Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 363

PROGRAM DES
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
11:30am-1:00pm INTERRELIGIOUS SESSION
Omie Baldwin is a member of the Dine' INavajol Nation. A clinical social worker at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ms Baldwin is also co-chair of the American Indian into Science group on campus. She has served for several years as a board member of the Fund of the Sacred Circle, Headwaters Foundation for Peace & Social Justice, Minneapolis, Minnesota Clarence Jackson is a Tlingit Clan Elder from the village of Kake, Alaska. He is of the Ch'aak (Eaglel moiety. Tsaagweidi (Killer Whalel Clan. He is on the board of directors for Sealaska Corporation, a regional, Native for-profit corporation founded by the US Congress for the Tlingit. Haida, and Tsimshian people. He also serves on the board of trustees for Sealaska Heritage Institute and its Council of Traditional Scholars. Oki Kano was born near Tokyo, Japan, in Kanagawa Prefecture. He shares his Ainu heritage through his music by playing the ancient Ainu stringed instrument, the tonkori. He has been involved with the United Nations Committee for Human Rights on the subject of land rights and discrimination against Indigenous Peoples, particularly the way those issues have affected his Ainu community.
A New Conscience: Making a World of Difference Alon Goshen-Gottstein Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Swami Atmapryananda Mike Ghouse Alexis Yancey Jaami Room 203 Panel Discussion Repeated war, crippling poverty and pestilence have left humanity feeling numb and helpless in the 21st century, At this juncture of the third millennium, humanity is at a crossroads and desperately craving hope. The repository of this elusive hope is the Divine power and it is necessary to harness and mobilise this in order to attain sustainable peace. The mind is an immensely powerful tool with the capacity to be either one's best friend or indeed one's worst enemy. It is both the nucleus of divine power with infinite capability as well as the site of the hidden enemy that can propel one towards greed, cruelty, lies, selfishness, arrogance, hate and condemnation. It is the cultivation and empowerment of the spiritual mind that creates an inner peace which when collectively marshalled can lead to peace within the nation-state and throughout the world. The panellists will explore how a new conscience can be discovered to make a world of difference through sharing wisdom.
Australia's Diverse Cultures and Multifaith Communities: Fethullah Gulen's Vision and Building Bridges Projects Orhan Cicek Ahmet Polat Mehmet Saral Dr Salih Yucel Sureyya Cicek Cemen Polat Room 204 Panel Discussion Australia's unique multicultural and multifaith structures can foster relationships between the immigrant and faith communities. Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish Muslim scholar and educational interfaith leader, has developed a worldwide vision together with practical conflict resolution ideas. In Australia, his vision is being implemented by Melbourne-based Australian Intercultural Society (AIS) and Sydney-based Affinity Intercultural Foundation (Affinity in many projects and programs for the wider society. These organisations and their flagship projects bring many different communities together around common ground based on mutual respect. AIS and Affinity provide educational and interfaith services such as international Abrahamic conferences between Muslims, Christians and Jews; series of social cohesion conferences: Ramadan iftars dinners and gatherings; and educational seminars and workshops. This program will outline and discuss Gulen's vision as well as his activities in Turkey, Australia, and across the world. Orhan Cicek is the executive adviser to the Australian Intercultural Society and the Affinity Intercultural Foundation. Ahmet Orhan Polat has been a dedicated educator since 1992. He has been a teacher and administrator in private Turkish schools in locations such as Turkmenistan and Crimca in Central Asia, and Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. He is currently General Coordinator of the Australian Intercultural Society in Melbourne and is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Sydney in New South Wales. His doctoral research is about the 'School Choice of Parents as the private Turkish schools in Australia'. Mehmet Saral is the President and one of the founding members of Affinity Intercultural Foundation, Sydney. Dr Salih Yucel completed the Bachelor of Islamic Theology at the University of Ankara in 1982 and Master of Theology at the University of Sydney in 1996. He worked as a pastoral care consultant for Muslim patients in Harvard Medical School's hospitals for six years. He attained his doctorate from Boston University in 2007. His doctoral research was about Medicine of the Prophet from the earliest to the modern period. Currently, he is a lecturer in Islamic Studies at Monash University Sureyya Cicek is a PhD candidate at Monash University and works with the Australian Intercultural Society. Cemen Polat has studied Bachelor of Economics and Business Administration between 1992 and 1996. In 2002 she extended her study and completed Master of Teaching in Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. Since 2003 Cemen Polat has been teaching Senior Economics and Business Studies and has been appointed as HSC Economics marker by NSW Board of Studies for the past three years. She has delivered papers on the international conferences in Melbourne and Los Angeles. Currently, Cemen Polat is undertaking a research project on The Worldwide Turkish School Movement: Educational Philosophy and Funding:
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