Fethullah Gulen Gives Valuable Ideas Of Islam

Jakarta, April 3 (Antara) - Komaruddin Hidayat, the rector of State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, praised Islamic thinker Muhammad Fethullah Gulen for his valuable contribution to Islamic ideas. "Gulen has connected the gap between West and East (Islam) ideology through a number of his works," he said when attending book launching entitled "Bangkitnya Spriritualitas Islam" (The Rise of Islamic Spirituality) here on Wednesday. Muhammad Fethullah Gulen is a Turkish Muslim intellectual with a progressive Islamic thought. Gulen was crowned by Foreign Policy Magazine as the number one among hundreds of the most influential intellectuals in the world five years ago. Komaruddin Hidayat on the occasion highlighted the developments of Islam in Indonesia and Turkey with their own trademark. ����"In Turkey, despite the government system has adopted secular system (separation of religion and state), the political process has never blended the faith with the political party. Meanwhile in Indonesia, sometimes party used religion as the main propaganda to get support from voters," he said. He said there was nothing wrong with the two countries in putting religion as secular or integrated with country system. ���� "Both systems have their advantages. Nevertheless, secularism in Turkey only exists at the level of administration. So religion is not used to increase electability of any particular party," he said.