Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 334

PROGRAM DESER
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Raz Mohammad Dalili is founder of Sanayee Development Organization (SDO) in Kabul, Afghanistan. During his 20-year career as a development worker, he has worked to establish peacebuilding as a nationally recognised industry sector in Afghanistan. Along with his team, he has made SDO the pioneer of peacebuilding organisations in the country. Mr Dalili is also a member of the South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAPI.
Said Ehsanullah Dileri holds an MA in Development Studies from Kimmage Development Studies Centre in Dublin, Ireland. He is involved actively in designing, monitoring and evaluating programs on peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
Religion and Global Media
Paramacharya Palaniswami
Christopher Landau
Ahmed Rehab
Room 204
Panel Discussion
The global media reports news, provides entertainment and communicates facts, visions and values across barriers of culture as well as distance. Media today is truly making the world smaller and increasingly interconnected, and it has immense power. How we experience our own religion and how we see the religions of others is affected both positively and negatively by the words and images of television, radio, the Internet and print media (all of which are increasingly interconnected). In this program, an international panel of veteran journalists and religion pundits will address questions such as: Does our global media affect the course of events in religion, and how? Do journalists understand religion adequately and report it accurately? Does media treat some issues in religion and some religions-better than others? How can media improve our knowledge of religion-or promote prejudice and stereotypes? What is the role of religiously sponsored media? The panellists come from several religious traditions and have engaged or worked for major media outlets and publications such as BBC, CNN, AL Jazeera and Hinduism Today.
Paramacharya Palaniswami has been a monk of Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's yoga order for 44 years. He is one of four stewards responsible for Saiva Siddhanta Church, Himalayan Academy and the $10 million Hindu Heritage Endowment. For 31 years, he has been editorin-chief of Hinduism Today magazine. On retreat days, he fulfills the monastery's vision of a sacred garden and tropical paradise by collecting and cultivating many varieties of sacred, medicinal and tropical plants around the grounds.
Christopher Landau is a Religious Affairs Correspondent for BBC World Service.
Ahmed Rehab is an American Muslim activist and writer with a focus on civil rights, media relations, and Islam-West relations. He is the Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy office. Rehab serves on the boards of directors of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Immigration and Refugee Interfaith Ministries, the Chicago Human Relations Advisory Committee and the Egyptian American Society. He is a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Muslim task force. He has appeared on Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, HDTV News, PBS, CNN, CLTV, WGN, C-Span, BBC, MSNBC, WBBM, Chicago Public Radio, Fox News Radio, and Conservative Radio.
330 PWR Parliament of the World's Religions Jain Education International
Christian-Muslim Engagement: Action through Understanding in the Writings of Said Nursi
Dr Faris Kaya
Fr Thomas Michel Dr Abdullah Saeed Dr Yunus A Cengel Dr Bilal Kuspinar Room 207
Panel Discussion
2:30-4:00pm ENGAGEMENT SESSION
Too often, Christianity and Islam coexist uneasily. As followers of two of the biggest world religions, Christians and Muslims must recognise that encouraging a better understanding of each other's faiths is the best way to fulfil their commitment as believers and responsible caretakers of Creation. Moving beyond the bitterness of their shared history, Muslims and Christians have recently been writing a new history through dialogue and engagement. This dynamic panel made up of leading Christian and Muslim scholars will explore models of interfaith understanding and cooperation in the writings of highly influential Muslim theologian Said Nursi (1876-1960). The presenters will focus on contemporary Muslim-Christian engagement and provide the audience with examples of their cooperative models and dialogue activities. The panel will be beneficial for anyone seeking a model of constructive, mutual and focused dialogue.
Faris Kaya was born in Erzurum, Turkey. He is General Secretary of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Science (IFCS), which was founded by Said Nursi. Dr Faris promotes and disseminates Said Nursi's work, The Risale-i Nur Collection, within and outside Turkey. He has organised several national and international conferences and symposia devoted to Nursi. In addition, the IFCS has co-sponsored numerous symposia at universities around the world.
Fr Tom Michel, SJ, studied Arabic in Lebanon and Egypt and received a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Chicago. His doctoral thesis focused on the thought of Sunni Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyya. He has served as Secretary of the Jesuit Secretariat for Interreligious Dialogue in Rome since 1996 and Ecumenical Secretary for the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences since 1994.
Dr Adbullah Saeed is the Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne, where he also directs the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies and Asia Institute (www.abdullahsaeed.org). He is involved in interfaith dialogue between Christians and Muslims, and between Jews and Muslims, and is a frequent and popular lecturer. Dr Saeed has a BA in Arab/Islamic Studies from Saudi Arabia, an MA in Applied Linguistics and a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Melbourne.
Dr Yunus A Cengel is a Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno (USA). He served as the director of the Industrial Assessment Center at the University of Nevada, and has prepared energy conservation, waste minimisation, and productivity enhancement reports for manufacturing companies. He has authored or co-authored several textbooks on thermodynamics and has received the ASEE Meriam/Wiley Distinguished Author Award twice. He is also the recipient of several outstanding teacher awards.
Dr Bilal Kuspinar is a Professor at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He has both studied and taught at McGill and at Selcuk University in Turkey. During the mid-1990s, he was the director for Muslim Schools of Montreal. Dr Kuspinar also worked as lecturer of Islamic Philosophy at the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilisation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.