Fethullah Gulen, the Gulen Movement (aka the Hizmet Movement), and their contributions to the world peace were recognized by 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton. Hon. Bill Clinton delivered his remarks at the 3rd Annual Friendship Dinner by Turkish Cultural Center, New York City. President Clinton offered his thanks to the Gülen Movement for contributions to […]
The first Iftar Dinner of 2016 was given at the United Nations by Peace Islands Institute and the Journalists & Writers Foundation. The Iftar dinner gathered members of different faith communities to give a message of peace, harmony, and solidarity to the whole world. Despite conflicts and violence extremism that are happening around the world, faith communities stand united together as One celebrating the traditions of fating in different religions.
A group of about 130 people gathered at Redmond United Methodist Church (RUMC) for dinner on Sunday evening. But rather than a room full of Christians, as the venue may imply, the dinner was the Interfaith Friendship Iftar Dinner and contained a mix of members of the RUMC as well as members of thePacifica Institute […]
Dates, rice and eggplant moussaka for birthday dinner? It works. A recent birthday of mine happened to coincide with a long-planned Ramadan Interfaith Iftar Dinner co-hosted by Pacifica Institute and Calvary Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. Since I was minimally involved in the planning and execution of the event, and maximally involved in the birthday, […]
In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, there are institutions linked to “Hizmet” or “volunteer movement” better known as “Gulen Movement”, by the name of the person who inspired it, Fethullah Gulen, Turkey. It is an educational, intercultural and interfaith movement, transnational, with a presence in almost every country in the world. These institutions in the Dominican […]
The 4th International Panel for Sharing Coexistence Experience, which brought together the representatives of the religions in South Korea and the religious groups from Turkey and the United States, and the round-table meeting, titled “Combating Religious Extremism at the Public Level,” hosted by Seoul National University, were held in South Korea.
Against the backdrop of the San Antonio skyline, members of various religious and cultural groups from every corner of the city broke bread and shared a thoughtful discussion during the Dialogue Institute of the Southwest‘s 11th Annual Dialogue and Friendship Dinner.
On the occasion of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW60), Peace Islands Institute, The Journalists and Writers Foundation, UN Women Liberia, Ufuk Dialogue Foundation, The Rainbow Intercultural Dialogue Center and the Thailand Achievement Institute collaborated to organize a side-event entitled “The Preventive Role of Women in Women’s Empowerment: Possibilities and Challenges” on 17 March 2016 at the United Nations Headquarters.
The room at the Istanbul Cultural Center just off the FSU campus is filled with both men and women and lots and lots of children. Many of the women are wearing colorful headscarves and long buttoned coats. And most of the men are their husbands, some associated with the university as teachers or students, and others who have taken time away from their own professions in Turkey to accompany their wives who are completing graduate studies here.
February 25 panel before about 50 listeners. Like him, “Welcoming the Stranger: Refugees and Immigrants in Our Midst,” a presentation of the controversial Islamic Gülen movement’s Rumi Forum, was uniformly uncritical towards current Middle Eastern refugee issues.
Mr. Gulen reminds me of other important figures in the 20th and now early 21st century thinkers like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. who also translate their religious traditions into an idiom that made sense to people who wanted to live peacefully and in harmony with their neighbors and their wider community.