For many of us, honey is only a great spread over our bread at breakfast, especially with fresh cream. We also know it is a very healthy food as a general knowledge. Dr. Ozturk explains in this issue that honey is much more than a delicious syrup on our table. Miraculously produced as a very complex chemical compound that is very rich in minerals and vitamins, it has been found that honey can play a role in cleansing the body from the free radicals and reactive compounds which can cause the development of serious illnesses like cancer and heart disease. Ozturk’s article presents many of the amazing qualities of honey and covers some of the research exploring its many potential health benefits.

Another miraculous phenomenon that is so mysteriously prevalent in our lives is the prime numbers. Ali Kaya explains that prime numbers are not only a topic in our textbooks, but are also quite relevant to our day-to-day lives from online shopping to telephone conversations, and even to the pattern of appearance of some bugs in our neighborhood.

Two prominent academics from the UK gave a series of talks in the United States on their recently published books on the Gülen Movement: Professor Johnston McMaster and Professor Simon Robinson. We had the privilege of interviewing them during their trip, which turned out to be a deep, thought-provoking conversation not only on Gülen, but also on ethics, human responsibility, dialogue, and even Brexit. The main emphasis was on the fact that real dialogue among individuals, communities, or faith groups is when it is really practiced. For them, practiced dialogue is what Gülen represents: “living out core values, practicing core virtues such as courage, patience, tolerance … the moral imagination… that humanity comes before being a Christian or a Muslim or whatever.” Another important emphasis that stood out in the interview was what McMaster called as the destructiveness of dualisms: “There is a much more holistic way to do and see things, that things are not all oppositional or in binaries... The very science of ecology ought to have taught us this. We are looking into the interconnectedness and interrelationship of everything.”

Professor Jon Pahl challenges the strong men of the world and brings us some hope that we should be hopeful for a coming deep peace. For Pahl, the alternative way for our future is through mutual consultation, democracy, social enterprise, universal literacy, trust, and deep peace. He says that the reason our religious traditions have survived for so long is that they foster deep peace through prayer, dispensing justice, and reconciliation with enemies. As a side note for those who are interested, Professor Pahl’s biographical work on Fethullah Gülen is about to be released very soon.