Fethullah Gulen inspired the Rumi Forum

(Video Duration: 6 mins.)

"Be so accepting that your heart becomes wide like the ocean.

Become inspired with faith and love for others.

Offer a hand to those in need, and be concerned about everyone."

Fethullah Gulen - Honorary President, Rumi Forum

Rumi Forum was founded in 1999 with the mission to foster interfaith and intercultural dialogue, stimulate thinking and exchange of opinions on supporting and fostering democracy and peace all over the world and to provide a common platform for education and information exchange.

With this mission, the Forum set up two centers under its umbrella, namely;

• Center for Policy Studies
• Center for Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue.

The principal goal of the Rumi Forum is to promote peace in the world and contribute to a peaceful coexistence of the adherents of different faiths, cultures, ethnicities and races. For that to be achieved, the forum believes that everyone must be respectful to the environment and to all creatures’ right to exist, believe in the sanctity of human rights and democracy and uses all means at hand to make this coexistence possible. To this end, it promotes education, exchange of information, opinions and expertise, with a special focus on including as diverse a range of viewpoints as possible in our activities. Its modest contribution to this universal aim consists of conferences, seminars, panel discussions, common projects, scholarships, publications, meetings, trips and several other activities.

Commensurate with its mission, the Forum takes its name from the 13th. Century Sufi philosopher-poet Mawlana Jalaladdin Rumi, whose reach embraced all humanity as personified by his message, ”Come, whoever you are, come…” It welcomes everyone who has a desire to explore ‘the other' in the spirit of mutual respect and tolerance.

Rumi's universal message serves as the basis of our mission, which is to facilitate dialogue by promoting love to transform hate, understanding to prevent misinterpretation, flexibility against rigidity, and, above all, tolerance to overcome bigotry.

Like Rumi, Fethullah Gulen, a world renown scholar, thinker and activist, has throughout his life encouraged coming together of people and ideas to help overcome ignorance, prejudice and misunderstanding. Fethullah Gulen has met the late Pope John II, the Greek Orthodox Bartholomew, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Armenian Patriarch among many other spiritual leaders, and is a role model for dialogue.

Through the inspiration of Fethullah Gulen, the Rumi Forum endeavors to contribute a sustainable peaceful coexistence amongst all communities of the world.

Principles

Rumi Forum has no one particular agenda and no inherent ideology, other than respect and genuine concern for the spiritual quality and welfare of life on this planet of ours.

The Forum is a non-partisan organization; however, in principal, it supports activities pertaining to the better service to humanity, such as promoting conflict resolution within and between nations. As such, the forum is committed to universal values of freedom, justice, democracy and the rights of all living beings.

Rumi Forum warmly welcomes everyone who wishes to work with us and supports the work of organizations and individuals in furthering peaceful relations, respect, and understanding between people of different faiths, beliefs and ideologies. It makes efforts to be absolutely inclusive, and deny participation to no one.

The Forum is open uniformly to adherents of all views and encourage a free exchange of opinions. It recognizes and honors the specific differences that distinguish individuals and cultural groups, yet seeks the common principles and values through which they can be harmonized.