LUNCHEON : Living Where You Don’t Make the Rules - Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool

Living Where You Don’t Make the Rules (Part I)

Faith and cultural change in the age of globalization.

By Ebrahim Rasool, November 28, 2013

This is part one of a three-part series on Muslims, faith and cultural change in the age of globalization.

One of the touchiest issues in the world today is the Muslim disquiet, especially in countries where Muslims are minorities. We often miss it and call it all kinds of names.

We call it Islamism. We call it radicalism, we call it extremism, we call it fundamentalism and we call it violence. We claim it springs from conflict-driven communities.

Those labels have a semblance of truth in them, because on any given day, some Muslims may display some of those characteristics.

But those labels don’t tell the story about what the causes of the disquiet really are. They don’t even begin to describe how to deal with it and how to manage it. In particular, they don’t tell how to bring peace to the soul of a community that is often uncomfortable in the context of the disquiet.

The existing disquiet, in turn, invites fear, suspicion and often hostility among non-Muslims. In some way, we have to tackle the issue head on. How do we deal with this problem? The way in which I have come to understand it is that the key lies in the theological assumptions of the Muslim community that were formed in times of dominance.

When Islam was an empire, when Muslims were the rulers and when they moved into Spain, they made theological assumptions about how they could live. They created the rules for how to engage with those who are non-Muslim (and how those others could live). That set the tone of the lifestyle that they could lead....

READ FULL ARTICLE:  http://bit.ly/globalistERasool

Rumi Forum’s Silent Auction Benefits Habitat For Humanity Of Greater Charlottesville

 

On Tuesday, November 14, 2013, Rumi Forum brought over one hundred people together to discuss the “Ending Poverty” at its Annual Peace and Dialogue Dinner. Participants helped raise money for Habitat for Humanity with a silent auction at Omni Charlottesville Hotel.

 

Local middle and high school students contributed to the auction by participating Peace and Dialog Art Contest organized by the Rumi Forum. Award winning artworks were included in the auction. Rumi Forum also reached out to individuals and local businesses/organizations to support the auction. American Turkish Friendship Association, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Museum, Coach Mike London of University of Virginia Football Team, Coach Joanne Boyle of University of Virginia Women Basketball Team, Coach Tony Bennet of University of Virginia Men Basketball Team supported the auction by donating auction items.

 

All the proceeds collected from the silent auction were presented to Ms. Katie Geisshuesler, Development Manager at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville by the end of the night. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville works to create simple, decent, affordable housing in partnership with low-income families, volunteers and the communities of greater Charlottesville. The organization aims to build at least 20 homes annually in partnership with hard-working local families.

 

 

 

NEW BOOK: Gulen's Dialogue on Education: A Caravanserai of Ideas

Professor Tom Gage portrays eight modern educators and the development of their theories viewed from personal, cultural, and historical perspectives. He links their ideas to those of Fethullah Gülen, a highly influential educator of today who draws on an entirely different tradition. 

AMAZON:  click here

About Dr. Thomas Gage

Professor Emeritus in English at Humboldt State University, Dr. Tom Gage’s degrees are from the University of California at Berkeley. He is author of Gulen’s Dialogue on Education, a Caravanserai of Ideas and a dual-award winning iBook, American Prometheus: Captain Bill Jones, the Steel Genius who Made Andrew Carnegie (Silver for history & Silver for eLit Illuminated Excellence, Independent Publishers). Upon retiring in 2006, he originated Cross-Cultural Fluency (“CCF”), a secondary school curriculum in international education. His CCF work earned his team at Humboldt a California grant for curriculum development and invitations to address State and National Conventions of the National Council of Teachers of English. He is chair of the Youth Platform of the Gulen Institute at the University of Houston, which recognizes and awards international contest winners in writing. He was a feature speaker in 2012 at a regional assembly in Syracuse of the Two Year Colleges, a conference entitled From the World Desk: Situating Our Practice within a Global Context. He is a charter member of the board of directors of the Consultants for Global Programs (“CGP”). He was Fulbright Senior lecturer at the University of Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic. He has been a guest lecturer at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at Claremont Graduate School and at the Institute of Interfaith Dialog of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded his university’s Certificate of Recognition for dedication to international programs. In 1991 the California Association of Teachers of English awarded him a certificate for excellence in classroom teaching. He has served as dean or director of summer academic programs in Greece, England, France, and Italy. In the last three years, Gage has delivered papers on four continents, twice in Morocco, once in The Netherlands, Turkey, and now Canada.

 

NEW BOOK: Embracing the World: Fethullah Gule's Thought and Its Relationship with Jelaluddin Rumi and Others

This book is not a comprehensive study of Rumi and Gülen, but it seeks to explore the places where the thought of the one is echoed in the thinking of the other, either overtly or indirectly—and to note ways in which the opposite is true: that Gülen diverges from Rumi. The book is also seeking to suggest some of the larger contexts in which the thinking of both resides. Given the wide-ranging aspects of their respective writings, it should not be surprising if, minimally, we can find important foundation stones in both philosophy and theology in the edifices that they each construct.

AMAZON: more book details here 

Rumi Forum President speaks at Baptist Convention in Dallas, Texas

Rumi Forum President Emre Celik spoke on the Hizmet Movement and Fethullah Gulen at the Baptist Convention in Dallas, Texas in November 2013.