Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement

 My name is Victor Conde; I come from California. I am a professor of international human rights law, the humanitarian law, the law of armed conflict, and also an attorney practicing in California. My area of specialty in international human rights law is of religious freedom, and so religion is very important to me. The orientation of the individual to ultimate truths of reality; I am gonna end up giving a lecture here. Let me try to modulate from academia to what we are doing here. This has been a tremendous experience for me as a human being. It was so full! I am also a classics major; in college my major was Latin and Greek, so these are all places that I used to study about. To see, to me, these rocks really say a lot, so I am happy to look at them and to be close to them, and to connect with what I studied at the university. So that was an extra special bonus: the richness of Turkey! I have a very positive impression of Turkey! I came here the summer before last for the first time, because I had my own preconceived notions, and there weren’t completely accurate. Some of them are very wrong, and I knew that if I went there I can see it. If I changed it a little in my first trip, it changed much more in the second trip. I have a very positive attitude towards Turkey and Turkish people. As a human rights lawyer, I still see that there are problems in the society. When you look underneath things, you see what is going on, and looking at some of the cases that are coming to the West Strasbourg, where I teach in the summer, on religious freedom and religious related issues, there are still some problems going on in Turkey, that I hope this democracy can deal with. But I see it going in a positive direction! So when I talk about human right issues I am talking about a system and state which I see moving forward in a good way. I also see somethings in the Western system, the European human rights system that I don’t like either, and then I think are not correctly applying things as I for my religious point of view, might think that they should be done. So I want to be part of this whole process, and I have a particular thing that I despise that’s armed conflict in a war, and the things that we are doing in this world that harm innocent human beings. I despise armed conflict so much that I wanna spend the rest of my life trying to stop it, and I will work with anyone of good will who wishes to work for peace and justice, and I see justice as a very important component of peace in this world. Doing justice to me results in peace. My job as a human rights lawyer is really to protect the inherent human dignity of human beings whom I believe have been made in the image and likeness of God. I am a Catholic Christian; I am not just a Sunday mass Christian; I go as often as I can to Church. I really am devoted to my Church. I look like a ponytail Catholic scar, probably not the kind of look that you see in Church every day, but I am there all the time. I love my God, I serve my God, and I see my God in each one of you. You are all made in the image and likeness of God, every single one of us. That’s whom God who has chosen me to sent me to serve. My job is to use law to protect your inherent human dignity, particularly as to your religious freedom, your right to orient yourselves to ultimate truths of reality. This trip has been very helpful to me in so many different ways and so many positive ways when I go back, I will be able to say things to Americans over there, especially in California that will dispel some of the miss, inform a lot of my Christian friends who have very verbed of use on Muslims, on the Middle East, even on Turkey. I want truth to happen. I want a correct vision of Turkey to happen. I also want Turkish people to have a correct vision of what America is like, and may be all Americans are not like some of the people that you don’t like over in America or politicians doing certain things. I want to be here to let you know that I am not for solving problems by destroying things or killing people, that I think there is a better way. If we created different paradigm then the one that says: change to be what I want to I will annihilate you. I think there is a different way. I think we are exploring and seeking that way, and I want to do that with you, and I will continue to do that with you. I wanna comment that I think that I have had very little dialog here. Dialog comes from the Greek word dia, the adverb which means through, and logos, to speak or to word, and dialog involves a back and forth process of putting some logos out there and then going through it and back and through it. I wish I had some time, more time for one-on-one, with anybody. Let me sit there for half an hour with you and let’s talk. I’ve got some questions that I wanna ask you. I wanna you give me feedback. Now if I talk to ten different Turkish people I may get ten different answers, but still that process, that is what dialog is. It is not just a one way exposition of here is what it is like in Turkey, in the Muslim community, in the Islamic community, etc. It is more expository than dialog. When Pope Benedict was here a few weeks ago, he said and I heard him, I saw it on TV, he is talking to diplomats of different countries, he says we must have dialog, but it has to be real dialog, and it has to get into those deep difficult issues that divide us, that cause us this fear and suspicions. We can’t let it be superficial. We need to engage each other in dialog. We will understand each other, we will come to know each other better, we will come trust each other better, we will come to understand better each other’s societies and individuals, man and women of good will, and I wanna continue to work with you for peace and justice in this world. Thank you very much!