. 15(3).

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