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Kristina Herrndobler
Houston Chronicle, 07/16/2009 URFA, Turkey — I saw the mesmerizing Whirling Dervishes at a circumcision party for a 9 ½-year old boy. The celebration was just one of the unexpected delights I encountered while traveling with the Houston-based Institute of Interfaith Dialog through Turkey — but one of my favorites. Even though we were invited by the brother of our Houston-based Turkish host, we felt a little like party crashers when we walked through the double doors and into the grand celebration, just in time for a delicious multi-course meal. Nine Sufi musicians provided background music as 14 Texans and the rest of the guests ate, chatted and admired the children running around with excitement. The boy of honor, who would have his surgical procedure the next morning, was dressed like a little prince, with an embellished cape, a staff in hand and white feather in his cap. After dessert and the required hot tea, the evening's highlight began. Five men and two boys walked toward the dance floor and began the captivating ritual. Those unfamiliar with the Whirling Dervishes might think their performance is entertainment, but it is worship for both the participants and Muslim onlookers. The Dervishes repeat the word “Allah” as they spin and the musicians accompanying them sing religious songs and recite verses from the Quran. The ceremony's music, repetitive movements and hypnotic qualities can draw even tourists into an otherworldly experience. “There is something very spiritually magical about them,” said Sonia Honne-Gonzalez, a fellow traveler from Austin. The Sufi ritual, which dates to the 13th century, is full of symbolism. The full skirts represent the ego's shroud. The camel-hair conical headdresses symbolizes the ego's tomb, and the twirling itself acknowledges that everything — from the Earth to the atom — is constantly revolving. As the Dervishes extend their arms, their right palms face up and the left palms face downward. “One hand is receiving (beneficence) from God, the other hand is delivering to the people,” explained Abdul Wahhab, the 28-year-old leader of the night's Dervish group. He has been whirling since he was 12, and seemed almost judge-like, wearing a black robe and walking around as if he were sizing the performers up. That wasn't it, he explained through a translator after the ritual. As the Dervishes get deeper and deeper into mediation, their feet nearly come off the ground. His job is to bring them back down, he said. I counted the youngest of the whirlers, a 13-year-old, go around 124 times before completing one of the ceremony's many parts. “What happens when they're done?” asked fellow traveler Soofia Aleem of Katy. “Don't they get really dizzy?” They do not. And with their eyes closed, they cross their arms over their chest and bow when they are finished. The bow signifies their return to subservience. My curiosity got the best of me when I returned to our hotel room. I moved some furniture and began to twirl, counting each of my own spins. I made it around eight times before I became so dizzy that I had to steady myself on furniture as I made my way to the bed to lie down. How do they do it, I wondered? I got the answer from another member of our group, an Austin neurosurgeon. “It is interesting to watch the Dervishes spin because they tilt their head to the right, and they spin from right to left. This isolates one of thecanals that governs the balance on the base of the skull,” said Dr. William A. White, chief of neurosurgery at Central Texas Veterans Administration Hospital. “By tilting their heads, they don't get the spin on that particular canal which would give them the sensation that they are still turning once they stop.” To learn the art of spinning, young Sufis stand on a table top balanced on a pole. Their first and second toes slide around a nail on the surface, and with practice, they learn balance and positioning. They also study other disciplines believed to diminish the ego and connect them with Allah. “This is meant as a way to get closer to God, not as a performance. A gymnast will turn once, twice and then fall,” a dervish told us through a translator in Konya, the headquarters of the Dervish order. “This is something spiritual.” Read the full article in Houston Chronicle |
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Carolyn Barta Dallas Morning News, 9/4/2006 The Bosphorus Strait runs through Istanbul, separating two continents – Europe and Asia. With its strategic placement, Turkey could be the natural bridge between the East and West. Politically, that won't happen unless the country is admitted to the European Union. Turkey seriously applied in 1991 and negotiations started in 2004 with the expectation it could be admitted in 10 years. Turkish leaders see membership as the route to more respectability among world nations. Westerners give little thought to Turkey, but its influence on other parts of the world could be greater than people think. Turkey is a Muslim country with a democratic government. But it has problems: high unemployment, years of high inflation just now stabilizing, and human rights issues. Kurds, one-fifth of the population and the largest ethnic minority – who live mostly in the poorer southeast – have been denied some civil rights. While Turkey's economy is growing, per capita GNP is less than one-third of the EU average. Turkey needs to modernize crumbling infrastructure and privatize state transportation and energy companies. New high-rise housing already is being developed in suburban Istanbul, to replace urban slums. Nevzat Pakdil, vice president of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, told an academic-based interfaith group from Texas recently, "If the EU rejects Turkish integration, it will create the idea that the EU is not open to Muslims." Turkey would be the first Muslim nation admitted. It also would be the second most populous EU nation behind Germany – a fact little recognized by Westerners. Abdullah Kumas, an economics Ph.D. student from Turkey at Southern Methodist University, makes a case for Turkey's membership. Turkey is a growing trading partner; it's becoming an energy route from Central Asia with new pipelines, and it provides the eastern security of Europe against Iran and Russia. Also, the Muslim population is increasing in Europe. But the most important reason, according to Mr. Kumas, is: "It would diffuse tensions between the Western Christian world and the Muslim world." The most persuasive argument, he said, "is to show that the clash of civilizations will not happen."
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Carollyn Barta
Dallas Morning News, 9/4/2006 Westerners must be willing to differentiate between radicals and moderates, says CAROLYN BARTA
Events have once again hoisted radical Islam to the top of the news – with the Israeli-Hezbollah war and the recent terrorist plot that was foiled in the United Kingdom. But Westerners who would reject the inevitability of a "clash of civilizations" must know that radical Islam is different from Islam as a religion – and not all Muslims are terrorists. That idea has been rooted in my mind since a trip to Turkey earlier this summer introduced me to Muslims who believe that Westerners and moderate Muslims can fight radical Islam by finding common ground. They offer a counter image to the Muslim-as-terrorist by promoting tolerance and interfaith dialogue between the Muslim and Judeo-Christian world. I was part of a small group of Texans visiting Turkey as guests of the Houston-based Institute for Interfaith Dialog, a nonprofit organization of Turkish volunteers, their American friends, university students and academics. We groped our way to a unique connectedness on a trip that was built around visits to Turkish sites that, like us, represented different faiths – Christian, Jewish and Muslim. We saw the cultural diversity of the civilizations that once lived in Anatolia – from Ephesus, where Paul spread the word of Christianity, to a Jewish museum and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, to the cave in Sanliurfa (Urfa) where, according to Muslim tradition, Abraham was born and the three faiths coincide. We also had conversations with Turks and their families over meals and tea in homes, schools and businesses. Four young Turks living in Dallas led the group. Before the trip, one said, "You're going to hear a lot about Gulen." Fethullah Gulen, the most influential Muslim scholar in Turkey, has for 30 years been the spiritual leader urging Muslims to focus on education, tolerance and charitable works. Since the late 1990s, for medical reasons, he has lived in the U.S. In Turkey, everyone seems to know of the Gulen movement. Scholars say it's the country's largest civil movement, but membership is hard to quantify, for it has no central organization or hierarchy. One follower is Mustafa Akyol, an Istanbul writer. He described two faces on Islam – one of tolerance and peace-seekers and the other of Osama bin Ladens and those only interested in "killing the infidels." To Mr. Akyol, the Gulen movement represents mainstream Islam that was last seen in the Ottoman Empire. Turks often cite the period for its religious diversity and harmony. But today, Turkey is 98 percent Muslim. The families we met were devout Muslims and many had never met an American – Christian or Jew. All they knew of America was Sex and the City and MTV. They wanted to learn about us – as we did about them. In return, our sponsors hoped we would share our experiences back home. They're trying to build critical mass, albeit by what seems to be chain-letter style. We visited several schools supported by donations from Gulen followers, where universal golden-rule style values are taught within a strong academic curriculum. Hundreds of such schools have been built – some scholars say 700 in 90 countries, with Turkey taking the lead. Hilmi Nakiboglu, who owns a plastics firm and helps fund a kindergarten in Gaziantep, explained his commitment: "If you solve the problem of one single person, you solve the problem of humanity." The movement is not without detractors. Radicals see it as watered-down Islam. Gulen followers mostly support Turkey's secular government. Other Turks resent a government that interferes with their religion by prohibiting headscarves at state institutions such as universities; a few would even replace the secular government with a theocracy. And a more conservative, radical brand of Islam is practiced by Kurds in the country's rural Southeast. Yet, the movement has made headway. Besides schools, Gulen supporters have generated a daily newspaper, Zaman, and a family-centered television network, Samanyolu TV (STV), which airs no explicit violence or sexuality. Can education and interfaith dialogue bridge the gap between the cultures of East and West and reduce the influence of radical Islam? Our hosts are hopeful. One of our guides, Al Yaradanakul, a Dallas medical researcher, offered his philosophy against the backdrop of the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting. "People," he said, "can't hate each other forever." The problem is: They have, and they do. Is his an idealistic view? Yes. Naïve? Perhaps. It is, however, an effort to break down hatred rather than exacerbate it. Carolyn Barta teaches journalism at Southern Methodist University. Her e-mail address is
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MikeMcMullen
Houston Chronicle, 3/30/2009
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel with several other sociology of religion professors from across North America to Turkey. Our trip was sponsored by the Institute for Interfaith Dialog, a Houston-based institution founded by expatriate Turkish Muslims who want to foster interfaith cooperation and understanding. We spent eight days traveling throughout the country seeing sites of religious significance. In Istanbul, we saw Kariye Museum (Kora Church), one of the best preserved sites of Christian mosaics in the world; the Hagia Sophia, the seat of Byzantium Christianity from the 6th through the 13th centuries; and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (better known as the “Blue Mosque”). North of Izmir (biblical city of Smyrna) we traveled by bus to Ephesus, the site of the ancient Church to which St. Paul wrote his epistle; in Konya, we visited the tomb and museum of the great Sufi mystic, Rumi, and from there it was a three hour bus ride to the Capadoccia region where early Christians dug cities and churches out of the rock to hide from Roman persecutions. All these sites were inspirational for their historical importance as well as their beauty. But by far the most moving site was a two square block area of a small neighborhood in Istanbul where four religious worship sites existed literally side by side: an Armenian Orthodox church, a mosque, a Greek Orthodox church, and a Synagogue. We were too late to get into the Synagogue or churches, but the last of the 5 daily prayers were just finishing in the mosque, and the Imam invited us in to look around. He was dressed in a tweed blazer and turtleneck sweater, and explained that the various Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities had been living all together in that neighborhood for generations. They attended each other’s funerals, weddings, and prayer services. It was most moving to hear of the interfaith cooperation in this part of a city that is at once so ancient and so modern; it was also poignant to see the physical structures of synagogue, church and mosque literally sharing courtyard walls and in each other’s shadows. While conflict certainly does exist in the Middle East and Asia between various faiths, that is not the whole story. Interfaith cooperation also lives on at the neighborhood level and between Jewish, Christian and Muslim neighbors.
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Explore Turkey
 The art of Turkish tiles and ceramics occupies a place of prominence in the history of Islamic art. Its roots can be traced at least as far back as the Uighurs of the 8th and 9th centuries. Learn More> |
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