The jewels of Ebru TV

Life has been conspiring to prevent me from blogging–or even sitting down to reflect, for that matter–lately, but those of you interested in Sufism will no doubt get a lot out of the rich variety of discussions with eminent scholars available on Ebru TV. 

The name means "paper marbling" in Turkish–I didn't know what that was, either–and the venture is an English language spin-off of the a popular religiously themed TV station in Turkey called Samanyolu ("Milky Way").

Ebru TV has a variety of programming. So far, I've only watched the "Matters of Faith", which has some wonderfully intelligent and refreshing discussions of Islamic spirituality and history with noted scholars like Cornel West, Valerie Hoffman, Omid Safi, and Jamal Elias (each of which warrants its own post).

Highly recommended.

As is often the case when I observe the Nurcus'  endeavors, I'm impressed.  These Turks are making the rest of us look like slackers. I wonder, how long till we start hearing complaints in the Islamosphere about the  pains joys of the Büyük ünlü uyumu? When it comes to Islamic movements, I think the world would benefit immensely from more Gülen and less Qutb or Maudoodi.

Update (2009-09-17): For an introduction to this important movement, see

"Fethullah Gulen and His Liberal 'Turkish Islam' Movement"
By Bulent Aras and Omer Caha
Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA)
Volume 4, No. 4 – December 2000
http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2000/issue4/jv4n4a4.html