Professor Recep Şentürk, the President of Ibn Haldun University has made a presentation titled "Open Civilization: Diversity Management and Human Rights in Islam." where he was invited as a guest speaker in Kista Folkhölgskola (Society School) at Stockholm, Sweden. Professor Şentürk said, "The biggest challenge we face today is to protect the human rights and manage the environment that people from the different civilizations can live together in peace and harmony."
Professor Şentürk has put forward five questions that should be answered to manage the diversity of people living together; "Why do conflicts occur?", "Is it possible to prevent conflicts before occuring?", "What is the difference between diversity management and conflict resolution?", "Why do we need an effective diversity management system today more than ever?" and finally "How can we learn today from the Islamic and Ottoman heritage of diversity management?" Professor Şentürk said people from different civilizations are living together in many societies and those people share the same cities, same neighbourhoods, same education facilities and same businesses. "The biggest challange we face today is to protect the human rights of all those people coming from different civilizations and manage the environment so that they can live in peace and harmony." he added.
Professor Şentürk said in today's world, which himself calls "Open Civilization", it is impossible to avoid diversity. Therefore according to Professor Şentürk, what needs to be done is to avoid the idea of authoritarian extremism, which argues diversity is a threat to social unity and national identity and follow the arguements of pluralism, history and religion. "Pluralism says, diversity leads to prosperity and power. History tells that humanity always had diversity. And Islam, as a religion tell diversity God's will and creation." he added. Professor Şentürk emphasized that it is inevitable to answer the question of the most pressing problem of our time, which is diversity management, by governing diversity of ideas, beliefs, interests, innate and inherited qualities by accommodating them. According to Professor Şentürk, history showed that Islam and Ottoman rulers had a heritage of diversity management. Islam has done that in Mecca all the way up to India by enhancing an administration that respects the rights of all people from different religions, different sects and different civilizations. "Therefore the West which tries to answer the question of diversity, should learn and use that heritage." he added. Professor Şentürk said; "The best system of managing diversity and preventing conflicts before occuring is through a multiplex worldview and a multplex normative system. We can learn from Islamic and Ottoman heritage to establish a multiplex diversity management system in an era of open civizilation."
