Rumi Forum to bestow Peace and Dialogue Awards


Date posted: October 30, 2009

ALI H. ASLAN

The Rumi Forum, a think tank established by Turks living in Washington, D.C., to foster intercultural dialogue, bestowed its traditional Peace and Dialogue Awards on Tuesday, honoring Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Democratic Congressman Gerry E. Connolly of Virginia, Professor John Borelli from Georgetown University, Professor Sidney Griffith from the Catholic University of America, Maureen Fiedler, host of the Interfaith Voices radio program on WAMU radio, and Ebru TV, a Turkish channel aired in the US.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers called on US President Barack Obama not to send additional troops to Afghanistan in his speech at the award ceremony, adding: “You cannot get peace by winning wars. … There is no military victory in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.”

Congressman Connolly praised the activities of the Rumi Forum, saying, “If there is something that I think is important and that is represented by this forum tonight and the work of the Rumi Forum, it is the ability it has to bind us all in tolerance and understanding.” Congressman Mike McMahon of New York described the protocols signed between Armenia and Turkey for the normalization of their diplomatic ties and the opening of their border as historic.

Several attendees speaking at the award ceremony expressed their support and admiration for the honorary president of the Rumi Forum, Fethullah Gülen, a renowned Islamic scholar advocating increased interfaith dialogue. “He is not only working hard to teach us respect for one another but also the necessity of learning more about one another,” Professor Griffith said of Gülen.

Great interest in the ceremony from congressmen

The Rumi Forum award ceremony was attended by 14 congressmen, both Republican and Democrat, the largest number so far present at an event organized by Turks living in Washington, D.C. The attendees were Gerry Connolly (Virginia); John Conyers (Michigan); Walter Jones, Larry Kissell, Howard Coble and Bob Etheridge (North Carolina); Keith Ellison (Minnesota); Bill Cassidy (Louisiana); Nick Rahall (West Virginia); Mike McMahon (New York); Jean Schmidt (Ohio); Robert Aderholt (Alabama); Kendrick Meek (Florida); and Vic Snyder (Arkansas).

Representatives, including ambassadors, from embassies of Turkey, Afghanistan, Albania, Yemen, Romania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Greece, South Africa, Bahrain, Fiji and Mali also attended the event.

Source: Today's Zaman , 29 October 2009


Related News

Prof. John L. Esposito’s keynote at the Gulen Movement conference, Chicago

Professor John L. Esposito of Georgetown University delivers the keynote speech at inauguration of the international conference “The Gülen Movement: Paradigms, Projects, and Aspirations.” The international conference took place on November 11-13, 2010 at International House at University of Chicago. The conference was designed to encourage scholarly research into the questions regarding Gulen Movement. It […]

Rainer Hermann interviews Fethullah Gulen – Do good and let it unfold

Rainer Hermann The Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen has been living in the United States for 13 years now. A widely branched network of followers developed also there in his name. There is no road sign indicating the exit and the dirt track. It leads you through a foggy broadleaf forest colored in all the shades […]

Gülen’s teachings to be taught at Belarus universities

10 October 2012 / AYTEN ÇİFTÇİ, İSTANBUL A group of academics from Belarus were in İstanbul on Tuesday for the presentation of the book “Social and Philosophical Aspects of the Teaching of Gülen: The Look of Belarusian Intellectuals,” which will be used in the country’s universities as a course book. The academics, who are experts […]

The UN High-Level Reception Highlights the Role of Public-Private Partnerships

Education, along with few other factors, has been the centerpiece of the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda. During the evaluation period of the successes of the Millennium Development Goals, it was obvious that even though the number of children attending schools significantly increased, the higher education they got did not meet the standards of the contemporary world and labor markets.

You couldn’t meet a nicer bunch of people: answer to defamation

Why do some portray Gülen and the residents of the retreat center, where he lives, as terrorists, while their neighbors describ them as “you couldn’t meet a nicer bunch of people”? Fethullah Gülen is one of the fruit-bearing trees of our time. He is as tall as the pine trees of the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, where […]

The Famous Soccer Player Hiding in Plain Sight in a California Bakery

Most customers do not recognize the fit, well-dressed man walking around Tuts Bakery and Cafe, picking up used cups and dirty dishes. Why would they? And what would he be doing here? Hakan Sukur, 46, is one of Turkey’s most famous athletes, its most celebrated soccer player, a World Cup hero and a veteran of several of Europe’s top leagues. So how did Sukur end up here?

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Separation politics and Islam makes Gülen AKP’s enemy

Can Erdoğan finish off the Gülen movement?

Religious freedom threatened by Turkey’s response to coup

Turkish doctors hailed for their assistance in CAR

Conference declares gov’t needs to be more active in preventing domestic violence

Karzai honored Turkish schools in his country

Statement on Chapel Hill Shootings

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News