Azerbaijanis in Houston attended Dialog of Civilizations Platform.

We met with congressman Al Green and others speakers at the platform.

Dialog of Civilizations Platform

Houston, Texas, USA22-23 January, 2010

“Social Challenges of the 21^st Century: the Roles of Government, Civil Society, Media and Educators”

Academics and distinguished representatives shed light on social challenges of today’s world such as poverty and social justice, conflicts and peaceful coexistence, clean energy and environment and they offered their point of views and possible solutions to the problems of the 21^st century.

Six sessions took place, all on different topics, within the Dialog of Civilizations Platform, but probably the most intriguing session was the one where the brightest high school students of Houston presented their papers in a 15-minute speech about the main theme of “Improving Family Relations”.

Another interesting session was the luncheon forum featuring Dr. Robert Pape of University of Chicago. Dr. Pape is an expert on international security affairs and has spoken to numerous universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, University of Southern California and Ohio State and also  many political and government agencies including Capitol Hill - 4 times, Office of Secretary of Defense.

Dr. Pape addressed to the privileged audience on “Occupation, violence and religion”.  He mentioned that the suicide attacks throughout the world are mostly about political reasons rather than religious reasons. He gave the example of the Marxist Tamil Guerillas. In the light of the statistical surveys he also explained that suicide attacks are organized to the military targets right after the occupation.

The opening remarks of the Platform were given by Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. He thanked to the Gulen Institute and praised the efforts of the Institute to maintain social peace and justice. Raindrop Turkish House also presented an award on the contributions to the Turkish-American friendship.

The honorary guest of the program was Congressman Al Green. He stated the Gulen Movement is a peace movement and the aid campaign of the Raindrop Turkish House for the Haiti Earthquake was something to be applauded.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and newly-elected Houston Mayor Annise Parker also sent messages to the Platform to show their support. Annise Parker issued a proclamation in which she declared 22-23 January as the “Gulen Institute – Dialog of Civilizations Day”.

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