Jews and Muslims “Downunder”: Emerging Dialogue and Challenges · 115one student commented on the advantage of these programs: “Living
in a multicultural society, it’s completely necessary to understand other
religions.”^60
After September 11, 2001, a sector of the Muslim community formed
the Affinity Intercultural Foundation to counter prejudice against Mus-
lims in New South Wales and promote interfaith dialogue. It is led by
Mehmet Ozalp, who has a Turkish background. Largely supported by
Sydney’s Turkish community, Affinity supports an annual Interfaith
Dialogue Conference and Women and Interfaith Dialogue and has links
with the Pitt Street Uniting Church and some Catholic organizations, as
well as the Jewish community. The formation of Affinity is an important
initiative, but the road to dialogue is not straightforward. The organiza-
tion has held functions on Friday nights, effectively excluding Jewish
participation.^61
Affinity’s Victorian counterpart, the Australian Intercultural Society
(AIS), carries out similar functions in Melbourne.^62 A recent initiative,
in conjunction with the Australian Catholic University (ACU), has been
the establishment of the Fethullah Gülen Chair in the Study of Islam and
Muslim-Catholic Relations. According to the AIS November 2007 news-
letter, this is the first of its type and will act as a “prototype” and “assist
second and third generation Muslims with learning Islam correctly from
its true sources, increase academic research in the field of interfaith dia-
logue, and provide a means for community related activities and take the
important message of dialogue to the wider Australian community.”
Both Affinity and AIS are influenced by the “community of Gülen,”
which has been defined as a “neo-Nur” movement. One of the major
influences in Fethullah Gülen’s philosophy was the Kurdish holy man
Said Nursi, who resisted the Kemalist modernization and secularization
process in Turkey in the 1920s and sought a way to deal with modernity
within Islam. After coming into conflict with authorities in the 1920s,
Nursi committed his philosophy to seeking to “build a pious and modern
Muslim personality, one which is tolerant but firm about the core values
of Islam.” After Nursi’s death in 1960, his writings became the focus of
study groups, or Dershanes, which sought to build communities and de-
velop the Nur (meaning “light”) networks.^63 The most influential Nur
network is Gülen’s neo-Nur group. Gülen, who owns a media network
and runs hospitals, schools, and universities in Turkey and abroad, has