Dear young people who are in the prime of their lives, we invite you to join this new university as your home of wisdom and knowledge.
Civilization reflects the beliefs and ideals of a society. In turn, it holds that society together; it provides it with its identity; it imparts a sense of peace and belonging to members of the community.
We would like to put before you the possibility of following in the steps of Ibn Haldun in order to contemplate, and perhaps even to participate in creating, a civilization that while standing on the edge of its own values will not withdraw from or otherize others — that will replace a vision of societies competing to achieve supremacy over each other, with another vision of positive emulation and competition in trying to attain a common, universal goal.
Social change has both to depend on and to bring about individual change. The world’s and our own country’s future depend on young men and women whom we hold in sacred trust. It is you that we must challenge, while you must also challenge yourselves, to vie with your peers in acquiring all the multiple skills and proficiencies that mark out this era.
We live in a world which communications technology has turned into a global village. There is tough competition in every aspect of this global village. Countries, cities, universities, individuals — it is a toughly competitive world. The only way to achieve sustainable success is to keep improving ourselves by cultivating a determination which begins in us and ends in us.
Dear young people, in a line extending from the past to the future, from roots to heavens, we want to go on a journey with you by building on yesterday, stepping on today, and looking to tomorrow — a journey that will see us developing by changing, and changing by developing.
With heartfelt greetings.
İrfan Gündüz,
Professor (Religious Studies)
Chairman of the Board of Trustees