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Joyful festival of Sufi music, whirling dervishes, and poetry of Rumi offers you a rare glimpse into Islamic mysticism and prayer for Global Peace. The United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) marks 2007 as “Mawlana Year”. This celebration is to honor the 800th anniversary of the birth of the great spiritual leader of Islam’s Sufi order, Mevlana.

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PRESS RELEASE

Canada celebrates UNESCO “Year of Rumi” with “Whirling into Peace”. Coming to Canada from Konya, Turkey performances by the renowned Whirling Dervishes.

Joyful festival of Sufi music, whirling dervishes, and poetry of Rumi offers you a rare glimpse into Islamic mysticism and prayer for Global Peace.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) marks 2007 as “Mawlana Year”. This celebration is to honor the 800th anniversary of the birth of the great spiritual leader of Islam’s Sufi order, Mevlana.

Toronto – As announced by UNESCO, 2007 will be the ‘Mawlana Year’. The Toronto based Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Centre will be holding two events for commemorating the great literary and spiritual leader.

The first event will be a conference at the University of Toronto (Premises of Victoria University) on the 3rd of November 2007 on Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi and the Importance of Inter-Cultural and Civilization Dialogue. The central theme will be the thought of Rumi and its reflections on the sincere endeavours of tolerance and dialogue today for building bridges between cultures and civilizations. Among the participants there are well known scholars such as Dr. Jill Carol and Prof. Nathan Funk.

The goal of this symposium is to put forward Mawlana’s thinking, which develops along the axes of compassion and tolerance, and to apply its contemporary implications for the benefit of all humanity.

The second event will be the 800 year old traditional dance and music performance by the Whirling Dervishes at the Toronto Centre for the Arts on November 4th at 7:30p.m.

These events are sponsored by Canadian Turkish Friendship Community, and Ebru TV. This unique and spiritual dance will be performed by Dervishes in Montreal, Ottawa and Edmonton, Vancouver too. For Information: www.whirlingdervishes.ca and www.tocentre.ca.

Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketmaster.ca or Toronto Centre for the arts Box Office. Contact : 416- 558 1092

Additional Information:

Guest Presenters and Speaker,

Dr. Ali Yavuz Zeybek (McGill University), Toronto, Ottawa & Montreal, Contemporary Implications of Mevlana: In the case of Gulen Movement.
Prof. Nathan Funk (Conrad Grebel, UW, Canada): Speaker and moderator for Panel 3, The Notion of Peace in Mevlana (with views of other religions);
Dr. Jill Carrol (Lecturer, Rice University, USA), Ottawa & Toronto, Rumi’s Love: What It Is, What It Is Not, Toronto & Ottawa ;
Emeritus Prof. Dimitri Kitsikis (Eng. and French, Ottawa University); Ottawa, Montreal &Toronto: Compassion, Tolerance, and Dialogue form Mevlana to F. Gulen and
Prof. Dale M. Schlitt (Eng. and French – Saint Paul University – President, Ottawa).
This symposium will be in English and French and will start at 09:00 am. The address is as follows:

Victoria University in U of T

Northrop Fry Hall, Room NF00373, Queens Park Crescent, M5S 1KT

Who is Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi
In 1207, a great mystic, saint and poet was born in Afghanistan. Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi – or just Rumi in North America – is the world’s best-selling poet eight centuries after he walked the Earth. Preceding both Gutenberg and Shakespeare, he has been reborn in the age of mass printing. Rumi is a literary survivor.

This year marks Rumi’s 800th anniversary. UNESCO named 2007 the International Year of Rumi and issued a medal in his name to commemorate his 800th anniversary as a voice in human life. Eight hundred years after it was written, Rumi’s poetry is still powerful enough to draw together people of different cultures.

Rumi is a publishing phenomenon, with more than half a million copies of his books sold in North America. There’s a current of feeling so intense in Rumi’s child-like simplicity that it becomes an infectious optimism. Rumi looks at the world around him and tries to correct his own behaviour by considering the good and bad acts of others like a mirror.

The Mawlawi Sema, that is the ceremonial whirling of dervishes, symbolises divine love and mystical ecstasy; they aim at reaching a state of purity and perfection. The music and the whirling are designed to induce meditation on the love of God by a hypnotic and untouchable music, continuously repeating itself to which may appear like a sort of prayer. Mawlawi music contains some of the most valuable elements of Turkish classical music. It serves mainly as accompaniment for poems of Rumi and other Sufi poets. The music of the Sema ceremony is generally conducted by the chief drummer. Percussion accompaniment is supplied by the kudums (small kettledrums) and cymbals; melody is provided by the ney (reed flute), the string instruments and the voice.

We greatly appreciate your considerations and attendance to these events,

Sincerely,
Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Centre Media Relations

, Voice of a Nation

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