June 18, 2015, Washington, D.C. – TAA & Rumi Forum’s joint Signature Ramadan Dinner, which has become an annual tradition, took place at TAA headquarters on Thursday night. Approximately 100 guests attended on the first day of Ramadan, among which were government officials, academics, civil society and community leaders, clerics and many more.
The horrific massacre that took place in Charleston, South Carolina, 2 days prior to the dinner, became a topic of main concern during the event. Rabbi Jack Moline, the keynote speaker of the night, reminded everyone the importance of such gatherings that promote mutual understanding, love and peace between communities in the backdrop of what had happened in Charleston, and asked everyone to join him in a moment of silence. All other speakers also mentioned the mass murder, asking for prayers for the families and loved ones of the victims and wishing the community in Charleston the utmost strength in these difficult times.
Kareem Shora, who is, amongst his other posts, a member of the Advisory Council for the Department of Homeland Security, took the podium to thank TAA and Rumi Forum for their efforts to build bridges and noted that the DHS was committed to working with the communities across the nation to enable it to serve the public better. Dalia Mogahed, former advisor to President Obama and current Director of Research at the Institute of Social Policy and Understanding, also took the stage and talked about the importance of Ramadan with respect to being an exercise of impulse control and self-restraint.
Andrew McCabe, head of FBI’s Washington Field Office, underlined FBI’s commitment to righting some of the wrongs of the past and working tirelessly to understand the communities that it serves, and that being able to attend the dinner was very important to him in that respect. Former Congressman Lincoln Davis, Ambassador of Mali, H.E. Tiena Coulibaly, and KRG representative Bayan Sami Rahman also took the podium for brief remarks throughout the night.
Aside from being served Turkish cuisine for iftar, guests were also shown a short clip from the documentary Love is a Verb, a film that explores Hizmet (also known as Gulen Movement in the United States).
