TruthBook Religious News Blog

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

ANDREA GIAMBARTOLOMEI
ISTANBUL

- Turkish Daily NewsThe organizers of the International Summer school on Religion and Public Life (ISSRPL) believe there is no better place than Turkey to talk about religion, its politics and its characteristics.

For this very reason the ISSRPL chose Istanbul as the place to bring together over 20 fellows from around the world to talk about faith and public life this month. The summer school was organized by the American Jewish Committee, with the support of the united States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Bilgi University, where the summer school is being hosted from July 2-13.

“The ISSRPL is a five-year-old project that each year takes place in a different country exploring the main differences in the relations between these elements,” Ari Gordon, assistant director of inter-religious affairs at the American Jewish Committee told the Turkish Daily News.

As its name suggests, this summer school is international in nature, bringing together teachers and fellows from Bosnia, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine, Nigeria and, of course, Turkey. Each one brings different experiences and values. But the education they receive during the summer school is not merely theoretical. “One category is context-related, so we can see how state, ethos and religion come together; then there is the practical field composed of discussions, religious services, visits; and then there are the informal moments, when everybody can apply what they learn,” said Gordon. According to the organizers, this last part is important for the process of building relationships that transcend the limits imposed by religious and ethnic identities.

Adam Seligman, professor in the Department of Religion at Boston University told the TDN that the aim of the ISSRPL is three-fold: To develop mutual understanding, to teach how to communicate with other cultures without being offensive and finally to help participants understand more about their own backgrounds.

“The fellows not only learn something about others but also about themselves and their way of acting with others,” he said. Seligman was one of the instructors during the summer school in Istanbul.

This year's summer school theme examined the comparative perspective on State, Ethnos and Religion, devoting particular attention to the different historical and social features. The theme is very coherent to the local context, Turkey, where secularism is a fundamental principle of the modern republic. Selma ?evkli, a Turkish fellow at the summer school and student in Bilgi University pointed to the characteristic of Turkish secularism.

“It happens that sometimes the State and secularism encroach upon private life and personal beliefs. Often in Turkey to separate religion and politics is not enough by itself, some kinds of people hate all forms of religious expression,” she said.

Professor Seligman underlined that “there is no a necessary connection between secularism and a state that limits personal freedom. There is a different way to apply secularism and we are looking to find a good way that respects everybody,” he said.

Participants reflected on the fact that respect comes through mutual understanding and recognition of others identities and faiths. R?zaY?ld?r?m, a Ph.D. student in the History Department of Ankara's Bilkent University, told the TDN about issues the Alevi community faces in Turkey. "Even if the Alevis in Turkey are 15 million people, their are not recognized as a religion," said Y?ld?r?m.

A recent poll conducted by European Values Survey showed that Turkish people are still uneasy about freedom of religion, one of most important democratic principles. Only 16 percent of Turkish people interviewed agree to that value.

“We need to find a way of living together,” said ?evkli.

Andrea Giambartolomei is interning at the Turkish Daily News within the framework of Forum of European Journalist Students (FEJS) exchange program.

Labels: Andrea Giambartolomei, Internation Summer School on Religion and Public Life, Istanbul, religion, religious freedom, secular, teachers, Turkey