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Growing in Cascades

The Fountain

Mar 1, 2013

The Fountain Magazine is delighted to welcome two new editions to its growing family—Revista Cascada and Ebru-two saplings born out of the same root.

The Fountain was being published in German as Die Fontäne, in Russian as Noviye Grani, in Arabic as Hira, and in Turkish as Sızıntı for quite many years, and now two major languages—Spanish and French-spoken by large populations of the world are coming into scope (Both magazines were released a year ago; Revista Cascada started online, it is now available in print).

Ebru started off this year with a remarkable gala followed by a symposium early February in Dakar, Senegal. Honored by the Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye, the gala featured several ministers, academics, and community leaders, not only from Senegal but all over from thirty countries, who came to witness yet another initiative inspired by Fethullah Gülen. Most of the participants were already familiar with this name either through successful schools that are run in partnership with Turkish entrepreneurs and educators or through dialogue activities by foundations like ATSA, (Atlantique Turquie-Sénégal Association Pour le Dialogue Culturelle Entre Les Civilisations) which was one of the organizers of the event. This was not the first time Senegal met the Hizmet / Gülen Movement; Yavuz Selim Colleges have been open in this country since 1997 with a well-deserved reputation for academic excellence. We congratulate Ebru for this great start, and hope Revista Cascada will soon carry the banner to the expansive territories of Cervantes.

The Fountain features in this issue contributors from India, Pakistan, Turkey, Italy, and United States. Mohammad Aleem from India reviews Fethullah Gülen’s masterpiece “The Messenger of God: Muhammad.” Aleem, who also translated the book into Hindi, praises the work as follows: “Any person who enjoys reading would not be able to keep himself or herself unmoved if he or she gets the chance to go through such an emphasis made in this book encouraging readers to try their best to emulate the Prophet in every possible way and guide them to become a human as God has envisaged for them so that they can understand the intricacies of this world and the next.”

Seema Arif from Pakistan takes us on a thoughtful journey into the challenges of the present conditions of life. She questions on what modernism and post-modernism have brought into our lives when she says, “In search of the “theory of everything,” we have almost forgotten all good and great theories and ideas about everything, leading us to skepticism and unbelief.”

Rev. Dr. Pachomius Okogie from Italy presents a wonderful metaphor of the “horizon” as an endless opportunity for liberation: “Because the horizon has power to liberate us from the present, the immediate, the obvious. ... With the horizon, there are no closed doors, no human being is a finished project, no done deal, no finished once-and-for-all discussions, no insurmountable barriers. The horizon’s open field stretches into infinity.”

Finally, Katharine Branning from USA sets on our table a delicious and beautifully garnished salad from the wise server of a local deli she frequents for lunch. In this thoughtful memoir from an ordinary working day in New York, you will find a feast of wisdom, as healthy a nourishment for the heart as a freshly mixed green salad.