Pacifica Institute Blog

Fethullah Gulen (c) Hizmet Movement Blog

On March 27th, 2012 in Today’s Zaman, an English Language daily Newspaper from Turkey Fethullah Gülen’s comments on the freedom of expression and press were outlined.

Turkish Muslim thinker Fethullah Gülen has said he advocates broader rights specifically in the arenas of freedom of expression and freedom of the press for journalists, including those who “unjustly” accuse him of conspiring against them.

Continue reading ‘Fethullah Gülen: I am in favor of freedom of expression and the press’

Sheriff Hutchens Speaks at Pacifica Institute

On March 22, 2012, the Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens spoke at Pacifica Institute about the timely and imperative issues that are facing the local communities and the world.

Sheriff Hutchens highlighted the many engagements of the Sheriff’s office in the community, ranging from Orange County Transportation System to working with the Coast Guard on maintaining homeland security in the local area. One of the main points of the discussion centered on the relationship between federal and state agencies and their collaboration with the Sheriff’s office.

Continue reading ‘OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens Speaks at Pacifica Institute (March 22nd, 2012)’

PHOTO Today’s Zaman, Mühenna Kahveci

Turan Kayaoğlu, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and a visiting professor at Qatar University, wrote an article that appeared in Today’s Zaman about Turkey’s responsibilities towards its minorities. 

Continue reading ‘Turkey should do more to protect its Christians’

KPCC's Brian Watt at Pacifica Institute LA

In mid-July of 2011, it seemed to KPCC reporter, Brian Watt, that store workers of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, the three major grocery chains, were once again getting ready to carry out a strike.

Sensing the possibility, Watt preemptively set out to gather and all the relevant information he could. Watt wanted to be prepared to provide KPCC listeners, his listeners, with the context and background they could use in the case that his suspicion of a strike bore out.

Continue reading ‘Sometimes all you can do is “step back and to let the people in the story talk,” KPCC’s Brian Watt’

(c) Yuval Ron Music

On Sunday March 18th, Regeneration organized their “Regeneration Concert for Possibility“. The concert was held at the Temple Emanuel and it was cosponsored by All Saints Church, Islamic Center of Southern CA, Temple Emanuel and Muslim Public Affairs Council.

The event was billed as “Christians, Jews and Muslims sitting together for one extraordinary evening supporting the education of all children in the Middle East“. The proceeds from The reGeneration Concert for Possibility were to benefit reGeneration’s projects in the Middle East.

Continue reading ‘The Regeneration Concert for Possibility’

Jeff Gottlieb Speaking at Pacifica Institute, Los Angeles

Sometimes great investigative stories aren’t the result of an ingenious hunch. Sometimes they are the result a relatively innocuous question, as was the case for Jeff Gottlieb, who explained on Thursday at Pacifica Institute in Los Angeles, how he and fellow reporter, Ruben Vives, discovered and broke the story of the Bell City scandal, which led to the downfall of city administrator Robert Rizzo and other city officials.

What directed the attention of these Los Angeles Times reporters to the seemingly invisible city of Bell in June of 2010, Gottlieb said was an article Vives was writing about the neighboring city of Maywood that had immersed itself into financial troubles.

Continue reading ‘Successful Investigative Journalism Exposes Wrong-doing in Bell’

Helen Rose Ebaugh, professor at the University of Houston and author of The Gulen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam talked about the Hizmet Movement as a civic movement with deep roots in Islam. In an interview with Prof Adnan Aslan, Prof. Ebaugh said that the Hizmet movement is different from many other movements rooted in Islam in that the Hizmet’s aim is not to proselytize but in fact it is a ”social movement and a civil social movement” which happens to root itself in Islamic teachings.

The interview was conducted as a part of the Mehtap TV program, Beyond the Horizon. Prof. Ebaugh outlined that in her opinion what makes the Gulen Movement unique is its “non-hierarchical” and “non-bureaucratic” structure. This kind of structure helps the movement root itself with their different projects in their local communities.

Continue reading ‘“Hizmet is a civic movement rooted in Islam,” Prof. Helen Rose Ebaugh’

President Obama (c) http://www.whitehouse.gov

Last spring (2011), the White House announced the establishment of the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, aimed at strengthening the relationships among diverse faith groups and promoting interfaith service efforts that benefit the broader, collective community. UCI was honored to be selected to participate in the challenge.  More than 200 campuses across the country are participating in the President’s Initiative, including a number of other UC campuses.

In his address on the Interfaith Service challenge the President said, “Interfaith cooperation and community service [is] an important way to build understanding between different communities and contribute to the common good.”

Continue reading ‘President Obama’s Interfaith Dialogue & Community Service Challenge’

On February 28th, 2012 Imam Abdullah Antepli wrote an open letter to his fellow Muslims. The letter was published in the Huffington Post. The Imam’s letter addresses the violent protestors in Afghanistan reacting to the NATO Quran burning scandal.

Imam Antepli notes “For any Muslim who believes the sacredness of the Quran as God’s final revelation to humanity, that very same Quran condemns and rejects such anarchy in many of her verses and teachings.”

Continue reading ‘An Open Letter to Violent Muslim Protestors from Imam Antepli’