Pacifica Institute San Diego holds its Dialogue and Friendship Dinner


Date posted: November 30, 2013

Pacifica Institute’s San Diego chapter held its 9th Annual Dialogue and Friendship Dinner at Marriot Hotel, La Jolla. The gathering saw the attendance of some 170 guests including academics, bureaucrats and religious figures.

Atilla Kahveci, Pacifica Institute’s vice-president, in his inaugural address, reflected on the crucial role of occasions that bring people of diverse faiths and cultures in fostering intercultural understanding, cooperation and peace.

The night featured journalist-author Mustafa Akyol’s keynote speech centered on his latest book “Islam without Extremes”, followed by remarks by First Assistant U.S. Attorney, Cindy Cipriani; FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Mark Hudson; and Fr. Ron Cochran of Saint Luke Catholic Church.

Akyol illustrated the role of dominant cultural factors and authoritarian rules in various countries, alongside the media lacking sound judgment, in misinterpretation of Islam with specific examples. Attorney Cipriani highlighted the importance of exercising cultural awareness and recognition of diversity in legal system to be able to achieve peace and security in society. Cipriani reaffirmed the president Obama’s call for senior state officials to reach out to and engage with every segment of society.

Next, Fr. Cochran took the floor to deliver his remarks, in which he expressed his thanks to Pacifica Institute associates who invited him over for iftar dinners throughout the month of Ramadan. He further conveyed his pleasure to have seen prejudices removed after first encounters among communities and growing hope for tomorrows.

As the night passed on with live Turkish classical music on the background, the institute’s advisory board members were presented plaques for their contributions in dialogue. Finally, the promo video of “Love is a Verb”, a documentary on Hizmet Movement -filmed in six different countries including the US and anticipated to be aired on PBS- was displayed.

Published [in Turkish] on Zaman Amerika,  November 27, 2013.

Source: HizmetMovement.Com , November 30, 2013

Tags: | | |


Related News

Award-winning US screenwriter: Without freedom of speech and media, we’re all slaves

Terry Spencer Hesser, director of the first feature-length movie about Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement, a grassroots initiative inspired by the Islamic scholar, spoke to Sunday’s Zaman at the Strasbourg screening of the biopic titled “Love Is a Verb,”

Reflections on my first trip to TÜRKIYE

Last week I had the pleasure of accompanying a group of Jewish community leaders on a Niagara Foundation sponsored trip to Türkiye (Turkey). Our mission: to provide the group with windows into the Jewish experience in Turkey. One of the trip participants would describe this as, “not a Jewish trip to Turkey but a group of Jewish people traveling to Turkey.”

GYV: Hard-won democratic gains sacrificed for short-term interests

The move to seek the extradition of Fethullah Gülen using irrational justifications, the pressures on those businesspeople who sympathize with the Hizmet movement and the boycotts and sufferings that came in the wake of Erdoğan’s threat, “Do not given them [the Hizmet movement] even a single drop of water,” are the sort of developments unseen even during coup eras.

Turkish-Jordanian relations discussed in Istanbul

At a workshop on Turkish-Jordanian relations organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) in İstanbul on Wednesday, top aide to the prime minister and Ankara Deputy Yalçın Akdoğan said that Turkey pursues a value-based foreign policy, not one based on national interests. Stating that Turkey approaches its region with the idea of soft power and adhering […]

Pacific Dialogue Platform in Philippines was opened with Iftar

Cihan News Agency, Aug 21, 2011. International Fountain Schools and Pacific Dialogue Platform together in Manila, Philippines, organized a “Friendship and Iftar Dinner”. Officials, businessmen, politicians, board members from the country’s top universities, congressmen, high-level government and army officials, and journalists attended this pleasant event. The Pacific Dialogue Platform had their official opening at the […]

S.A. nun speaks at the U.N. on Gulen

Sister Martha Ann Kirk had spoken publicly about her trips to Iraq and her time in that beleaguered country — where so little hope seems to exist, especially for educational opportunity for girls.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Reuben Abati: Let’s Talk Turkey About Turkey

Turkey-China seek new gateway for business at Tuskon meeting

Turkish school shows EU already chose Turkey

Now, speaking Turco-Tweetish is more challenging

Faith Communities and Home-Grown Extremism

Turks most honest donors to Somalia, says minister

Turkish Twitter war over education

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News