Third Annual Interfaith Dialogue Dinner - Interfaith Events - Interfaith Dialogue - Interfaith Dialog - IFCO - Interfaith Cultural Organization

"Interfaith dialogue is a must today, and the first step in establishing it is forgetting the past, ignoring polemical arguments, and giving precedence to common points..."

EVENTS

Third Annual Interfaith Dialogue Dinner
October 23, 7:15 pm, Foundry Park Inn, Athens, Georgia

3rd Annual Interfaith Dialogue Dinner hosted by the Interfaith Cultural Organization was held on October 23, 2007 at the Foundry Park Inn Hotel in Athens, Georgia. This year the title of the dinner was "The Universal Language of Love: Understanding Rumi." Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi is the prominent Turkish scholar and philosopher of 13th century who advocated tolerance, reason and access to knowledge through love. Year 2007 marks the 800th anniversary of his birth. UNESCO has recognized this anniversary by declaring 2007 the "Year of Rumi". His life, message and works have been celebrated widely around the world. We also think that his message is closely related to our goal of promoting understanding and peace between people of different religious and cultural backgrounds. That's why we chose a Rumi related title this year.

The key note speaker of the evening, Dr Alan Godlas, holds a doctorate degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He is an Associate Professor in the Religion Department at the University of Georgia and also the director of UGA Virtual Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the Islamic World. He has delivered a huge number of speeches worldwide on religious issues and is considered one of the best experts on Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi.

An award ceremony followed the speech. Abraham Alliance is a tri-faith social action coalition of Milledge Avenue Baptist Church, Al-Huda Islamic Center and Congregation Children of Israel. As the Interfaith Cultural Organization, we highly appreciate the Abraham Alliance for bringing together people from different religious backgrounds to make a contirubution to the common cause. We decided to present 2007 IFCO Interfaith award and a 300$ check raised by our members for the Abraham Alliance.

The evening continued with breathtaking music performance. We brought a Ney performer all the way from Turkey. Ney, or Turkish flute is one of the fundamental instruments of Mevlevi music. Authentic Turkish dessert, baklava, was served at the end of the dinner. We would like to thank everyone who joined us at this wonderful event

Sponsors of the event:

Istanbul Center For Culture And Dialogue - ICCD
http://www.istanbulcenter.org