Episode 57 - Muslim on the Camino

In 2007, Sedat Çakır set out to walk the Camino de Santiago. Before he departed, he decided to seek out a pilgrim blessing from the local bishop in Amsterdam. There's nothing particularly unusual about that story... aside from the fact that Sedat is a Sufi and the Camino, of course, has a very complicated history with Islam! While Sedat set out originally just to make a satisfying long-distance walk, his purpose evolved as he learned more, and it soon grew into a journey oriented towards interfaith dialogue. And in the aftermath of that pilgrimage, another new goal opened up before him, reforging a route from Europe to Mecca. Working with his partner, Iris Bezuijen, Sedat (sedatcakir.com) has now launched two long-distance routes, the Sultan's Trail (sultanstrail.net/en/) and the Sufi Trail (sufitrail.com), which are the first two steps in that larger objective. This episode traces his journey from Amsterdam to Santiago and onward towards Mecca.