Fethullah Gulen Chair

Fethullah Gülen Chair in the Study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations

Australian Catholic University (ACU National) appointed Dr Ismail Albayrak as its inaugural Fethullah Gülen Chair in the Study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations in November 2007.

The Chair is based at the University's Melbourne Campus (St Patrick's) and is located within the Asia-Pacific Centre for Inter-Religious Dialogue (APCID). 

The Fethullah Gülen Chair has been founded with full recognition of the plurality and diversity of Islam itself. The Chair aims to provide academic leadership in learning and teaching, and research and scholarship, as well as in the critical examination of current trends in the study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic relations.

The Chair in the Study of Islam and Muslim-Catholic Relations also:

• conducts leading-edge and internationally competitive research
• assists in developing programs in inter-religious dialogue
  
• promotes mutual understanding and good relations between Muslims and Catholics both in Australia and overseas.
  

The Chair is named in honour of Fethullah Gülen:

• a Turkish-born scholar, educator, spiritual and social leader, and renowned advocate for inter-religious dialogue and peace
  
• interpreter of Qur’anic teaching enabling Muslims to live their faith in modern situations and make a contribution to the transformation of society
• author of more than 60 books (many of which have been translated into English).
  

Gülen is especially noted in Catholic circles for his private audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1998. This marked an important step forward in Muslim-Catholic relations.

Dr Albayrak:

• born in Turkey 
• previously Associate Professor at the School of Divinity, within the Department of Basic Islamic Studies, at Sakarya University in Turkey
• doctorate in Qur’anic narrative from the University of Leeds, England
• author of Approaches to the Qur’an in Classical Modernism (2004) and numerous book chapters and refereed journal articles in English and Turkish, and co-editor of Re-reading Orientalism: Islamic Studies in the West (2003).