Interfaith Unity: A Small Turkish Model for World Peace
A small neighborhood in the city of Istanbul, Turkey, could serve to teach a lessons to the billions of us who are not privileged to live in such proximity with such a model of interfaith unity.
We learn about the ancient neighborhood of Kuzguncuk from the Voice of America:
Kuzguncuk, is an ancient part of Istanbul, the only city in the world that lies in two continents; Asia and Europe. For hundreds of years it has been inhabited by Muslims, Jews, and Christians; Turks, Armenians and Greeks. Kuzguncuk lies on the Asian side of the Bosporus Strait.
There is a church, a mosque, and a synagogue, right beside each other. The priest of the Armenian Orthodox Church, using a key made in 1835, opens the doors to a Christian world within a Muslim one.
The priest is one of a few who come from another part of Istanbul to serve the faithful. And when he says faithful, he is referring to Jews and Muslims, as well as Christians, who enter this holy place to pray. "There is no difference between us....There is no difference. There is only one God and different paths to that God."
Just to HEAR that from a patriarch of the traditionally not-quite-pro-Semitic Orthodox church is wonderful. But Mr. Miguel Angel Rivera, the VOA reporter privileged to encounter such an example of coexistence, tells us more about Kuzguncuk:
It is a fresh late morning, after a rain, and faithful Turks await the arrival of the imam or hoja, the religious leader to direct them in midday prayers, and prepare to pray with ritual cleansing.The land the mosque sits on was a gift -- from the Armenian Orthodox Church.
Imam Aydin Vantan has led prayers in the Kuzguncuk mosque for years. "We are all very close, like the flesh and fingernail. We are all together. Nobody can separate us, Christians, Jews, and Turks."
There are more than 22,000 Jews in Turkey. Most of them live in Istanbul. There was an influx into the Ottoman Empire during the last years of the fifteenth century, after Jews and Muslims were expelled from Spain during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella..
Jews held senior positions in the sultan's government. Rabbi Cenk Misraji is the highest-ranking Jewish leader in Asian Turkey. "From the moment of our arrival more than 500 years ago, there has been great religious tolerance in Turkey. We have been able to follow our religion, and open our synagogues wherever we desired. We were free to follow our traditions, practices and Jewish customs."
And there have been terrorist attacks against Jewish targets, most recently in 2003.
But in this neighborhood, there is a different story.
What was going on in Kuzguncuk while the rest of the region was embroiled in anti-Semitic violence and attacks?
Here a Muslim, in a gesture of brotherhood, designed, constructed, and donated a small park with its delicate fountain in front of the doors of the synagogue, behind, and adjoining, the mosque and the church.
When people realize their commonality is what gives them strength and not the things that divide them, you get a Kuzguncuk: religious tolerance where religion is the main thing, not to which religion one adheres.
Comments
I dont know if you are aware of Umar Lee, he is a white convert to Islam, as am I.
He has a good blog that is pretty progressive, especially with Jewish/Muslim relations.
His latest thread is interesting. There is a resident secular Jew who seems intent on trying to minimize the role of Judaism in Jewish life and its role in Jewish culture.
It is interesting to have me, a conver to Islam, defending Judaism from a secular Jew calling Judaism superstition.
http://umarlee.wordpress.com/2006/11/28/borat-the-character-and-cohen-the-jew/#comment-782
Posted by: Abu Sinan | December 5, 2006 10:15 PM