We began the day with a meeting with Dr. Ahmet Arabaci, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at Fatih University. The university is a private institution founded in 1996. It is made up of 4 campuses, 7,300 students (427 foreign, 762 on scholarship), and 630 staff members.
Fatih University was founded in 1996. The school is governed by a private foundation’s board of trustees. The funding mix is 40% student fees and 60% foundation resources provided by movement’s health care, media, and shipping company interests.
One of the difficult challenges in its formation was passing the scrutiny of the government because the school was founded by their religious movement. Another challenge was matching the salaries of professors at the state universities in order to build a qualified faculty.
Questions to be satisfied before the college was approved for operation were: Is the education secular? Is there any foreign influence? Is the school a threat to the state?
Questions to be satisfied before the college was approved for operation were: Is the education secular? Is there any foreign influence? Is the school a threat to the state?
They said they wanted an institution that was “fair and open to everyone.” They are in the process of building new hospitals in Iraq and Kazakhstan. Their biggest challenge is finance, along with recruiting high quality doctors and teaching professors. According to Dr. Ilyas Akdemir, auto accidents are the leading cause of death. They have an emergency room but not an American style trauma center. However, their ambulances are manned by a doctor and a nurse when they are dispatched.
Infectious diseases in children and heart disease (smoking related), hypertension in adults are prevalent. Cancer rates vary and HIV/AIDS rates are very low. The life expectancy in Turkey is 72 years old. It is lower than in the United States because their higher child death statistics lowers the average, according to Dr. Akdemir. Sema accepts insurances and operates within European Union medical payment standards. They discussed the difficulty of getting Turkish doctors residency in the United States.
The movement is presently working on 10-15 scholarships to support their doctors while they work on passing the three exams required to be licensed in the United States. Our hosts did not know much about the Cuban medical system or its educational process to produce medical professionals. In the delegation’s opinion, if the presence of modern equipment, design of the facility, compassion and competence of medical staff, and clear strategic vision are indices of the level of care afforded the patients, then elements of Sema hospital’s operation could serve as a model for health care in Turkey and the world. [www.semahospital.com]
Eighty percent of their content is original; however, they do purchase movies and cartoons from Hollywood and Japan. They have 650 employees, plus staff in Germany, New Jersey, and Azerbaijan. Their future plans are to create a documentary station and to expand their network in Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. The delegation came away believing there was an avenue to provide the network with our own family oriented news, entertainment, documentary, and discussion programming for domestic and international broadcast. [www.samanyolu.tv]
The notes from the four hour meeting are too voluminous to detail in this report. However, our meeting can be summarized as follows: The study and critique of Islamic movements worldwide; Islamic leaders and scholars; division as the biggest problem in the Islamic world and how being Muslim (not a sect in Islam) is the “superior identity;” how bigotry, intolerance, and not being open to dialogue hurts Islam; Mr. Ergene’s personal history and relationship with Fethullah Gulen and his movement; how dialogue should be put into practice; the common thread of Islamic movements, their strengths and weaknesses; the Islamic world’s view of America and prophecy; and the Nation of Islam in the West.
Mr. Ergene ended our discussion by reminding us that the devil within is greater than the devil without and the threat is greater from within our movements than from without. We [Muslims] cannot be disassembled unless we disassemble ourselves. He referenced Surah 13 verse 11 for further study. The delegation felt this was a deeply spiritual and highly enlightening stop on our tour. 
Finally, Mr. Ergene’s son implored with us before we departed to bring our children next time so that he would not have to play alone. [www.tughrabooks.com]
The day concluded with a delicious late dinner at the home of businessman, Mr. Mete Atakul.
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