Turkey-Egypt: Meeting of the Light

It handles critical problems discussed by the world. These discussions spread in waves and influence Turkey's intellectual atmosphere. It is quite difficult to make space for differences to coexist in a confrontational political culture and establish peace between different elements. The Abant Platform represents a very bright gathering of minds that achieves this difficult task.

While undertaking an important mission within Turkey, the Abant Platform has been communicating this project abroad for a while. The 12th Abant Meeting was recently held in Cairo, on Feb. 25 and 26. The meeting, co-sponsored by the Al-Ahram International Strategic Research Center, is a beginning between two important countries of the Muslim world. There is a Turkish saying that can be translated as "The light of reality comes from the clash of ideas." The meeting of Turkish and Egyptian intellectuals in Cairo produced a very bright picture.

The two poles of history -- Turkey and Egypt, Cairo and İstanbul -- represent two poles that can lead the rest of the Muslim world. Turkey and Egypt have a common history, histories that often intersect, sometimes go in parallel, sometimes oppose but above all, feed into each other. Cairo was the center of the world in more than half of humanity's history, which started with the invention of writing. It was the center of all faiths, religions and philosophies. The relationship between ancient Greek thought and those who built the pyramids is known. Egypt is definitely in the background of heavenly religions. Christian theology was fed by Egyptian Gnostic philosophy. The leading and pioneering influence of Egypt was deeply felt in Turkish history as well.

The Western influence on modernization in Turkey came through the strongest channel of Egypt. Several of Cairo's modern institutions are older than those of İstanbul. The first newspaper appeared in Egypt, modern education started in Egypt. Egyptian intellectuals such as Tahtawi, who perceived the modern world clearly, preceded those in İstanbul. The members of the Young Ottomans, the first democratic movement of intellectuals in Ottoman political society, took action with the support of Mustafa Fazil Pasha, brother of the Egyptian khedive, İsmail Pasha. A 1960 coup d'etat carried out by a military junta in Turkey was inspired and took the model of the "free officers" who seized the power during the leadership of Jamal Abdel Nasser. Egypt's Islamic thought deeply marked and even affected the political balances in Turkey in the 1960s.

The course of the common history of these two centers that feed into each other shows that they will have a common future. This interaction is inevitable. Moreover, it is obvious that both parts, as well as the Muslim world as a whole, will benefit from this interaction.

'Islam, the West and modernization'

The topic of discussion was the modernization of the Muslim world. The Abant meeting showed that Arab and Turkish intellectuals have a lot of similar troubles as well as shared knowledge about the issue. The West despises the rest of the world. It puts modernity, the reason for this disdain, as an inevitable goal of "modernization" in front of us. The Muslim world has long been discussing the institutions of modernization but seems to have newly realized that a kind of racism lies beneath these theories. The West's superiority in the 19th century was understood to be based on the color of skin and physical properties. There was a hierarchy between people according to their color. The European white race was thought superior because of its physical characteristics. When the negro-white distinction was removed in the US in the 1960s and apartheid ended in South Africa, this kind of racism was also abolished. The same racism is made over culture today. The culture we inherited and do not change is shown as the borders of our development. We have to be satisfied with what we possess and not ask for more, for we cannot change our skin color or our culture. "Multiculturalism," which seems to be a solution to allow for ethnic and religious differences to live together and to attract non-Western societies, actually serves as a basis for these theses of cultural superiority. European culture gains an incomparably strong superiority throughout these discussions. As Europe invented modernity and spread it all over the world, the rest of the world is obliged to follow other processes of modernization headed towards this "modernity." Is there any other field where the Muslim world can express itself apart from the concepts and theories of modernity and modernization that refer to the superiority of the West?

There have been societies that have interacted with the European culture but followed a course peculiar to them and competed against the West. Japan, on its own, destroyed the theses of the unrivalled superiority of European culture. It showed it is possible to obtain wealth and power with methods other than the European model. Taking the results of modernity, without giving it any philosophical or ideological meaning, and forming new syntheses is not difficult. The concept of "civilization," one of those words that has had the most number of meanings in our vocabulary for some two centuries, gives us important clues in this.

The Muslim world was the center of free thought and science when today's Europe was in the dark ages. Ancient Greek works were rediscovered by the Muslim world as the Byzantine Empire, using the same language, living in grandeur and communicated to Europe. Religious thought reached its ultimate borders. The self-confidence of the Islamic civilization gave an incredible living space even to non-religious thought.

This was not the world of philosophy and science only; human values also found deep meanings and counterparts in this world. The history of Jerusalem is a symbol of the difference between the two worlds and the human values peculiar to the Muslim world. When Caliph Omar arrived at Egypt in 638, he left a free space for all faiths to live in, whereas the Crusaders' commander did not let one single Muslim and Jew live in Jerusalem. Salahaddin al-Ayyubi, who retook Jerusalem a century later, did what Omar had once before, granting peace and security instead of taking revenge. He gave all security of life and property and established an order where all religions can coexist in peace.

There are two choices in front of the Muslim world: It will either accept the West's modernity as their ultimate goal and insist in following the course of modernization, or it will take an initiative with all its elements to revive the Islamic civilization that once enlightened the whole world; in other words it will "rebuild Jerusalem." Putting the world of the 21st century on the axis of the "Clash of Civilizations" makes this move obligatory. This move was already conducted with the initiative of the "Alliance of Civilizations," which was co-held by Spain and Turkey with the support of the UN.

The Muslim societies under the sovereignty of the US have been assigned the role of creating a threat for the rest of the world. The US's potential rivals which contain Muslim minorities are frightened by the "ghost of Islamic terror." The swamp of terror means poverty and oppression for Muslims. However, they must use their energy in areas where they can compete with the rest of the world and even contribute in these areas and formulate this as a "project of civilization" in a comprehensive way. There are two alternatives: destroying terror or setting out to work to build a civilization by repeating the example of the past.

The Abant meeting held in Cairo and the theme of discussion showed that both countries' intellectuals are ready to build a civilization project to rapidly bring peace to the world. This time, Cairo and İstanbul will support each other and open a door not only for them but also for the Muslim world in distress. Deciding to hold the second of the Egypt-Turkey Panel Discussions in İstanbul next year shows that a rich and powerful resource is being revived.