Good Idea, But Bad Timing for Islam Conference

Much as he tries, Mustafa Gokcek can't conceal the disappointment that's etched in his features.

It was just a week ago today, while welcoming participants to the International Conference on Islam in Madison - a conference he helped organize - that the affable 28-year-old Turkish native and UW-Madison grad student realized he'd made an awful mistake.

For six months, he and his fellow members of International Dialogue - a campus group formed shortly after 9/11 - had spent most of their waking hours planning the conference, whose objective was to promote the need for dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims throughout the world.

They'd gotten speaking commitments from some 30 professors and scholars, worked out all the fine details and even managed to come up with $10,000 to fund the event - although many of the speakers agreed to pay their own way.

But Gokcek says they overlooked one crucial thing: They'd scheduled the two-day event on what is traditionally the craziest weekend of the year in Madison.

Not only were they competing against the Farmers' Market, the Crazylegs Classic, the Mifflin Street block party and a sold out Saturday night performance of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. But Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., was in town Friday for the Wisconsin Women in Government banquet and drew a packed house of 2,200 for her speech at Monona Terrace.

Gokcek, who's also been juggling a hectic home life - his wife Hulya gave birth to their first child (a son, Ali Mucteba) last October - says he didn't become aware of all the other activities until sometime Friday afternoon. Then his heart sank.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, we picked the wrong dates!"

Actually, they really didn't have an alternative - it was the only weekend when there weren't any major events scheduled on campus.

But on Wednesday of this week, Gokcek was lamenting his bad luck and wondering what might have been during an interview at a State Street coffee shop.

About 100 people did show up to hear the diverse group of speakers - which wasn't bad for an academic conference, Gokcek says. But it was far short of his own expectations.

And, not surprisingly, media coverage was almost non-existent.

"A missed opportunity," Goksek says - not only for the participants but for Madison residents who, thanks mainly to 9/11, have many concerns and misconceptions about Islam.

It was especially unfortunate, he says, because the quality of the presentations was, for the most part, outstanding. In fact, Gokcek says he gathered all the papers after the conference ended and hopes to publish them in a book later this year.

Gokcek says he was particularly impressed by the message of Fethullah Gülen, a prominent religious leader in Turkey. Gülen couldn't attend the event due to health problems, but his paper, presented in his absence, noted that ignorance was at the root of most of the world's problems and stressed the need for education and tolerance.

Other notables included UW Prof. Kemal Karpat, an expert on Middle East history, who had told me in an interview shortly before the U.S. invaded Iraq that the Bush administration was on some sort of bizarre power trip and that an invasion would only create more hostility toward the United States throughout the Arab world.

Because the conference's goal was to promote understanding, Karpat didn't mention the Iraq war in his keynote speech Friday, Gokcek says. Neither did most of the other speakers - although privately many expressed concern about the anti-Muslim sentiment in this country.

No, it's not as bad as it was in the months following 9/11, Gokcek says. And it's certainly not as strong in Madison as elsewhere. But according to a recent Cornell University poll, 44 percent of Americans support curbing Muslims' civil rights and monitoring their places of worship.

It's worth noting, Gokcek says, that not all Muslims believe that establishing a dialogue with Christians and Jews is the best way to defuse the situation.

When he and about 10 other students formed Dialogue International in 2002, Goksek says, they received several emails from local Muslims warning them that it was illegal under Islamic law to seek a dialogue with Christians and Jews.

"But I think that's a marginal view," says Goksek, who adds that if there was one common theme at the conference, it's that dialogue is an essential part of the Islam faith - and the only way to achieve harmony.

But only if Muslims are proactive, not reactive, he says.

"They need to go out and meet with people and let them know that all Muslims are not terrorists - they are just normal people ... trying to make enough money to support their families and live a decent life."

That's why, Goksek says, he's already looking ahead to next year's conference, whose theme will be "Islam and Globalization."

You mean there's actually going to be a next time?

Oh, without question, Goksek says.

"Only next time," he sighs, "it won't be the last weekend in April."

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Published: 10:16 AM 5/6/05

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