Orhan's Magic Carpet Ride

by Louisa McCune-Elmore

Orhan Osman is the most influential Oklahoman you've never heard of. A Turkish native and the Oklahoma representative for the Institute of Interfaith Dialog, he is former teacher and administrator at the Dove Science Academy in Oklahoma City. He is charming, funny, competent, and a passionate and articulate advocate for heartfelt tolerance among the world's people.

Beginning as a volunteer, he is now a leader in the international Gulen movement, a loosely networked global group of supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a theologian who teaches the art of altruism, inclusiveness, and civic conversation. Orhan spends his time promoting the philopsophy of peaceful coexistence through dialog, Turkey being the ultimate geographic "land of tolerance," from ancient times through the Ottoman Empire to today, particularly this last decade. Ask anyone in Oklahoma who has the slightest Middle Eastern interest, and it's likely they know Orhan Osman.

Our group of seven Oklahomans are just the latest among 170 over the last five years who have toured this country with Orhan, a par excellance language and culture interpreter who arranges a first-class all-access immersion experience. Anyone with the opportunity to know this gentleman and to tour his country with him will have a paradigm-changing experience that underscores hospitality and generosity like no other. From the geopolitical to the familial, the Turkish people give without expectation. Orhan is a model of this.

To view cutlines, move cursor over slides.

Louisa McCune-Elmore is the editor in chief of Oklahoma Today magazine. Her twitter feed is @louisamqn, and her email is mailto:louisamqn@me.com. She is traveling with several Oklahomans, including Russ Florence of Schnake Turnbo Frank, Kelly Burley of KOSU Radio, and Jim and Juley Langdon of Tulsa People magazine. The group is a guest of the Institute of Interfaith Dialog, hosted by Orhan Kucukosman.

View all the photos Louisa has tweeted during her journey to Turkey.

--JJM