Dialogue

“Dialogue is opening. It is to open the mind and the heart. It leads to openness, understanding, and learning together. Dialogue is a way of getting rid of prejudices and bigotry. Those who engage in a sincere dialogue pay attention, care, listen, seek to understand, and contribute. Mutual understanding and contribution lead to deepening. It gets deeper and deeper, just like the parallel mirrors have infinite images.

The word ‘dialogue’ consists of the Greek affixes ‘dia’ and ‘logos.’ ‘Dia’ means ‘through’ and ‘logos’ means ‘word,’ ‘discourse,’ or ‘reason’ In dialogue, the meaning flows mutually like a river. This flow has a dynamic nature. It constantly changes and evolves. Sometimes a common meaning pool is filled, i.e. reconciliation appears. However, the main goal of a dialogue is not to compromise, but to try to understand and tolerate even if there are disagreements. Dialogue is different from argument and debate. Dialogue is not defending, defeating, or silencing, but discovering, learning, and understanding together.¹⁾

The following qualities are necessary for an effective dialogue:

“… it is possible to observe a magnanimous treatment and acts of making oneself known, which suggest a deep affection and an elevated sense of compassion; it is possible to see friendly dialogue with the tongue of disposition and a compassionate response to prayers.”³⁾

“Interfaith dialogue is a must today, and the first step in establishing it is forgetting the past, ignoring polemical arguments, and giving precedence to common points, which far outnumber polemical ones.”⁴⁾

“… our globalizing world badly needs such an interaction, because we can prevent disagreements and irreconcilable differences only through mutual contact and cultural exchange; thus we can build an atmosphere of peace to cover the whole of humanity. If such bridges of dialogue are not formed between different cultures and civilizations, differences and conflicts might drift humanity toward irrevocable fights and wars… At a period when understanding and reconciliation are seriously needed, such dialogue is a crucial service, done for the sake of humanity.”⁵⁾

“Going to the four corners of the world in the name of dialogue, restoring broken relations between countries, constantly generating such plans, and developing effective projects is very important in terms of preventing possible conflicts, wars, and disorders. The most important means of struggling against conflict and discord is education. That is, you will bring up perfect individuals in terms of virtues and universal values, values such as peace, tolerance, and dialogue.”⁶⁾

“You can never build good relations with an attitude of total disregard for their values. On the contrary, it is possible to build a warm relationship through dialogue, tolerance, respecting everybody’s position, recognizing their being honored with the best pattern of creation, and acknowledging that every one of them is a bright mirror to the Divine, with respect to their essence and potentials… People who live in different cultural regions of our time can only rid themselves of prejudices through such interaction and dialogue.”⁷⁾

“… those who criticize the volunteers do not pay attention to their religious devotion but only see their efforts for dialogue with others from a narrow-minded perspective. However, in our time when the world is full of antagonism and weapons of mass destruction, dialogue activities centered around love, respect, compassion, and tolerance are very important.”⁸⁾

“People who do not think like you might be very sincere and beneficial, so do not oppose every idea that seems contradictory and scare them off. Seek ways to benefit from their opinions, and strike up a dialogue with them.”⁹⁾

“What we try to do through dialogue is to contribute to the dominance of peace and harmony in the world by eliminating the negativities such as violence, hostility, radicalism, terrorism, and war, and to eliminate the obstacles preventing people from recognizing and benefiting from the values of different religions and cultures.”¹⁰⁾

Civilization

Respect

Tolerance

Ahmet Kurucan, Mustafa Kasim Erol, Dialogue in Islam : Qur’an-Sunnah-History

Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Nazif Muhtaroglu, Detlev Quintern, Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology in Dialogue: The Logos of Life and Cultural Interlacing

B. Jill Carroll, A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gülen’s Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse

David Bohm, On Dialogue

M. Fethullah Gülen, The Necessity of Interfaith Dialogue: A Muslim Perspective

Maurice S. Friedman, Martin Buber: The Life of Dialogue

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