The human life, likewise, is marked by an experience of exhibition. The entire universe is out there for us to visit every day and every moment and cherish the beauties therein. The human being is no less an exhibition. As eloquently mentioned in the lead article we are blessed with a perfect physical structure that “whichever organ we may study, it is impossible not to feel admiration before its anatomy.” But the human is not only what it appears outside: “the depth of the inner world of a person has such rich potential to develop, and the potential to keep developing dimensions within; a complicated brain and a spirit with an elusive essence that evades material measure; and then the perfectly harmonious relation of these two phenomena-the physical and the spiritual together. . . mysterious beings… Within everything are meanings crystallized from the hues in the corona of that magnificent artwork-the human and her dignity.” The lead article is complemented with other articles in this issue on some of the fantastic abilities given to the human: the miraculous human birth, sneezing as a protective alarm system for our body, and the amazing Endoplasmic Reticulum which is the “industry district” in our cell where “most of the factories of molecules produced by chemical reactions are found.”

The Fountain continues to partner with civil society organizations and universities for international conferences and other events around the world. The earliest ones in the pipeline are the “Peacebuilding through Education” conference in New York, September 24, and “Ideal Human and Ideal Society” conference in Lahore, Pakistan, November 21. One concurrent event with the New York conference is Peace in a Frame photography competition. You will see ads of these events in this issue, and please refer to the listed websites for further information.

My most recent visits were to Pakistan and Finland, two countries that on the surface have very few in common, if any, in terms of continent, climate, people, culture, population, economy, politics, stability… you name it. And my conviction was once again confirmed that it is absolutely a necessity to see a country with your own eyes and get firsthand knowledge to be able to see beyond what you have through other means.

The Fountain presentation on media and values was conducted in four universities with great interest and participation. Students and faculties actively joined the discussion with invigorating questions on the universal themes and values The Fountain cherishes. Despite what the Western mind would expect of Pakistan, interestingly, the female ratio in the academia is visibly very high and their voice is no less strong than their counterparts in the West.

Finland has its own texture and character by all means. Although it was mid-April, there were still pockets of muddy snow especially in the northern-facing shades of the landscape and buildings. Hardly anyone in the streets was around, even at the airport terminal, with the exception of those enjoying the spring sun during their lunch break.

However different any given country might be from another, culture of coexistence is inevitably a common theme in both regardless of continent or culture. The Minister of Culture and Sports, Paavo Arhinmäki, who opened the conference organized by Finland Dialog Association and The Fountain in Helsinki on April 24, said “Encountering ethnic and cultural diversity is no longer the experience of just a few. It has become an everyday reality for many more people worldwide. Interactive skills and conflict resolution must become part of everyone’s civil preparedness. The desire to participate and act only becomes greater through personal involvement.”

This quote summarizes the universality of our need for greater awareness of peaceful coexistence and proves that our differences are a richness of diversity. Hence, this is one of the many reasons why The Fountain is actively engaged in different continents and societies and what we try to reflect in the contents. In the same vein, this issue covers themes that are universally relevant, like What It Means to Be Human, food safety, environment, bad memory, and senior citizens. This issue also offers thought-provoking articles on natural sciences, appreciating the compatibility of the type of food animals consume with their digestion system, the perfect physical make-up of birds, and the very interesting balance in the world that is bound with its rotation. Challenges in the gifted education are also separately discussed.

For those of you in the northern hemisphere, we wish you a good summer, and a reasonable winter for those of you in the south.

Roughly speaking, the bulk of Central Eurasia consists of Central Asia and the Caucasus but also stretches to such regions as Turkey, the Turkic/Muslim regions of southern Russia, northern Afghanistan, southern Siberia, Tibet and Mongolia.[1] Largely due to Turkic influence, shaped historically by a tolerant understanding of co-existence as enjoined in Islam, this region has won prestige internationally for its peaceful efforts in this diverse geographical area.

Such leading U.S. universities as Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of California in Los Angeles, and the University of Indiana in Bloomington offer graduate courses on Central Eurasian studies and languages. The notion of a “clash of civilizations” promoted by Huntington[2] in the era of globalization has never been accepted by many people throughout Central Eurasia in their rich historical experiences of living in “mosaic societies.”

Pluralistic Islam at the heart of Eurasia

Unfortunately, for last couple of decades the experience of the diverse pluralistic Islam of Central Eurasia has been obscured by the political trends of Islam in the Middle East. The latter, rather than the former, has become the focus of most academic scholars of social sciences and humanities and media. Historically, while Turkey formed the western boundary of the Muslim world, Central Eurasia has largely represented the northern and north-eastern boundaries of the classical Islamic world. Islam in Central Eurasia emerged mainly through remarkable Sufi masters like Ahmet Yassavi, Korkyt Ata, Mevlana Rumi, and Baba Tukes. The merchant caravanserais of the Silk Road that traversed vast areas between the Middle East and China came into existence through peaceful means, and new Muslims in this area were very tolerant toward the many religions and cultures of their neighbors. Although the revelation of the Qur’an started in Arabia, most of its scholarly interpretations and the hadith compilations were compiled in Central Asia.[3] The greatest contributions to almost all areas of religious and positive sciences, engineering, art and culture were witnessed in this part of the world between the ninth and fourteenth centuries ce. The works of such outstanding intellectual figures as Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Al-Farabi (Alfarabius), Al-Khwarizmi still benefit

people all over the world. The largest library in the world in the thirteenth century ce was in Otrar (a city in present-day southern Kazakhstan), which was later totally demolished by Genghis Khan during Mongol invasion.

In the period between the seventh and thirteenth centuriesce, the Muslim world was ruled predominantly by Arab caliphs of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. However, starting from the twelfth century up until the beginning of the twentieth century, Muslims of Central Eurasia of predominantly Turkic origin became the foremost rulers of the Muslim nations. Among them were the famous states administered by the Seljuks in Central Asia, the Golden Horde in Russia, the Baburides on the Indian subcontinent, the Mamluks in Egypt, and the Ottomans in Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

The Golden Horde’s legacy of tolerance toward Christian, Jewish and Buddhist communities laid the foundation for the flourishing of Moscow and the Russian

Empire, which became heir to the Golden Horde’s legacy.[4] Saray, which was the capital of the Golden Horde from thirteen to fifteen centuries, and which was located very close to the border of modern-day southern Russia and western Kazakhstan, became a center of intercontinental diplomacy as envoys and ambassadors representing princes and popes sought audiences with the Muslim khans of the Golden Horde.[5]

Dialogue between world religions in Central Eurasia in the modern secular context

After more than two hundred years of Czarist rule, the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan, being one of the most diverse countries in the world, the home of 120 ethnic groups and many world religious communities for the last seventeen years became the active initiator of peace, dialogue, integration and reconciliation initiatives across not just the Eurasian states of the former Soviet Union, but also the larger international community. After independence, to ease tension among superpowers Kazakhstan’s government decided unilaterally to dismantle the huge nuclear arsenal left as the Soviet legacy of the cold war. Following the breakup of the USSR, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbaev’s proposal to form a “Eurasian Union” was praised by many leaders across Russia and the ex-Soviet republics. The late pope John Paul II met Nazarbaev in Astana on September 11, 2001.

Muslim–Jewish dialogue in Central Eurasia

In 2002 Kazakhstan served as the facilitator of Islamic– Jewish dialogue in Eurasia, an event which took place in the new capital, Astana. At the conference, thirty rabbis from various countries noted that the only way forward in the relationship between Muslims and Jews is through constructive dialogue. They also expressed their wish to see Kazakhstan as a center of Muslim–Jewish dialogue.[6] The fact that the headquarters of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) was placed in Almaty, the largest city in Muslim Kazakhstan, at a time when there is growing instability in the Middle East, is a sign of the huge potential of the mutual trust between Muslim and Jewish communities in Eurasia.[7] Alexander Mashkevich, the head of the EAJC, considers Kazakhstan a unique example of cooperation and peaceful coexistence between various peoples and religions. He also noted that the largest synagogue in Central Asia, which was opened in Astana, best characterizes Muslim Kazakhstan as the land of inter-ethnic peace and inter-confessional harmony.The latest phase of this dialogue at the First International Conference of Peace and Accord was held in Almaty the previous year. Presidents of the leading Jewish organizations of the United States, leaders and plenipotentiaries of the states of Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, and members of the leadership and the Council of Rabbis and Central Asian Muslim leaders condemned terrorism and declared that there are no antagonistic contradictions between Judaism and Islam.

Dialogue between world and traditional religions at the heart of Eurasia

At a time when some dark forces are trying to bring about a clash of world religions and civilizations, Central Eurasia offered an unprecedented challenge to these dangerous trends by initiating a series of high profile civic activities bringing together members of the clergy of world and traditional religions in the heartof Eurasia in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana in 2003 and 2006.[8] A unique role model for intercultural communication and dialogue, Kazakhstan, with a number of other countries of Central Eurasia, showed the whole world that traditional values can be reconciled with liberal norms in the formation of a successful, peace-loving, civil, mosaic society. Leading Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, active promoter of interfaith and intercultural dialogue, valued this significant interfaith event in Eurasia highly and said, “The only way for humankind to solve its problems is by way of dialogue: meeting, learning and talking to each other…With all my heart I state that all these initiatives done out of pure intentions will serve to establish peace and stability in the region, to improve relationships among nations and also to build lasting peace on the whole planet.”[9]

Dialogue Eurasia: “DA”

A number of Turkish people are working to pave the way for dialogue in the Eurasia region.[10], [11] Diyalog Avrasya (Dialogue Eurasia), a publication of the Dialogue Eurasia Platform, has been the voice of common sense in seventeen countries, from Moldavia to Mongolia, since its founding in 2000. A bilingual quarterly published in Turkish and Russian, DA adopts an approach to conflict with reconciliation, using the slogan, “Dialogue starts with ‘DA’” (“Da” in Russian means “yes” in English). DA representatives recently gathered in Istanbul and discussed the latest developments in the Eurasia region. DA stressed that its ideology is knowledge and love, and that convergence, compromise and understanding constitute the backbone of their policy. Renowned Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aytmatov, who passed away recently, also served on the journal’s advisory board; he described DA as “the business card of Eurasia.” Garnering great interest in the countries where it is published, DA also brings together Eurasia’s famous writers, intellectuals and civil society volunteers. In addition, opinions and essays of leading politicians frequently appear in the journal.

Interestingly, present and past dialogue efforts in Central Eurasia go hand in hand with positive trends in education, which for the last decade or so, has experienced quite a renaissance.[12] Hopefully, dialogue efforts combined with excellence in education will yield great fruits in the future in this important region of the world, which will benefit the whole of humanity again as during the region’s golden ages between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. There is hope that the dynamism of inter-cultural diversity which has prevailed for centuries on the Eurasian continent with its multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious characteristics will gain momentum in future again.

Dr. Zhandos Utegulov is researcher at University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Notes

1. http://cesww.fas.harvard.edu/

2. Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72(3): 22-49.

3. Ali Unal, Alphonse Williams eds. Advocate of Dialogue: Fethullah Gulen, 2000, The Fountain Publications.

4. http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/Mongols/states3.html

5. Janet Martin. Medieval Russia, 980-1584, CUP, 2008.

6. http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/19476/edition_id/395/format/html/displaystory.html

7. http://www.eajc.org/publish_gen_e.php?rowid=40

8. http://www.religionscongress.org

9. Interview with Fethullah Gulen in Kazahstanskaya Pravda, Sept 15, 2006.

10. http://www.zaman.com/?bl=culture&alt=&trh=20061206&hn=38940

11. http://www.interfaithathens.org/article/art/10081.asp

12. Ismail Demirkan, Aksar Beketov. “Islam, Science, and Free and Open Inquiry,” Physics Today, January 2008, p. 11.

Nationalism or ethnic differences have been unleashed in this [twentieth] century, particularly by European officials following the well-known principle of divide and rule. The target of this insidious assault is the Muslim world.

Nationalism gives some satisfaction but encourages self-pride and produces a power that sometimes is improper. Therefore it should not be abandoned, but people must realize that there are two kinds of nationalism: negative and positive. The first kind, which is ominous and harmful, is fed through swallowing others and sustained through enmity against others. As such nationalism causes mutual antagonism and discord, the Qur’an and the Prophet reject it: “Islam has forbidden the national (tribal) zealotry of the Age of Ignorance.”¹

The Qur’an is explicit on this point: When non-believers set zealotry, the tribalism of the Age of Ignorance, in their hearts, God sent down His peace and reassurance upon His Messenger and the believers, and fastened to them the word of self-restraint and God-consciousness to which they have better right and of which they are worthy. God knows everything (48:26). The sacred and positive Islamic nationalism contains no negative partisan nationalism. What state with more than 1 billion members, other than the Muslim state, has so many eternal brothers and sisters?

Previous outbreaks of negative nationalism have harmed Islamic unity and the Muslim world. For example, the Umayyads preferred Arabs in their government and so offended other [non-Arab] Muslims and suffered many misfortunes. European nations because excessively nationalistic during this century, which caused the long-standing ominous French– German enmity to erupt into the vastly destructive First World War. And in our own history, just as Babylon was destroyed by internal tribal division, the beginning of the Ottoman State’s second constitutional period [declared in 1908] saw the formation of many minority-based groups or societies, particularly among the Greeks and Armenians. What befell the Ottoman State as a result illustrates negative nationalism’s harm.

The national or tribal conflict between Muslim peoples or communities is so great a misfortune that it is like getting bitten by a snake to avoid a mosquito. At a time when the European powers resemble huge dragons just waiting to attack us to satisfy their insatiable greed, our national integrity is harmed by encouraging hostility and taking sides, because of national differences, against our citizens in the eastern cities and the coreligionists among our southern neighbors.

There is no reason to for enmity toward our southern coreligionists, from where the Qur’an’s light and Islam’s radiance came to us, for such national conflicts only benefit Europe. Also, such feelings may cause enmity toward the Qur’an and Islam, which would destroy all Muslims’ worldly and otherworldly lives. To destroy these two worlds’ cornerstones under the pretext of serving social life through nationalism or patriotism is stupidity.

Fourth matter

The second kind of nationalism is positive and, arising from social life’s intrinsic requirements. Thus it brings about mutual assistance and solidarity, produces a beneficial power, and strengthens Islamic unity.

Its goal should be to serve and protect-not replace-Islam, for the unity desired and established by Islam is manifold and counts in both the intermediate and eternal worlds. Since nationalist unity only can be as strong as one aspect of Islamic unity, trying to replace the latter with the former is as foolish as replacing the diamonds in a citadel with its stones. So, followers of the Qur’an! Your land has carried the flag of the Qur’an for 1,000 years, since the time of the ‘Abbasids, over three continents and challenged the world. You have made your national feeling and solidarity a stronghold to protect Islam and, by repelling the world’s dreadful assaults, are included in the meaning of: God will bring a people He loves, and who love Him, humble toward believers and stern toward unbelievers, striving in His way and not fearing the reproach of any reproachers (5:24).

You should be afraid of and avoid being led by the deceitful instigation of Europe and Westernized hypocrites, who are included in the meaning of that verse’s first part: O you who believe! Whosoever of you turns from his [her] religion…

Fifth matter

The awakening peoples of Asia blindly follow the European style of nationalism and sacrifice many sacred things for its sake.² However, just as a suit made from the same cloth cannot fit every body and an elderly prayer leader does not wear clothes designed for a tango dancer, each people should strive for authenticity. If Europe is like a marketplace or a barracks, Asia is an arable field or a mosque. A businessperson may go to dance, but a farmer cannot. A barracks’ conditions differ from those of a mosque.

Most Prophets appeared in Asia, while philosophers usually emerged in Europe. This is a sign from eternal Destiny that Asian vitality and progress is possible through religion and spirituality. Philosophy and science should support-not replace-religion.

Indifference to religion is a grave mistake. Do not forget that Europe is devoted to its religion, and that such Western leaders as Wilson, Lloyd George and Venizelos are as fanatically devoted to their religion as a priest.³

Any comparison of Islam with Christianity is false. Europe progressed when it reformed its religion after 3 centuries of wars caused by the Church and religion’s misuse by despotic rulers and priests who sought to crush the masses and the intellectuals [to preserve the status quo, which favored their interests]. But in Islam, religious devotion caused only one internal war.⁴

Muslims realized a far greater progress than their contemporaries whenever they followed Islam earnestly, as seen in the Islamic state of Andalusia, the greatest teacher of Renaissance Europe.⁵ Whenever Muslims have been indifferent to religion, they have declined and fallen to a miserable state.

Through its numerous principles of compassion, such as mandating the prescribed alms (zakat) and prohibiting interest, Islam protects the masses. Through its many warnings, like: Will you not exercise your reason? Will they not contemplate and reflect? Do they not ponder?, it considers intellect and science as proofs for its truths, and protects and encourages scientists to conduct research. Since it is the citadel of the masses and scientists, no one should regret being a Muslim.

Islam differs from other religions because it is founded upon pure monotheism and so denies any intermediary or intermediate causal creative or formative effect. Christianity admits such influences, for it allows saints and elders a certain partnership in the manifestation of God’s Sovereignty by saying that God has begotten a son: They have taken as lords beside God their rabbis, monks, and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were commanded to serve but One God. There is no god but He, be He glorified from their associating partners with Him (9:31). Christians who rise to the highest worldly posts can remain Christians. They even become, like the late American president Wilson, bigoted and full of egotism. Their Muslim counterparts, however, are expected to renounce egotism and pride in order to be good Muslims. Followers of pure monotheism, Muslims who cannot do so either become indifferent to Islam or even lose their faith.

Sixth matter

To those extreme negative nationalists and separatists, I say the following: The Earth’s surface has been the stage of many changes and emigrations. Once the center of the Islamic administration was formed in our country, many peoples, like moths to a light, flocked to it to settle. As the resulting intermingling makes it impossible to determine their national origins, except by reading the Supreme Guarded Tablet, it is meaningless and harmful to build a society and our attitudes on nationalism…. When determining national identity, language, religion, and (geographical) land are key factors. Their joint existence means a strong national structure. But the lack of any one factor does not exclude the possibility of a strong national identity and sentiment.

Of the hundreds of benefits that Islam’s sacred nationality has given our country’s social life, I cite only two examples: First, the Muslim state has maintained its vitality and existence, despite its population of only 20 or 30 million and European hostility, because of the conviction that: “If I die, I will die a martyr; if I survive, I will survive as a holy warrior of Islam.” This conviction comes from the Qur’an’s light and is held by our state’s army. Thus equipped, that army has welcomed death with perfect enthusiasm and terrified Europe for centuries. What else could inculcate such a sublime quality of self-sacrifice in our soldiers’ minds, make them single-minded and pure-hearted? What kind of nationalistic zeal can be substituted for it and cause soldiers to sacrifice everything, even their lives, for its sake? Second, whenever the dragons-the European great powers-afflict this Muslim state, it deeply affects and shakes the Muslim world. Those imperialist powers governing Muslim lands usually restrain their urge to attack this state, for they fear that the Muslims under their control will revolt. What other force can substitute for this continual, and certainly non-trivial, spiritual support (Muslim unity)? Those who offer it should not be offended by [being forced to project] a negative nationalism and patriotism that make us indifferent to other Muslims

Footnotes

1. The Age of Ignorance: The pre-Islamic period of the Arabian peninsula.
2. Bediuzzaman locates the traditional Muslim world in Asia, by which he means the contemporary Far East, Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.
3. Woodrow Wilson: American politician and president (1856-1924); Lloyd George (1863-1945), British statesman and prime minister; Eleutherios Venizelos (1864-1936): Greek statesman and premier.
4. The Battle of the Camel (656), during which ‘Ali’s forces defeated the army led by ‘A’isha, Talha, and Ibn Zubayr.
5. Andalusia is the name of Islamic Spain, which existed from 712 to 1492. At a time when most of Europe was lost in the Dark Ages, it was a beacon of knowledge and intellectual endeavor that attracted many European students. After is fall to Catholic Spain, its intellectual heritage was dispersed and was instrumental in Europe’s intellectual re-awakening and Renaissance. Adapted from Bediuzzaman’s Twenty-sixth Letter, Second Topic.