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Posts Tagged ‘dialogue society’

Let there be peace! (Jul 2014)

Posted in Discussions, English, tagged arab, children dying on beaches, death, dialogue, dialogue society, gaza, israel, jew, love, mesut erzurumluoglu, middle east, muslim, palestine, peace, religion, rocket, tolerance, turkey, usa, west on 11/07/2014| Leave a Comment »

Peace is the only way forward! (Image from www.israellycool.com)

Peace is the only way forward – for both sides! (source URL: www.israellycool.com)

A few hate-driven Palestinians (or whoever they are) fire rockets to Israel aiming to kill their citizens. Israel has the right to find and punish them (and only them!). However, what Israel does is go out and kill civilians (including many children and women) in return by using weapons of mass destruction. Now tell me what the difference is between Israel (a state) and those few brainless radicals. I really can’t see the difference in the way they act. Surely a state has to act differently than a bunch of terrorists! We must be against anyone, any group and any state who kills civilians! It doesn’t matter who they are or what they claim to represent! Terrorism (and killing civilians) has no religion or ideology!

Graffiti in Bristol, UK - Palestinian people deserve freedom and independence just like Israel does

Graffiti in Bristol, UK – Palestinian people deserve freedom, peace and independence just like Israel

Belfast International Peace Murals

Both sides must take a long hard look at themselves. As long as these atrocities carry on (on both sides) and we keep turning a blind eye, there’ll never be peace in the Middle East; and therefore the World. For peace to ever become sustainable, inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue is a must! People must learn and agree to disagree! I do not want to see one more life ending prematurely due to terrorism (by radical groups or by states) – on both the Palestinian and the Israeli side; or any other side! One life is one too many!

Hate can blind us all, thus we can’t see the good sides of others. The media/NGOs need to put more emphasis on dialogue and universal ethics

— Mesut Erzurumluoğlu (@mesuturkiye) February 11, 2015

“The greatest way to avenge your enemy is by learning to forgive” – Quote from the documentary

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Book Bus for Dialogue Society? (Dec 2013)

Posted in Discussions, English, tagged academic, christianity, dialogue society, fethullah gulen, hinduism, hizmet, inter-cultural, inter-faith, islam, judaism, sikhism, turkey on 22/12/2013| 1 Comment »

As an example: Dialogue Society Book Lorry

As an example (using my brilliant Photoshop skills): Dialogue Society Book Lorry

As there is a lot of hostility towards all religions, and especially Islam in Western Societies, it should be one of our primary objectives to inform people of the ‘true face of Islam’ through inter-faith dialogue. I am very impressed with what organisations such as Dialogue Society are doing, but I do not think they are reaching the wider audience as they would like to. They reach out to many academics and VIPs in their respective areas/cities, but struggle to make an impact at the public level.

Hate can blind us all, thus we can’t see the good sides of others. The media/NGOs need to put more emphasis on dialogue and universal ethics

— Mesut Erzurumluoğlu (@mesuturkiye) February 11, 2015

For this reason I would like to suggest designing a ‘Book Lorry’ (inspired from book buses) which will travel all over the UK (and can set an example to similar organisations within the UK and other countries), park their lorry in city centre (or other designated areas) and engage with the public. Interested individuals will enter from one side and leave from the other. The inside will be designed just like book busses, and people can take whatever book they would like (or pay a small fee depending on the book).

I believe this would be a great way to attract public attention (especially if the lorry is designed properly, not like the one above!); and make inter-faith dialogue more fruitful…

Those who are against interfaith and/or intercultural dialogue have also contributed to the disgusting outcomes in #Egypt and #Syria. Talk!

— Mesut Erzurumluoğlu (@mesuturkiye) April 6, 2014

For extra information on the Dialogue Society, please see my Dialogue Society post…

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Recommended Websites (May 2013)

Posted in Discussions, English, tagged bristol, coursera, dialogue society, mesut erzurumluoglu, network of students, nus, stanford, turkey, university of bristol, university of west of england, uob, uwe on 28/05/2013| 1 Comment »

Websites which should be checked every now and then…

For Everyone…

Coursera Online Courses:

https://www.coursera.org/#courses

Stanford University Online Courses:

https://class.stanford.edu/courses/

TED Talks:

http://www.ted.com/talks

Busuu Language Courses:

http://www.busuu.com/enc/

NOS (Network of Students) Events:

http://www.networkofstudents.org/events.html

LCSS (London Centre for Social Studies) Events:

http://www.socialstudies.org.uk/events

ABTA (Association of British Turkish Academics) Events:

http://abtanet.org.uk/Events/

Dialogue Society Events:

http://www.dialoguesociety.org/

Turkish Review Magazine:

http://www.turkishreview.org/

British Museum Events:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

Science Magazine ‘How To’ Series:

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/tools_tips/how_to_series

The National Archives – Education

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/default.htm

BBC Languages – Turkish:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/turkish/guide/

LTR (London Turkish Radio):

http://www.londonturkishradio.co.uk/

For the Bristol (UK) based…

‘What’s On’ by University of Bristol:

http://bristol.ac.uk/events/

UBU (University of Bristol Students Union) Events:

http://www.ubu.org.uk/events/

BoB (Best of Bristol) Lectures:

http://www.boblectures.org.uk/

University of Bristol – Botanic Garden Events:

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/botanic-garden/events/

UWE Lecture Series:

http://info.uwe.ac.uk/events/eventlisting.aspx?categoryID=78

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Dialogue Society (Oct 2012)

Posted in Discussions, English, tagged bristol, cultural, dialogue, dialogue society, education, england, fethullah gulen, hizmet, inter-faith, london, uk on 21/10/2012| 7 Comments »

Dialogue Society Logo

The Dialogue Society are doing an excellent work for social cohesion and the propagation of dialogue amongst faith leaders and different communities!

I’d fully recommend any youngster to go and volunteer for their activities/events! It would be a great experience for one to learn to respect others’ opinions whilst also making a contribution to the British society.

Especially their publications (e.g. Dialogue in Islam, Deradicalisation by default) are top notch!

For more info, see the Dialogue Society homepage: http://www.dialoguesociety.org/

Addendum (Dec 2015): Just to show that I do not state things that I do not believe in, below is a few example photos of me volunteering for (and/or attending) the Dialogue Society – Bristol branch and Leicester branch events (e.g. as a presenter/chair, audience, event coordination).