The United Nations actually has a name for the new consciousness that is emerging across the globe: a culture of peace. There are two main hallmarks of this consciousness. The first is the understanding that we are all members of one human family. All our religions teach us to follow a path of righteousness, defined by caring for one another with generosity, compassion, mercy, and love. In previous times, we have limited the expression of these virtues to those within own tribe while arming ourselves against outsiders. The key realization of the 21st century is that there is no “other.”

Our quickness to judge others according to their race, religion, gender, ethnicity, or culture is fast diminishing. We no longer live in isolated pockets of people who look like us. Those who go to school together, work together, and meet as neighbors can’t help but notice our common humanity. And blood feuds, bigotries, and grudges nurtured for generations in closed societies are evaporating in the fresh air of inclusivity. This trend is helping us transcend the ideal of mere tolerance, as we move onto firmer ground of respect, caring, and appreciation.

The 20th century saw the rise of the interfaith movement, an important step in the advancement of humankind. For the first time, scriptures of all faiths were made available in translation, and timeless mysteries stood revealed. Concurrently, there was an enormous increase in the percentage of the world’s population that could read and even attain levels of higher education. While some leaders have continued to fan the flames of intolerance for political and economic purposes, there is a growing consensus across the globe that people of faith have more in common than the differences of their religions might imply. Interfaith organizations and observances are now widespread, and we will soon see differences of religion as another expression of the glorious diversity of our human family, along with skin color, language, and cultural background. Once we gain the wisdom to see beyond our differences, we will come to appreciate the rich storehouse of insights each tradition brings to the compendium of human knowledge and understanding. Then we will be ready to learn from one another.

In this new “universal” consciousness, it will be challenging to incite members of any group go to war against another. We have already begun to recognize that violence is not a useful way to resolve conflict because it creates a loser. In fact, everyone involved in violence, whether victor or vanquished, suffers a loss, as American combat veterans realize when they return home with PTSD and suicidal dreams. In days of old, war was considered a glorious and noble occupation. Conquest was admired and the “spoils of war” – including enslaved peoples – were considered legitimate acquisitions. Today’s understanding is more compassionate, more nuanced. War is not yet obsolete, but it is considered to be a last resort when dialogue and diplomacy fail. Dialogue and conflict resolution are now being taught in schools, and the spirit of reconciliation will be increasingly enhanced by the desire to take care of those beyond our own identified group.

We are at our best when we endeavor to understand and empower one another. Fortunately, this universal spiritual truth, so nobly expressed as the Golden Rule, is becoming ever more apparent. Every tragedy that we hear about from across the world, whether a war, an earthquake, or a tide of desperate migrants, inspires us to open our hearts and our pocketbooks. For the first time in our history, we feel the pain of people we don’t know; we are becoming one global community.

And not a moment too soon. The combined effects of human waste emissions on our air, water, and soil, along with the beginnings of potentially massive changes in the global climate, are putting the very future of human life in peril. The planet is crying out for us to change our ways and we are finally starting to listen. Indigenous peoples around the world have always told us to walk lightly on Mother Earth and treat her with respect. Will we wake up to this wisdom before it is too late?

As we reach the next level of human evolution, we begin to understand at the very core of our being that we are part of a living Earth amidst a living universe. This is the second hallmark of the emerging consciousness: the renewal of our sense of deep connection with nature, realizing that our future must include new ways to live in harmony with our environment. Our scientific approach has objectified the Earth and all the creatures who call it home. The arising culture of peace will be one of relationships based on honor and respect.

As world leaders tackle the issues of a planet threatened by desertification, shrinking coastlines, and extreme weather, the people of the world are seeking innovative solutions that will bring us inexpensive and abundant energy sourced from renewables such as the sun, the wind, the tides, and perhaps even the geothermal energy of the Earth itself. Can we learn to split the atom safely, with no hazardous waste? Can we achieve zero-point energy? These questions are for the scientists of our time. What is clear is that humanity is now aware of the need to power our lives in a way that neither depletes nor despoils the natural environment, but rather aligns with natural systems in which there is no waste that is not also used to nourish.

The United Nations began the 21st century with eight “Millennium Development Goals,” designed to significantly reduce global poverty by 2015. We now see the emergence of a new agenda called the “Sustainable Development Goals,” a comprehensive blueprint for maintaining not only a healthy relationship to the world around us, but also for fully developing the human potential of every child. It is encouraging that every nation has signed onto this commitment to creating a caring society.

Our relationship to the Earth becomes even more significant as we move increasingly towards a virtual reality. Our devices connect us to one another – both personally, to our friends and families – who are never too far away to be in touch, and worldwide, to our sources of news and information. New directions in education will allow young people to rapidly excel in both the sciences and the arts. Yet we will need even more grounding in nature, and more balance between heart and mind, as intellects soar to new heights.

Yes, the 21st century will see the opening of humanity’s heart. As we release the fear that stems from a sense of separation – whether from one another or from God – we heal into a wholeness never before experienced outside a small tribal community. The whole Earth is our community! This realization allows us to lay down our arms and experience love. This love is what will be needed to repair all that we have broken in our beautiful world. Only by caring for one another and for our Mother Earth can we create a new culture of peace, one that will assure the flourishing of the human race in the face of whatever challenges may come.

Perhaps this time of awakened consciousness will be seen as an evolutionary leap of the spirit. Imagine how powerful we will become when we recognize the spark of the Divine within every human heart, and indeed all of creation! Instead of arguing about the existence of God or the truth of our religions, we will simply see all life as sacred, cherishing the beauty of the world around us and the infinite light we see in one another’s eyes.

How do we know that the 21st century will be the time for such wonders? As we stand at the threshold of a new world, we find ourselves at an unprecedented point of tension and time is running out. Behind us lies a path to the destruction of our environment. We cannot continue to tolerate dysfunctional governance, financial systems that benefit only the few, and a consumer culture that fills our oceans with plastic and our bodies with toxic chemicals. We cannot continue to accept a civilization where some live in comfort and some in starvation. When the air temperatures and the sea levels rise, we will need a healthy planet with healthy people ready to take care of one another. And we can do it – in fact, we are ready!

What more could define this moment in time? Perhaps when we at last achieve a planetary culture of unity and peace, then we may be ready to communicate with civilizations from the stars beyond our sun. A humanity united in love may be welcomed into worlds beyond worlds.

So let us go forward together, unafraid to experience a new way to live on planet Earth as the one human family we are, caring for one another and flourishing in peace.

May peace prevail on Earth.

It was very natural that people focused on these measurements, as they were critical to everyday life. One of the first known attempts to measure length was the Egyptian cubit, developed around 3000 BC, which was based on the human body, one of the best tools then available to humanity. A “cubit” was the length of an arm from the elbow to the fingertips.

Similarly, early civilizations used what they had at their disposal to measure time, which was determined based on the regular movements of the sun. People used sundials, then candle clocks, water clocks, and sandglasses to measure time. As a result of the different methods used, the lengths of generally used time periods varied greatly from place to place – just as the units used to measure mass and length varied, too.

After the world became more interconnected, people needed a universal measure that could mean the same thing from one society to the next. In order to avoid confusion, an international standard unit of measurement, called the metric system, was created by France in 1790.

Latent constructs

During the last two centuries, the focus of measurement has shifted from observable objects to latent constructs such as traits, attitudes, and abilities. Latent constructs are based on certain theories. They can neither be observed nor measured directly. We attempt to measure them through some observable indicators, which are assumed to represent the underlying construct. For instance, the measurement of unobservable personal characteristics has challenged psychologists for centuries. Several approaches have been developed in an attempt to properly define and quantify these latent characteristics. Most of the current developments in these measurements are based on research into human sensitivity from classical psychophysics. In the 19th century, Ernst Weber, Gustav Fechner, and Herman von Helmholtz were some of the first scientists who attempted to measure human sensitivity to such sensory stimuli as lights, sounds, odors, tastes, and pressures.

Many social scientists have also been attempting to numerically identify some unobservable phenomena, such as ability, I.Q., and personality. In 1905, French psychologist Alfred Binet developed the Stanford-Binet IQ test to measure intelligence. Since then, other scholars have developed many tests for measuring intelligence. These tests are commonly used in educational and business settings.

Basic principle behind the successful measurement is to design a tool that can make it possible to obtain an accurate measure of what is intended to be measured. Despite the fact that all measurement instruments are subject to varying degrees of instrument error, psychometricians, who practice the science of measurement, and physical scientists have used different approaches to explain and reduce such errors. There are several differences between these two schools of measurement concepts. For instance, Stanley Smith Stevens (1946), an American psychologist, defined measurement as “the assignment of numerals to objects or events according to some rule.” This definition is different than physical scientists’ definition which refers to the numerical estimation and expression of the magnitude of one quantity relative to another (Michell, 1997).

Conditions to measure the unobservable

Since measuring latent objects is more difficult than measuring observable phenomena, some conditions must be met before attempting to measure these unobservable things. First, they need to be identified based on a sound theory. An underlying theory should explain the causes and results of the variations of certain abstract phenomena, as well as the phenomena’s relationship with other constructs.

The second necessary condition for an object, either physical or latent, is that there is variation. Suppose that we are attempting to measure intelligence. If a group of individuals are found to be equally intelligent, there would be no need to measure and compare.

In addition to these two conditions, mathematical models are necessary to connect the theory and its observable indicators. Since these models assume a variable that can only be measured with error, our measurements may not reflect an exact quantity.

René Descartes (1644) claimed that, “If something exists, it exists in some amount. If it exists in some amount, then it is capable of being measured.” On the one hand, this philosophy teaches us that some things may exist which we have not yet measured. For instance, before Santorio Santorio invented the first thermometer, no one could express the temperature with a numerical value. However, temperature still existed, even before the existence of humankind. Therefore, humanity’s inability to measure something does not mean that it does not exist. On the other hand, a religious person can claim that there are some metaphysical objects believed to exist but which cannot be quantified. Therefore, the existence of something does not mean that it can be quantified – or at least, not by humankind.

There are reasons to be optimistic about the measurement of unobservable objects. First, most unobservable things have observable consequences. Thus, we can estimate many latent characteristics by observing the consequences on a person’s behavior. Let’s take personality as an example. An introverted person would tend to have a hard time being in front of a group of people. Such an observation can give us some idea about a person’s level of introversion. Measurements can focus on objective, behavioral reflections of a particular trait. This can be achieved by creating an instrument that is designed to measure the desired characteristic. The patient can be given a questionnaire and answer certain questions about the trait being measured. Answers based on the patient’s self-perception could be an indication of the degree of introversion. The person’s level of self-perception plays an important role.

Nevertheless, relying only on either our or someone else’s perceptions may not be a perfect form of measurement, as it is not possible for us to perceive everything about ourselves or the world around us. Our knowledge is very limited. If we cannot quantify an object either due to its hidden constructs or our inability to measure it, this does not mean that this object does not exist or it cannot be measured.

Though Adam may never be able to precisely answer his wife’s question about how much he loves her, it’s safe to say that his love exists, even if we can’t measure it.

References

• Descartes, R. Principia philosophiae, Amsterdam 1644. Pt, 2, 57-59.
• Michell, J. (1997). Quantitative science and the definition of measurement in psychology. British Journal of Psychology, 88, 355–383.
• Stevens, S. S. (1946). “On the Theory of Scales of Measurement”. Science 103 (2684): 677–680.

However, in just 20 years, the “soul” of the Web has changed: what began as the ultimate democratic tool, the Web is increasingly turning into a “global village” and a limitless market where the consumer is the commodity.

In this essay we will examine how these changes affect our online and real lives, and whether we can glimpse at the future of staying connected.

The Web: 20 years ago and now

In a BBC documentary series, “The Virtual Revolution,” Dr. Aleks Krotoski analyzes the development of the Web and its all-encompassing impact on our lives. She speaks with the prominent and important online social strata: the founders of Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, and the inventor of the Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who acknowledges the discrepancy between the intended purpose of the Web and what it represents today.

At its beginnings, the Web was the epitome of democratization: its defiance against authority and tendency to uphold horizontal allegiances, and the fact that it gave voice to everyone and censored no one. Even now these characteristics are closely tied to the definition of the Web; however, we are also witnesses that these democratic hopes are being challenged by the growing influences of giant web companies, such as Google and Amazon, and some governments’ interests at controlling the content their citizens have access to.

It is difficult to state that Google has a monopoly over the Web, because essentially, no one has and no one can have a monopoly over the Web. However, Google’s way of making money, through the so-called Google AdWords, shows what happens when the Web meets the profit-making sector. One of the factors in the efficiency of these AdWords is the consumer profile^[1]. Google collects data about us based on the words we look up and it uses it to offer us a “more personalized experience,” i.e. showing us user-profiled ads.^[2] It seems that the consumer is becoming the consumed, as Dr. Krotoski observes. Despite this, in the words of Seth Goldstein, we are “perfectly dumb and happy” about the amount of data or “digital fingerprints” we leave behind.

Governments are also very actively involved in using the internet as the “fifth dimension of warfare.” One of Dr. Krotoski’s interviewees said that wherever there was a conflict in the real world, there was a conflict on the Web. In recent years a cyberwar has been going on between China and the U.S. and both countries have been accusing each other of running an “army of hackers.”^[3] And increasingly, there are allegations that the Russian government used the Web in its efforts to influence the recent U.S. Presidential election.

Certain conservative governments, such as the Iranian and the Chinese, employ censorship of web content on a daily basis. However, the latest attempts to pass the SOPA and PIPA acts, which have ignited massive protests in the U.S. and Europe, prove that even supposedly “democratic” governments try to cripple the “free-for-all” spirit of the Web.

What has the Web done to us?

The Web has distorted and transformed our notions of privacy. Our online habits are a gold mine for advertisers. They use recommendation engines to learn patterns of our behavior as consumers and shower us with ads for things we did not even know we needed; this process is called behavioral targeting. We are still significantly unaware to what extent and in what way this huge amount of “digital-fingerprint” data could be utilized.

However, we also willingly share some very important information about ourselves with the rest of the world through social networks and blogs, such as Facebook. Many of us give away our real names, dates of birth, locations, personal relationship status, etc., without even realizing the consequences of such openness.

The Web has also changed the way we think. We now tend to think more associatively than linearly, because of the enormous amount of data we are exposed to, which also makes us less attentive and less able to concentrate on one topic for long.

It has also become impossible to lead a political campaign without focusing on online communication between the candidate and their voters. The Arab Spring and the Occupy protests were fueled by group activity and information sharing on the Web.

The fact that 1/4 of the planet today is connected shows that the Web is increasingly penetrating every sphere of our modern lives. We are turning into Homo Interneticus, a name Dr. Krotski used to describe the new wired human, and our prototype can be found in South Korea, the most connected nation in the world. Internet addiction has long been recognized as a problem by the South Korean government; there were even some cases of addicts who neglected themselves – or their children – to the point of death^[4]. However, finding the most efficient way of treating internet addiction is still disputed.

To end with the words of Emily Bell, the Guardian News & Media director of digital content, “Forecasting the future of the internet is a horrible business, even in the short term. Those who can do it most successfully are among the richest people on the planet. Being asked what the internet will look like in four years’ time is a stretch. Being asked what it will look like in 40 years is bewildering.”^[5]

References

“Web Users Disapprove of Search Engines Collecting Personal Data for Advertising Purposes.” Buzzom. March 19, 2012. Accessed December 10, 2015. http://www.buzzom.com/2012/03/web-users-disapprove-of-search-engines-collecting-personal-data-for-advertising-purposes/.

Bell, Emily. “What Will the Internet Look like 40 Years in the Future?” Tech. October 23, 2009. Accessed December 10, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/oct/23/internet-future-websites.

Tusler, Nick. “What Does Google’s New Privacy Policy Mean for Marketers?” What Does Google’s New Privacy Policy Mean for Marketers? March 21, 2012. Accessed December 10, 2015. http://www.tmwunlimited.com/news-and-blog/posts/2012/03/21/what-does-google’s-new-privacy-policy-mean-for-marketers.

Williamson, Lucy. “South Korean Clinic Treats Web Addicts.” BBC News. August 1, 2011. Accessed December 10, 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-14361420#page.

In order to remind us of this point, God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, said: “Do you wonder at the degree of Sa‘d’s concern? I am more concerned than Sa‘d, and God is more concerned than me.” Concern requires fulfilling with great zeal whatever God likes and orders and being as determined as possible not to commit whatever He dislikes and forbids. It also requires loving from the bottom of one’s heart the Essence, Attributes and Names of the Necessarily Existent Being, and doing one’s utmost so that He may be loved also by others, and preferring relationship with one’s Lord to everything in the world and the Hereafter. In expressing these last two points in particular, the following verse of a saint is highly significant:

I wish all the people of the world love Him Whom I love,
And all that we speak about would be the Beloved.

If the endeavor required is the assumption of a determined attitude not to commit evil and therefore related to God’s absolute dislike of such acts, then this would mean that one must adopt a manner that belongs to God. He who was the voice of truth, upon him be peace and blessings, said: There is no one more concerned than God. It is because of His concern that He has prohibited all indecencies to be committed, whether in public or secretly. This draws attention to the Divine source of concern and endeavor. By saying, God displays concern, and a believer also displays concern. God’s concern is for the prohibited acts that His servant may commit, he reminds us of the mutuality of concern and the ardent endeavor that is required by it.
The scholars of truth have interpreted concern and endeavor in two ways:

• Recognizing no alternative or rival to the All-Beloved.
• Fixing all of one’s attention on the All-Beloved and trying to outdo all else in loving Him.

However we want to understand endeavor, whether it be resisting corporeal desires and trying to lead our lives on the horizon of the heart and the spirit, or waging war against evil morals and establishing a way of life formed of good morals or virtues, or feeling in our hearts that we belong to Him exclusively—all these are among the principal elements which will bring us up to the level of true humanity. They are a response to God Almighty’s infinite concern for His servants. God’s concern is that He does not leave His servants forever vulnerable to others’ sense of what is fair, just and right, and He honors them with exclusive loyalty and servanthood to Him, and He does not throw them into the humiliation of subjection to false, imaginary deities. In response to this, the required concern of His servants is, in the words of Mawlana Jami‘, the craving for One, the invoking of One, the seeking of One, the seeing and following of One, the knowing of One, and the mentioning of One.

Some view endeavor as the initiates’ making Him their unique concern, their sole hope of contentment, and excluding all else other than Him from the sphere of their efforts which must be directed toward Him alone and exclusively. It has been regarded as the manifestation of the state in which some who sigh for the All-Beloved from whom they are separated are. The initial verses of the Mathnawi by Jalalu’d-Din Rumi sound like melodies of such endeavor and longing:

Listen to the flute, how it recounts;
it complains of separation.
….
I seek a bosom split in parts by separation,
so that I can explain to it my painful yearning!
Whoever has fallen far from his origin,
longs for the day when he will be reunited with the Beloved.

Those who have made serious endeavor with utmost concern have treated the subject of endeavor in three degrees:

The first consists of the endeavor that is practiced and known by regular, profound worship of God, by those who embroider their lives with the threads of piety and righteous deeds. In order to become perfected, they exert such endeavor that even a single, slight error is enough for them to suffer pangs of conscience for a life-time.

The second degree of endeavor is practiced by those who have set their hearts on God, the Ultimate Truth, exclusively, who go from state to state, who travel from love to pleasure and thereon into deeper and deeper yearning. They make every endeavor to please Him and, as stated in the verse, To whatever direction you turn, there is the “Face” of God (2:115), they always turn to Him with all their faculties and under all circumstances, and are on the alert against letting their eyes slide to another beloved. They always try to find Him in any corner of their hearts for special meetings, as mentioned in a hadith, I have a special time with God. They regard it as the greatest disrespect for time to fail to spend even a moment in knowing and pleasing Him. They tremble with the threat, This is because you exulted on earth without right, and you behaved insolently! (40:75), and they hear with eagerness the Divine call, Eat and drink at ease as reward for your deprivations and sacrifices in past days! (69:24) resounding all the time at different pitches.

The endeavor of those endowed with true knowledge of God, which is the third degree, is always to pursue deeper and deeper knowledge of Him, saying, We have not been able to know You as knowing You requires. They glimpse unbelievable beauties and sometimes keep what they have witnessed concealed, even from their own eyes, in jealousy. Sometimes they bemoan this world as being a place where He cannot be seen and complain of their eyes, in that they are unable to see Him and belittle their own being as they cannot keep concealed their special relationship with the All-Beloved and His special favors to them. Like a compass, they are always sensitively poised and agitated until they reach the day of final, eternal reunion with the All-Beloved, a day when they will acquire steadiness.

O God, I ask for (Your) forgiveness and endeavor (to please You)! O God, guide us to what You love and are pleased with! And bestow blessings and peace on our master Muhammad Mustafa (the chosen one).

References

This article examines the philosophical underpinnings of modern humanity’s problematic relation with the bio-physical environment. These views, many critics say, suffer from anthropocentrism and dualism. After establishing these problematic viewpoints, I will turn to investigate nondualism, an alternative mode of thinking mostly promoted by religious traditions, which I believe can help us transcend the predicaments of the contemporary man-nature relationship.

Anthropocentrism and dualism

Modern humankind is anthropocentric. The centralization of humanity, accompanied by an ontological hubris, leads to the prioritization of humanity’s needs and pleasures. This justifies the transformation of the Earth into a titanic factory that supplies security and pleasure for humankind whilst destroying the biosphere.

There is another problematic aspect of anthropocentrism as it pertains to ethics in general and environmental ethics in particular. Ethical relativism seems to be the logical conclusion of human-centeredness. When an individual human being becomes the center of the world. subjectivity reigns, because there are as many “centers” as there are cognizant humans. Here, vulgar forms of ethical relativism emerge.

Can we transcend this predicament? Different forms of Kantian ethics and utilitarianism tried to rescue anthropocentrism from this self-destruction. They wanted to establish anthropocentrism without ethical relativism and skepticism. Retrospectively, as postmodern criticism has compellingly argued, it is difficult to say we were able to avoid the tension between anthropocentrism and ethical objectivity. On such a ground it is very difficult to establish an all-encompassing ethos regulating our relationship to nature. If, as a species, we need to relate ourselves to nature in a constructive way, then this degree of subjectivity seems pernicious.

As postmodernist and existentialist epistemologies argue, we inevitably interpret the world by extrapolating from ourselves. All of our cognitive activities intermingle with surrounding structures (political, economic, linguistic), rendering us subjective beings. It seems like as a species we are bound to remain anthropocentric. I do not think anthropocentrism is a bad thing, per se. The centralization of humanity could actually be a constructive power if it is accompanied by a sense of responsibility and humility. What makes anthropocentrism extremely dangerous is its alliance with another philosophical underpinning of Western thought: dualism.

The blend of anthropocentrism and dualism, in other words dualistic-anthropocentrism, is what nurtures an ethics of exploitation of nature. A dualistic conceptualization of existence poses several problems which directly influence our attitude towards nature.

First of all, dualist ontologies and epistemologies envisage a rupture between the two ends of the dichotomies. This leads to an ontological and epistemological alienation of man from both nature (res extensa) and other human beings – or other minds. It not only isolates humans from their surrounding environment, but also distances them on a vertical plane. The very nature of thinking in terms of binary oppositions leads to a hierarchy between parts of any dichotomy. Therefore, those possessing privileged properties (man, reason, male) can easily justify envisaging themselves as having the right to dominate those possessing what are perceived as inferior properties (nature, intuition, female). This mode of thinking, I believe, constitutes the subconscious of modern humanity as it deals with nature. It paves the way for the exploitation of nature and its resources.

Secondly, a dualistic categorization of existence is a mental construction, an abstraction. There is enough reason to suspect that this mental construction does not exhaust the extra-mental reality – namely that existent things do not simply consist of two distinct units. Dualism may be stifling the dynamic flux, interplay, and receptivity of different beings. As Heidegger indicates, every abstraction is a distortion. Imposing an artificial rupture between things results in a clash between mental constructions and extra-mental reality, creating an imbalance in the very fabric of nature.

Nondualism and religions

It is obvious that humanity needs a new way of seeing the world, and of self-understanding, to eliminate this humanity-nature dualism, as well as our anthropocentric fantasies. Modern humanity since the Enlightenment has developed its relationship with nature under the imposition of these two underpinning principles. Having a genuine relationship with nature as well as other human beings seems possible only through reconsidering the roots of this alienation and reasserting a different epistemology which can unite us on both the physical and metaphysical plane, thereby bridging the abyss between man and nature.

Questions arise here. How can religions help us overcome anthropocentrism and dualism? How do we go beyond these two principles, which are so embedded in our thinking?

Due to the domination of the philosophical outlook of modernism, religions too have long been interpreted under the imposition of anthropocentrism and dualism. But the pre-modern understanding of religious ontologies and epistemologies tend to be more theo-centric and non-dualist. This approach confirms the multiplicity of beings on the physical plane and bonds them to each other on the metaphysical plane. Insight into the nondualistic reality and interdependency of all things reveals the fact that humanity is not radically different from other creatures and is in need of everything else in the world.

Extrapolating from the pre-modern interpretation of the man-God-nature relationship, I believe that all religious traditions should develop, within each tradition, a discourse which is critical of and claims to offer an alternative to anthropocentrism and dualism. To put it bluntly, the alternative to dualism is nonduality, which does not envisage a radical separation between man and nature. A profound interplay between species, as well as mutuality, receptivity, and dependency, are founded on nondualism. To transcend the predicament of dualism, nondualism keeps an eye on the well-being of the whole. Since every part is organically and inseparably intertwined, every part has equal worth.

This is in sharp contrast to the dualism that categorizes, separates, alienates, and creates hierarchy within existence. There is no hierarchy in the phenomenal order; there is no part which is subordinate or of lesser value than any other. This leads to the ontological decentralization of humanity. Freed from dualism, humanity can enter a new mode of being, a nondomineering relationship with other beings. Once one is released from dualistic ego-centrism, things in the world appear no longer as alien and threatening, but as interrelated phenomena.  

Growing awareness of the interplay and profound receptivity of all things brings an expansion of the mind which invites us to transcend the constrictions of dualistic ego-centrism. If I use Said Nursi’s analogy, the ice cube of ego dissolves in the ocean of existence, reaching a more comprehensive state of being – and, as Rumi adds, without losing the consciousness of its inherent “dropness.” This expansion allows things to manifest themselves in more novel, creative, aesthetic, and complete ways.

In a nondualistic context the distinction between cause and effect blurs, too. As J. Zimmerman aptly puts it, “the idea of nature as totality of causes and effects has validity as a mental picture and only so long as no absolute ontological claims are made for it.”

The Buddhist notion of “mutual coproduction” is helpful here: “All phenomena arise simultaneously in mutual coproduction.” For a Buddhist, causality is a progeny of dualistic thinking, a mental schema relating natural phenomena without corresponding the nature of reality. The significance of this way of seeing is that when ego, the primary cause, is decentralized, cosmocentrism emerges. Humanity’s unique position as the primary cause effecting its surroundings disappears, and the profound receptivity of individual human beings emerges. Things are no longer independent, self-enclosed, substantial entities, but rather profoundly interdependent, receptive phenomena arising simultaneously. This in turn leads to a holistic view of life that decenters humanity and fosters care for all beings.

Establishing viable alternatives to anthropocentrism and dualism is a major task facing humanity today. Humanity can learn to let things be and to allow them to manifest themselves in accordance with their own limits. Theological systems which promote these values in a consistent metaphysics, whilst being in accord with what we know about the physical world, don’t just pass the test of time – they point the way forward.

The teachings of Elijah Muhammad, which were based on Black Nationalism, were different than the more widespread teachings of race-free Islam, but he was able to introduce new horizons to a mistreated community. He provided African Americans with a new way of forming community bonds and finding one’s personal identity. As the black community has gained more respect and opportunity in the larger American community, the popular understanding of the Nation of Islam has begun to change. One of the major changes came when W. Deen Mohammed became the movement’s new leader in 1975. By referring to the universality of Islam, Imam W. Deen worked to embrace all races. Visiting the Vatican for a meeting with the Pope was one of many signs of this significant shift in the Nation’s views. Around the same time the Nation of Islam was growing and changing, the Hizmet movement was growing and developing in Turkey.

Inspired by Fethullah Gülen in the 1960s, the Hizmet movement was slowly expanding and spreading its message of intercultural dialogue and education. The two organizations first overlapped in the 1990s. After the tragic developments in Bosnia, there was a great meeting in front of the White House. Many Muslims had gathered, exhorting the US to intervene in the tragedy. The address of Siraj Wahhaj, the imam of the Taqwa mosque and a member of the Nation of Islam, caught my attention. I visited and met with him. I told him that they could send their children to our high schools, if they wished. At first he was surprised. But I told him, “There are students of every color and nation at our schools in Turkey.” He was hesitant and said, “We need to get to know you guys first. Let us pay a visit to Turkey.” After coming back from his one-week trip, he told his community, “This Hizmet is very different. They do everything with wisdom. Though I did not see any signs in their schools or dorms that said Islam or mosque, I never doubted that all of the hands I shook made ablutions and that their foreheads came to the ground in prostration for God. I played basketball together with the students at their schools. I also talked with them. From the questions they asked, I understood the depth of the faithful consciousness in them. You know, I receive invitations and make different visits all over the world. In most of the places I visited, the white people treated me very kindly but I always felt I was black. However, I did not feel that way in Turkey. I felt like a piece of them, and even like a true brother to them.”

That relationship continued to grow. About a decade ago, both Imam W. Deen Mohammed and some important personalities from Nation of Islam visited Turkey. It was an honor to have them, as both Imam Deen and Minister Farrakhan are deeply honorable, respectable men. Minister Farrakhan is a great orator and has helped moved the Nation of Islam closer to the larger Islamic community. In the July 12th issue of the Nation’s newspaper The Final Call, a photograph of Farrakhan caught my attention. While attending the Friday Prayer at the Mosque Maryam, he wore a fez, which I took as a sign of his wish to embrace Islam’s centuries-long heritage. In addition, the Nation’s service centers are now named “mosques,” a change welcomed by all Muslims. While traveling in Turkey, this group met Prof. Yunus Serin in Kayseri. They asked him about Fethullah Gülen. As a person who spent many years as an academic in the city of Erzurum, where Gülen was born and raised, Serin told them what he knew about Gülen and his family. Then they asked about any difference between the financial situation of Gülen’s brothers in the past and present. Dr. Serin told them, “At the beginning, they used to run a printing house they inherited from their father. They earned their life as the owners. Now they still work at the printing house, but as ordinary workers. They are not the owners anymore.” The visitors found this fact remarkable. Dr. Serin added, “I recently came across Gülen’s brother, Salih. He humorously told me, ‘Yunus, I heard that my brother supplicated to God after his five daily prayers, asking that we stay poor. I wish he forgets to pray about it, so that we can benefit a bit from worldly means.’”

One of the visitors was Imam Farook. After his visit, he wished to take two persons from the Hizmet movement to visit with Imam W. Deen, in 2007. The imam was hesitant. He stated that he had also visited Turkey, but he returned to the US early for he was disturbed by people whose main concern was politics. When Imam Farook told him that Hizmet was very different and had no political concerns, Imam W. Deen agreed to accept the visitors. Imam Deen told them, “Two Turks had grown close to my father near the end of his life. You are also like them. If my health allows, I would like to come with you (to Turkey).”

Unfortunately, his health didn’t improve, but he still met with them in the US. At this meeting I learned that Imam W. Deen Mohammed told his imams, “You should not take a salary from mosques. You should earn a living through other means and serve the religion of God for the sake of God.” This is similar to Hizmet’s stance. The imams that we met were all educated people with good jobs. Their community of around three million people is a living example of service for the sake of God, not money or power. Another imam from the group later had a chance to meet Fethullah Gülen at his residence in Pennsylvania. After the visit, he said, “During my visit to Gülen, I was very excited. I was sitting close to him. He must have felt my excitement, for he gave me a glass of water, and I took it. As I was about to drink from it, I was startled when I heard a voice from within the glass reciting the name of God. It was the first time I experienced such a thing. He smiled at me and said, ‘There is a chip inside. The voice is coming from that.’ So I smiled and my excitement instantly disappeared. “Then I began to tell him, ‘We used to be down in trash and mud, but W. Deen Mohammed raised us up and purified us…’

While I was speaking, I realized that tears were streaming down Mr. Gülen’s cheeks. There was nothing to make him cry in my story. Actually, he was crying about something beyond my talk… about a person who lived like himself with a concern for others… Now, after having personally witnessed that, how can I see him as equal with a politician, one who looks down on everybody around him and tries to oppress everyone?” About five years ago, we went to Baltimore to visit those who had made the trip to Turkey. We learned that some of them were hosting reading sessions where they studied the works of the Risale-i Nur, by Said Nursi. One of them even asked me a question with reference to the 31st Word. It was about the fact that each Divine name has 70,000 degrees of manifestation.

From this question, I recognized that they paid serious attention to the Risale-i Nur. I saw the same attention in another member, named Abdullatif. He was telling one of his friends’ son, who was an imam, “My son Amin! I have twice read Said Nursi’s books from beginning to end, and I underlined his sentences. I understand that he zoomed into the immensities of the Qur’an like a telescope, and like a diver, he took out deep meanings from its treasures and put them to the page. As an imam, you must definitely read his books!” On August 6th, 2016, a group of us, along with Laila Muhammad, and his nephew, Imam Sultan Rahman, went to Marquette Park in Chicago. In August 1966, Martin Luther King and 700 protesters had gathered in the park, and they were pelted with stones. Laila Muhammad was a little girl then, but she was among those stoned.

Now there is a monument to Dr. King in the park. I want to write briefly about what an extraordinary person Laila Muhammad is. Before the last Ramadan, she made a trip to Bosnia and Turkey together with Dr. Hameed, Dr. Yasin, Linda al-Amin, and Nuurah Muhammad (86). In Bosnia, she visited the Ahmici village, where Croatian attackers had filed all the males into the village mosque and burned it to the ground. Upon seeing the site, she was unable to move. She was so deeply shaken that she could not attend the scheduled trip next day. On the day we visited Marquette, there was a commemoration event. From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., celebrities and famous speakers took part in the program. At the center of the event was the monument, on which Laila Muhammad’s father, W. Deen Mohammed, and Martin Luther King are depicted in relief. Their inspiration words are inscribed on the ground and the walls. It was a reminder that injustice cannot last, and even when things seem darkest, the world is becoming a more just, peaceful place. It’s important that, in these troubling times, we all remember this message of hope and unity.

The First Period

This first phase saw a rise in conservatism, fueled by quasi-taxpayer revolts and an increasing oligarchical minority seeking to control all aspects of government and business.

As this early period of conservatism rose, it became evident that the desire by many for smaller, more responsive government and less taxes would not be met. Evidence would later surface that the oligarchy, much in the manner of the 19th century “robber barons,” colluded to gather power and wealth for themselves while using the taxpayer’s own dissatisfaction against them.

Governments became, in fact, larger and more military oriented, subservient to the demands of business and the oligarchy for less and less regulation. With each increment in the reduction of environmental and other regulations came a concurrent reduction in personal liberties.

Believing there was a need for more energy, restrictions against the mining of coal, the drilling for oil and natural gas, and seeking alternative ways to obtain fossil fuels were reduced and/or eliminated. The need for more and more of these fossil fuels led to more global conflicts, as countries sought to find and secure the rapidly diminishing supplies of fossil fuel. This in turn necessitated increased military, defense, and security-based spending. Wars became the norm rather than the exception, which created an age gap, as an entire generation was squandered fighting in these conflicts.

The reduction or removal of environmental-based regulations, long proclaimed by conservatives as barriers to economic growth, led to an increase in air and water pollution levels, and the destruction of natural habitats, which in turn had a devastating impact on the planet in general. The increase in pollution levels and lack of regulations would also have an adverse effect on the general health of the world’s human population. The air quality in many cities around the world literally forced governments to shut down because people could not go outside. Infant mortality, once dropping, began to rise.

Faced with an increase in military, defense, and security-based spending, many governments had to cut back on humanitarian spending, education, and basic research. At first, this was accepted by the many who had sought the elimination of such projects.

And while attempts to resist these steps were made at the local level, they were decidedly limited in their impact. Hospitals – taken over by health insurance companies (under the mantra that businesses knew how to make hospitals work) and driven by the bottom-line mentality that suggested each hospital had to make a profit – began to close, leaving many people without any medical assistance. It quickly became apparent that only a relative few, the rich and powerful that constituted the oligarchy, would have medical care.

As businesses responded to the demands of the oligarchy, wages were reduced with the declaration that businesses could not pay living wages and make a profit. The effect of this mentality began to show towards the latter portion of this first period.

Eventually, due to the increased military spending and the falling wages of the majority, businesses began to fail. There was a sense that a Great Depression, far greater than any before, was imminent.

At the same time, loss of income and the failure of many businesses triggered a revival in debtors’ prisons, where people who could not pay their bills were jailed until someone could pay their debts for them. The false logic of this solution – that people who were not able to pay their own bills would be able to pay the bills of their friends – escaped those whose only concern was the bottom line.

Responding to other latent demands of the conservatives, laws against discrimination were also repealed. Discrimination based on race, sexual and gender identity, and ethnic origin rose precipitously.

Organized religion, already in decline as the 21st century began, saw its decline rapidly increase. Along with a rise in political conservatism was a rise in religious conservatism. Those associated with these fundamentalist movements sought a stricter interpretation of their respective Holy Scriptures (oftentimes in direct contradiction to what was the commonly accepted ideas of the Scriptures), as well as the need for greater cooperation between governments and religions.

These now fundamentalist religions began to openly push a more Calvinistic view: that wealth and power were the hallmarks of a righteous life, poverty was the sign of a sinful life, and that one’s status in life was already determined.

Educational systems, already under attack at the beginning of the 21st century, were slowly transformed from centers of creativity and thought into indoctrination academies, dedicated to teaching basic knowledge without additional thought and supportive of the discriminatory nature of society. The goal of the early 21st century school was the development of trained, unquestioning workers who accepted minimum wage jobs with limited benefits and no job protections.

Colleges which did not support the overall view of the oligarchy and conservative establishment quickly found themselves under attack and without funds.
Technology development stagnated as individuals capable of maintaining and supporting existing technology were no longer available. And with the loss of general research and support funds, there was no research being done on the next generation of technology or areas such as alternative energy research. An interesting side-effect to this loss of technologically skilled workers was that defense projects begun in the late 20th and early 21st century, almost all of which relied heavily on technology, were not able to be repaired as military units had no one to deal with the support function, leaving many of the weapons procured for multiple millions of dollars unusable.

Workers were quickly stripped of the rights and privileges, all of which had been gained through the workers’ movements of the mid-20th century. Unions, already suffering massive blows, were quickly eliminated as the conservative central government declared that businesses did better without them. As workers dealt with increasingly inhospitable working conditions and uncaring management, there was a concurrent rise in workplace violence as stress levels increased.

Clearly, the consequences of changes begun at the beginning of the 21st century were not what its supporters had wanted or even imagined. It was a world beset by climate and environmental problems, embroiled in many different global wars, and divided by racial, gender, and ethnic identities.

The move into the 21st century instead began to look like a movement backwards in time, echoing the rise of Nazism in the early and mid-1930s.

The Second Period

The second phase of the 21st century would be labeled by some as a time of creative anarchy.

The beginnings of this phase were marked by what became known as the 4th or “Greater” Faith Revival. Frustrated by the failure of the organized church and religious groups to respond to the increasingly discriminatory   nature of society, individuals began leaving organized religions. Faced with the need find comfort in a time of need, individuals began meeting, often in secret, in the homes of believers or other non-traditional venues, such as coffee houses or book stores.

Echoing the days of the early Christian church, these small groups began ministering to the poor and needy, the homeless and sick, the persecuted and forgotten. These groups flourished because they offered solutions that the current power and social structures could not solve or ignored completely. While at first these groups were defined in the traditional sense, they quickly became places to study other faiths and find ways to utilize the common points of all faiths to change the role of society outside traditional thought. It was recognized that faith was an individual’s relationship with God and that each relationship was unique.
Groups increasingly shut out of traditional political, economic, and social structures began forming their own political, economic, and social structures. These groups no longer willingly supported the traditional organized structures. An underground economy, first begun in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, utilizing “bitcoins” and micro-banks, supported these small groups.

Despite the seeming chaos, these small groups, founded in faith and a belief in the people, began making changes that supported everyone, even those outside their small group. These changes in turn began to weaken traditional structures, both political and social.

In addition, from almost the start of these small groups, it was understood that there was a limit to the size of the group. And once that size limit   was reached, it would be necessary to split into two or more groups to maintain the innovative and creative nature of the group. This limiting principle proved a necessity for the future success of the movement.

Utilizing the new underground economy, people found ways to do what the oligarchy had long been doing, and that is to avoid paying taxes. Conflicts between the oligarchy and their political representatives arose as the political representatives sought ways to fund governments and the members of the oligarchy refused to pay. This led to multiple funding crises in countries around the world.

The graduation of the classes of 2020, the “classes of vision,” provided the critical mass necessary to transform the small underground groups into the basis for a world-wide movement that transcended traditional social, economic, political, and geographical boundaries. This paved the way for the third phase of the 21st century to begin and flourish.

The Third Period

In this third phase, small groups, formed in protest to traditional processes, began developing ways to work together. Democracy became more localized as these groups used the social media communication methods first established during the Arab Spring of 2010. These methods allowed groups to communicate and work together without the need for centralized governments.

This was typified by the change in government operations in the United States. Recognizing the efficiency of the small group approach, members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate began operating out of their home and district offices, with Congress meeting as a large collection

of town and group meetings. While there were still government offices in Washington, D. C., the bulk of the government business was conducted electronically. This in turn made government more responsive to the needs and interests of the local population and less to that of the oligarchy that had risen to power just a few years earlier.

There was also a shift, fueled in part by the underground economy but also by the change in the way government worked, in overall government spending.

Big companies, long considered the essential role-model, could not adapt to the small group mentality of the new economy and began to collapse or were replaced by more responsive local industries and businesses.

Agriculture became increasingly “community supported agriculture” with less reliance on fertilizers, insecticides, and other chemicals to bolster production.

The third period of the 21st century saw a major decrease in military, defense, and security spending. As small groups began working and communicating with each other, there was less and less of a need for a continued military presence in each country. With money no longer being spent this way, additional funds were directed towards increased spending on humanitarian and research efforts.

Healthcare became universal as individuals, having gone through a time where there was no healthcare and faced with serious healthcare-related issues, saw the need for a universal system. And surprisingly, the cost which so many people proclaimed would rise dramatically, was reduced to virtually nothing. Concurrently, great strides were made in the area of medical research, achieving goals long thought impossible to meet.

The third period of the 21st century saw the promise of space exploration, first achieved in the late 20th century but cast aside due to limited funds, again become a reality. A truly permanent presence in low-earth orbit around the globe was established and exploratory manned missions to the other planets, and beyond, were begun.

The transition to the 22nd century

As Earth’s population moved into the 22nd century and beyond, the boundaries of the earth’s gravity that had for so long, figuratively and actually, bound mankind to its surface, there was a renewed human spirit that transcended political and geographical boundaries.

There was an increased focus on faith as it became evident that, without faith, the outcome of the 21st century might have been something terribly different.

And while there were those who would continue to proclaim that it would be better to be bigger, the evidence showed that there was a greater sense of security and stability, of health and happiness, in the small group model.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, people sought ways to establish peaceful communities by withdrawing from society. Such communities were always doomed from the beginning because one can never truly escape from society. But as the 21st century came to a close and the 22nd century began, people found a way to come close to those Utopian goals. And while there were and will probably always be differences between individuals, both in small groups and across the planet, the understanding of how to work between groups to resolve differences without violence, destruction, or warfare, helped humanity achieve a lasting peace.

As a phenomenon, stress is a must for humanity’s survival; however, it becomes harmful when encountered excessively. Stress is what makes you run away from a giant bear in the middle of the forest. And it is the same force that drives you to fight when cornered. This fight or flight response primarily involves the sympathetic nervous system, which initiates a chain of reactions in communications between the body and the brain. Within seconds, stress hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) are released into the bloodstream, which in turn increase heart rate and blood pressure. This response occurs rapidly, though the hormones clear out of the system just as quickly when the threat passes.

What happens if our fight or flight response is constantly triggered? What if stress hormones become a normal part of our bodily system? For instance, you might have taken your first “F” on a calculus test; this is followed by many others later on in the semester. Or you may have wanted to start your day with a fresh cup of coffee; instead, you were stuck in traffic and were late for work, and then forgot to hand in a big report to your boss.

Imagine that these kinds of events are repeated more often than not; now think about how they make your feel. The medical terminology for this phenomenon is chronic stress. The consequences of chronic stress affect all aspects of our health, primarily the neural control systems, i.e. the brain.

The Hippocampus, an essential area for memory storage and recall, is located in the inner layers of the brain. The specific system within which this structure is located is called the Limbic System. This is the brain’s Emotion Center. Similar to computers, our brains have two main memory systems. One is called short-term memory, which stores the information received through our senses. This information is usually brief, e.g. seven letters or digits such as phone numbers, and is usually processed in just a few seconds. This feature of the human brain resembles RAM (random access memory) in computers, because it mainly serves as a temporary storage area.
Conversely, the other type of memory, also referred to as our “real memory,” is long-term. This is where we permanently store information – unless, of course, our brain is impaired by physical traumas, aging, or stress. We can think of this as the equivalent of a hard drive in data processing machines.

Despite contributions from many other areas, the hippocampus plays the leading role in memory storage by performing “information consolidation” and converting temporary memories into memories that are suitable for long term storage. The process by which our brain commits information to long term memory can take minutes, hours, or even days. Our brain can retain information for a very long time, until we start to lose either individual encoded nerve cells or the connections bridging them. Once info is stored, it becomes your permanent data, to be recalled when needed. For this reason, the hippocampus can be seen as our personal storage box.

Despite the astonishing hippocampus and its ability to develop on its own, it is ultimately affected by the brain’s common enemies, such as strokes, neurodegenerative diseases, brain tumors, and trauma related injuries. Most of these conditions will impact the region by attacking the neurons and their network of connections, which may lead to memory loss, depending on the magnitude of the damage and the region where the impairment takes place. Alzheimer’s disease is a commonly observed condition that leads to memory loss. Although, it was first believed that Alzheimer’s primarily affects elderly people older than the age of 65, recent cases indicate that it can be diagnosed as early as one’s thirties. The signature symptom of the disease is a progressive memory loss due to the substantial loss of neurons in this area. This is called hippocampal deterioration. For this reason, the size of the hippocampus can be used as a measure to follow up the progress of the disease. Although age related factors are the prime suspects, there are more variables in the equation that can trigger this devastating condition.

Stress can affect our memory. While normal and moderate levels of stress are necessary for our body to trigger protective mechanisms, excessive levels of stress can lead to temporary and chronic disorders. Signs of stress can be physical, behavioral, and emotional, but they can also be cognitive. These include memory deficits. To see the dramatic changes that result from chronic stress on nerve cells.

The underlying mechanism of how stress affects the hippocampus can be explained by the fact that the hippocampus contains high levels of glucocorticoid receptors, which make it more vulnerable to long-term stress than most other brain areas. Stress-related steroids affect the hippocampus in at least three different ways: first, by reducing the excitability of some hippocampal neurons; second, by inhibiting the genesis of new neurons in the dentate gyrus; third, by causing the atrophy of dendrites in pyramidal cells.

Interestingly, religion plays a role in how our memory works – and it can be both a positive and negative force. “Hippocampal atrophy can be introduced by the level of stress that has been suffered in selected religious groups,” found Amy Owen and her colleagues at Duke University. She hypothesizes that the observed hippocampal shrinkage is greater in those who are part of a minority group or struggle to express their beliefs in society. In their MRI (brain imaging method used to measure the volume of the hippocampus) studies, Owen et al. found significantly greater hippocampal shrinkage among born-again Protestants, Catholics, and those with no religious affiliation compared to others.

Earlier studies regarding relations between religion and the brain demonstrated many undeniably positive effects of religion on the brain. It is believed that since religion leads to a more tranquil and less stressful lifestyle, religious practices have beneficial effects on the human brain, particularly on the hippocampus. However, controversial findings have caused speculation about the negative effects of religious experience on selected individuals by causing chronic stress and anxiety.

When we consider the principles of memory processing and its ability to store the information gained by sensory perception, it is not surprising that “life-changing experiences” would have a great impact on our body. When we are surprised, we learn. Who does not remember the first time we were burned by a hot stove? Or falling off a bicycle? The strength of our memories depends on the degree of impact the event has on us. It is known that the experiences that have greater impacts, such as an affiliation with a new religion, are more likely to be stored in the long-term memory part of the brain and be recalled as active memories.

It’s understandable, then, why religious experiences can have such an impact on a person’s brain. Just as a strong religious community leads to a healthy brain, it makes sense that a minority in a religious community might be stressed. Though “religion” is frequently referred to as an important coping mechanism, it may also have contrasting effects in such cases. This raises two important questions: why and how?

Starting at an early age, we are susceptible to environmental changes like growing up in a family, building friendships, and living in society. Living as a minority in our society or have conflicting beliefs with others may cause short-term or long-term stress, if the experiences also produce a change in one’s social network.

“Life changing experiences in religion” are not easy to interpret since many variables are involved, such as age, sex, ethnicity, and existing traditions. Do these factors also play a critical role in this equation?

One might ask, what if we test younger subjects, who have fewer life experiences, to see if they are better at adapting to new conditions? This might reveal the underlying causes of stress, i.e. whether religious practices cause stress and if they have an effect on hippocampal atrophy.

The hippocampus is not completely developed until the age of two. During this early period, its development is extremely sensitive to the effects of chronic stress. It has been documented that hippocampal shrinkage is highly possible among those who are born healthy but exposed to stressful conditions. Growing in a healthy family and gaining supportive parental care is an important part of eliminating early stress in young children.

The difficulties that certain individuals experience while trying to adapt to new communities or societies may be similar to what children experience in a less caring family. Studies show that stress and chaos at home impair the development of self-regulatory behaviors, which can lead to underdeveloped decision making skills.

To understand the underlying mechanism of stress-induced hippocampal atrophy in certain individuals, we might have to reconsider our current understanding of the environmental conditions that cause stress. In other words, in what circumstances are we most likely to experience stress and feelings that lead to stress, and what is the product of these events?

Nevertheless, stress is necessary, to a certain extent. It allows us to understand the significance of an obstacle. Imagine yourself studying for one of the most important tests of your life; the level of stress and pain during the pre-test period would be described as “suffering.” However, once the test is over, you’ll likely feel a sense of great relief.

This leads to another question researchers must ask: how do individuals handle stress when they have been prepared to face it? Once again, the student-test example is useful. In one extreme, student A studies very diligently and feels confident about the test. Although the student spends a good amount of time stressing out about the test, this stress will be temporary and replaced by gratitude once the goal is achieved. On the other hand, student B is lazy and does not prepare at all. Though deceptively happy at first, he or she is ultimately wasting his or her time by playing around. Overwhelming stress will take over as the deadline approaches. The Qur’an comments on this:

There is no clear answer as to whether religious affiliation leads to increased or decreased levels of stress, especially in people who have survived critical changes in their lives. Is the stress we experience because we struggle with our beliefs in society, or is it because of difficulties in adapting our beliefs to those of society? This is a chicken and egg problem. Although we are not certain how religion affects the human brain, we now know there is an absolute correlation. It seems that this uncertainty will prevail until some studies that can shed light on the issue become available.

References

• Owen AD, Hayward RD, Koenig HG, Steffens DC, Payne ME, 2011 Religious Factors and Hippocampal Atrophy in Late Life. PLoS ONE 6(3): e17006. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017006
• Rong-Jian Liu * and George K. Aghajanian, Stress blunts serotonin-and hypocretin-evoked EPSCs in prefrontal cortex: Role of corticosterone-mediated apical dendritic atrophy, PNAS January 8, 2008 vol. 105 no. 1 359-364
• Marks L., Fam Process. 2004 Jun;43(2):217-31. Sacred practices in highly religious families: Christian, Jewish, Mormon, and Muslim perspectives.
• Prull MW, Gabrieli JDE, Bunge SA (2000). “Ch 2. Age-related changes in memory: A cognitive neuroscience perspective”. In Craik FIM, Salthouse TA. The handbook of aging and cognition. Erlbaum. ISBN 978-0-8058-2966-2.].
• Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7, 30-40 (January 2006) | doi:10.1038/nrn1809
• Sapolsky RM, Krey LC, McEwen BS (1986) The neuroendocrinology of stress and aging: the glucocorticoid cascade hypothesis. Endocr Rev 7: 284–301.
• Bremner JD. Does Stress Damage the Brain? Understanding Trauma-related Disorders from a Mind-Body Perspective. New York: W.W. Norton; 2002.
• D. Kapogiannis, A. K. Barbey, M. Su, G. Zamboni, F. Krueger, and J. Grafman, “Cognitive and Neural Foundations of Religious Belief,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106, no. 12 (2009): 4876–4881.
• Aging, stress and the hippocampus. Miller DB, O’Callaghan JP. Ageing Res Rev. 2005 May; 4(2):123-40

After the attempted putsch on July 15, 2016, Erdoğan’s government lost no time in blaming Hizmet, even though Gülen himself vehemently denies any involvement, declaring that those actually behind the events “committed treason against the unity of their country” and “caused hundreds of thousands of innocent people to suffer under the government’s oppressive treatment.” Immediately afterwards, Erdogan began to accelerate his course of harassment, detaining and arresting thousands in a sweep termed the “Purge.” The ensuing fear has increased societal divisiveness and paranoia. Amidst the chaos, Erdogan continues to posture as “Savior of Besieged Turkey.”

Safiye described the situation: “There is no law in Turkey, they are just putting people into jail.” Although traumatized, she and her husband are among the fortunate who left in time—thousands of passports of those currently trying to flee have been revoked by the Turkish government. The couple will now apply for asylum, and try to rebuild their disrupted lives in the United States, although how they will do so is unclear. While I have interviewed over twenty Turkish refugees, here I focus chiefly on Safiye and a few others. This article sheds light on the plight of Hizmet-affiliated Turkish refugees, and seeks to explain why and how they left, and what they will now do in their place of refuge. Those fleeing repressive regimes, whose lives have been upended by political events beyond their control, deserve to have their stories known.

Why Hizmet participants fled Turkey
The rift and government repression before July 15, 2016

Erdoğan’s AKP government is oppressing the Hizmet movement today, but both appeared to be allies of convenience for around ten years. In part, this was because both groups promoted freedom of religion in the public arena. Having suffering under decades of an aggressive form of secularism, supported by previous governments ever since Atatürk founded the Turkish Republic in 1923, the two parties found common cause in freedom of faith. Atatürk’s form of secularism strictly relegated piety to the home or mosque, and discriminated against the overtly pious, such as women wearing headscarves. However, the relationship between Gülen and Erdogan took an ugly turn after a series of events, beginning with Hizmet participants’ escalating dismay at the brutal way Erdogan handled the 2013 Gezi Park protestors, and his government’s connection to a corruption scandal involving smuggling gold to Iran to pay for Turkey’s fuel. Because Erdogan believed that Hizmet participants were directly involved in bringing that 2013 graft scandal to light, he angrily closed schools and tutoring centers linked to the movement, and began to arrest members of the judiciary and police whom he believed were Hizmet-affiliated and had exposed the scheme.

Part of Erdogan’s strategy to consolidate power has involved closing or taking over a number of media institutions and closing thousands of “college prep” schools, even those in disadvantaged areas, such as Kurdish regions in southeast Turkey. His government, run by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), also began to arbitrarily arrest and seize the assets of those perceived in any way as a challenge to his control of Turkey, including judges, educators, and businessmen. Those involved in the Hizmet movement and the Kurdish community are his primary targets, but his reach has gone beyond those two groups.

The Hizmet movement has focused much of its energy establishing and operating these educational institutions, which has left affiliated teachers, students, and their families acutely vulnerable to the government’s hostile focus. Safiye pointed out that before the rift, those supporting the AKP had also put their children in Hizmet schools. She insisted, “They [AKP supporters] know us, they used to know us very well, more than others in the rest of Turkey.” Yet in 2015, the government had the Ankara police department’s anti-terrorism units invade Hizmet-affiliated schools in Ankara as they had done elsewhere. She described the scene: “They tore the upholstery off of the sofa. We don’t even smoke, no one smokes in our schools. They were looking for drugs. They did terrible things. They brought 200 police to one single school.”

Similarly, Fatih, a single 26 year-old teacher, described three years of school inspections, as frequent as once a week. He explained, “The students were always scared by the black cars; they were scared the inspectors would close the school.” According to Fatih, these inspectors were seeking to find the smallest of infractions so they could shut the schools, but this widespread tactic, which began after the rift, also reflects a pattern of intimidation against the movement. Others told me similar stories—in several cases, these schools were raided by soldiers carrying machine guns during school hours, terrifying the children.

This pattern of overt harassment also extended to the media. After the November 2015 elections, the emboldened government began to take extreme measures. In March, 2016, it assumed control of Hizmet-run Zaman Newspaper, and later raided Koza-İpek, one of the major media corporations supporting Hizmet. Opposition television and radio syndicates were closed down or taken over (Hizmet-affiliated and otherwise), and by late October 2016, over 160 media outlets had been closed or taken over by the government. This number includes fifteen that were closed on October 29 alone. These were mainly Kurdish media outlets, found in southeast Turkey.

Erdogan also began arresting hundreds of Hizmet-affiliated bureaucrats, government employees, and businessmen in Turkey, in his effort to quash what he alternatively termed, as part of his smear campaign, “the parallel state” or the “Gülenist terror group.” By April, 2016, 2,261 participants had been detained, and 501 arrested.” These events led many in the movement to fear for their physical safety and the future of Hizmet in Turkey. Those that could afford to leave, fearing imminent arrest, fled Turkey for other countries, even before the events of July 15.

After the Coup Attempt: The Purge

Unduly condemned for attempting to overthrow the government, Hizmet participants’ situation rapidly deteriorated after the failed coup. Erdogan declared a state of emergency and decreed a three-month suspension of the European Convention of Human Rights, which he later prolonged for another three months (thus far). Doing so, he removed human rights safeguards, allowing his government to take actions against civilians that otherwise would be illegal in Turkey. His government has fired over 100,000 people, detained over 75 thousand, and arrested over 35 thousand. While many of those targeted are connected in some way to the movement, Erdogan’s scope has included anyone perceived as opposing his government. According to Human Rights Watch, many in jail have been subject to torture by the Turkish police. Detainees report being raped and sexually abused, held in stress positions, deprived of sleep, and beaten. Those suffering these forms of abuse will not find justice any time soon: government officials taking part in the torture have been absolved of responsibility by decrees released during the State of Emergency, even though international law clearly prohibits torture. Even in the unlikely case that some clandestine faction of the movement were eventually found culpable of the plot, this would not justify the government’s arrest and torture of those uninvolved Hizmet participants.

Those not arrested have found their lives disrupted in other ways. Over two thousand educational institutes were abruptly closed or taken over, leaving thousands of students in the lurch, having to find new institutions or unable to complete their degrees. Labeled “terrorists,” Hizmet participants find themselves treated as if they were radioactive by the larger Turkish society, and sometimes even by their neighbors, friends, and family members. Weary yet indignant, Safiye stated, “Everyone knows we are not guilty or terrorists. I haven’t ever used a weapon. The only time I have used a knife is in the kitchen.” In the fearful aftermath of the coup attempt, even those who might privately defend Hizmet, cannot do so publicly without fear of reprisal—or even worse, they might then find that others now associate them with the movement.

Conspiracy theories abound regarding who actually masterminded the events of July 15, but as of yet, the question has not been resolved. Observers of Turkish politics have noted that other possible architects include Erdogan himself, the secular ultranationalists, or an unknown anti-government alliance. Nevertheless, those minimally connected with Hizmet find themselves stigmatized and under a cloud of suspicion. Despite their ostensibly profound commitment to altruism, Hizmet members find themselves the brunt of bigotry, painfully ostracized, and alone.

In fact, they are not completely alone. Kurds, who make up 18% of Turkey’s population, have also felt the sting of his attacks in a number of ways, and the Purge also victimizes the Kurdish community. Only a small minority of Kurds belong to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out terror attacks on Turkish soil towards the goal of an independent Kurdish state. Yet the larger Kurdish community, which has suffered decades of oppression in Turkey, is unfairly associated with PKK violence. Erdogan capitalizes on nationalist anti-Kurdish sentiment in Turkey, gaining support through his tough rhetoric and military attacks against the Kurds (not just the PKK); current social divisiveness has heightened xenophobia in Turkey. While many Kurds nonetheless support Erdogan’s AK Party, others belong to the pro-Kurdish HDP (The Peoples’ Democratic Party), which is fiercely critical of the government (but not militant). On November 4, 2016, the government arrested Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdag, co-leaders of the HDP, as part of a terrorism investigation. The HDP is the third largest political party in Turkey and unconnected to PKK terrorism—this move appears to be part of the president’s policy of muzzling dissent.

How They Fled

Many of those interviewed left because they feared impending arrest, and some left immediately after hearing that colleagues had been thrown in jail. Those with sizable wealth were more easily able to purchase tickets to move abroad, although some reported having to sell homes or businesses at a fraction of their worth, in order to liquidate assets. Those in the middle class told me they sold items such as their cars or laptops just to buy airfare. For example, Safiye explained that her husband had to give up his property to leave. She said, “He sold the house and car, and came to Seattle and waited for me. He said, ‘you’ll come to the US, and we’ll see how it goes.’ Unfortunately, other plans [the coup] happened.”

Fatih described becoming increasingly anxious about the political situation, and said, “I just got onto a plane and left with only two thousand dollars.” He was fortunate to have been able to leave, as was Safiye’s family. Soon after the attempted coup, the government revoked the passports of over 50,000 Turkish citizens to prevent them from immigrating.

Starting All Over

Almost all of the refugee families with whom I spoke planned to apply for political asylum, and then to open a business in the United States, even when they had no business experience. Some also related a desire to pursue academic degrees. While many speak some English, most will have to spend time sharpening their English language skills to be able find employment. I asked Safiye and her husband, Atilla, what they planned to do here if their asylum bid were successful. Safiye dreams of pursuing a Master’s degree in psychology, but for now would settle with opening a small shop. She laughed suddenly, overwhelmed, and said, “I don’t know, I can’t think.”

Her husband, Atilla, also plans to open a business. I asked him how he would do that, and his eyes got red and teary, and he abruptly walked away from the interview to compose himself. When he returned, he admitted he did not yet know how he would do that, having spent his life in the field of education. He explained, “Now we are zero. How can we start from zero? We will try to get to one. We will try to be an individual of the US. I want to be a good citizen of the US. We can’t leave here illegally. If we want to live here, we have to do everything by the law.”

A few asylum-seekers were too traumatized to think that far ahead, and might need to cope with their grief before trying to make a plan. Refugees are dealing with pain and guilt about loved ones at home, some of whom have been arrested before or during the Purge. The shock of having to leave their homes to escape before being detained, in some cases with little warning, left some refugees reeling. Fatih explained, “I can’t get stressed out. If I do, I get headaches and hair loss. I went to the doctor and he said, ‘do not get stressed.’ Here I am a nothing, I have no value. I don’t have a working permit. I don’t have plans about life. I can’t see my future, I can’t see in front of myself. I’m 26 years old, I’m educated, but here I’m nothing, I’m not a teacher.” Clearly, time and support are needed for him to recover and make a new life.

Providing Assistance

Any expression or action of support on the part of Americans for Turkish refugees is deeply appreciated and needed, especially in the current climate. After the 2016 presidential election, many Muslims in the United States are terrified that president-elect Donald Trump will carry out his threat to ban or deport Muslims, and that some of the Islamophobic statements he has made will embolden others to bully or intimidate Muslims. Of particular concern is the recent spike in attacks against Muslim women in America, whose headscarves make them particularly identifiable. That being said, in general, the recent wave of Muslim refugees arriving from places of political conflict (Syria, Yemen, Turkey) are even more acutely vulnerable than American Muslims with US citizenship. Safiye and her family, for example worry about receiving asylum, being seen favorably by other Americans, and having their daughter accepted—and not bullied—in her new school. Meanwhile, they also worry about finding permanent housing, employment, and friends with whom to create a new community.

Americans can help in a number of ways. They can offer to be allies and stand against Islamophobic bullying. They can assist in finding employment and housing, even by simply offering advice or contacts. They can donate to associations that aid refugees such as the International Rescue Committee (IRC) or the United Nations High Committee for Refugees (UNHCR). Even the simple altruistic gesture of offering a neighboring refugee a friendly cup of tea or coffee, goes far in making someone who suddenly finds him or herself in an unfamiliar environment, dispirited, alone, and disoriented, better able to cope.

Conclusion

Safiye’s family, like Fatih and many others, narrowly escaped being arrested for their association with the Hizmet movement. Despite choosing a career as a teacher in order to help others, Safiye finds herself rejected by her own motherland. She laughed bitterly at the end of her story, and told me that to her, a homeland is the place that provides for its citizens’ wellbeing. “Turkey doesn’t give us that,” she added, and stated, “if a country or a nation does not give you food, water, security, it is not your nation anymore.” Others I interviewed echoed her sentiment, and are resigned to settling abroad, perhaps permanently. Victims of Erdogan’s attempts to silence all opposition in Turkey, they now have to find their way in exile. 

Roses, daisies, dandelions, lilies, all in mesmerizing colors
Dew sparkling on violets, jasmines, and leaves,
Bleary-eyed hyacinths and tulips
Moths flying between light and colors
Appearing on every horizon is the brightest of beauties.

When my heart is filled with the best dreams,
My faith is my honest guide
My prism to see and love everything
Making me feel all the mystery
In every step of the colorful world

As the spirit coils up into the ether
Traces of meanings emerge in my imagination
Silent whispers flow into my heart
In an incomprehensible language, without letters and words
As if the gates to the heavens creak open nearby

At that point humans listen to existence
Hearing the tunes of the Infinite One in their hearts
On the prairies, valleys, and shores every spring
They look for the lost Heavens
Feelings of hope and longing are side by side

They embrace everything on their path
The grass, trees, rocks, earth, all of existence
For them, the light and darkness are the same
They welcome sickness and health with contentment
They are slaves, living like kings