We would like to thank everyone who came out to our successful “Turkey: Democracy in Peril” Event. It was a multi-event discussion on the volatile political situation in Turkey. Mr. James C. Harrington gave us detailed information on the situation in Turkey. Mr Harrington’s speech began with a historical synopsis of the country.

After that Mr. Harrington gave us a different perspective.

Harrington closed on a somewhat positive note. He talked about what we can do to fix the situation. To improve things here and someday send support back to Turkey.

This dialogue event motivated people to think and encouraged volunteer-ism.

Speaker Bio:

Jim Harrington, a human rights attorney with more than four decades of experience, is founder and director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit foundation that promotes civil rights and economic and racial justice throughout Texas for low-income people. He graduated from the School of Law at the University of Detroit in 1973, from where he also holds a Masters in philosophy. He taught for 27 years at the University of Texas School of Law and continues to teach undergraduate writing courses at the university in civil liberties and history-making trials. Harrington has handled landmark civil rights cases, written and published broadly, and served on human rights delegations in different areas of the world.

The Greenville County Library System together with Atlantic Institute participated in a Cultural Panel Night as an Upstate International Month program. Five different countries(Germany, France, England, India and Turkey) were represented and five very different experiences were heard from.

Coming to America is a very different and unique experience to each individual and listening to the stories of each participant were able to give those in the room a glimpse into this unique experience that many of us born here can't ever imagine. Being able to have a small sampling of some of these other countries food items was also very unique...from English tea, French Desserts and Turkish Delight.

The Greenville Office together with the Greenville County Library System presented an event on the Civil Rights Movement in Greenville.

The evening opened with two students from Southside High Schools Speech and Debate team performing a piece called "Strands" By Eric Wilson. They took us through the timeline of African Americans from the Auction block to the Civil Rights Movement and did an excellent job at capturing the audience.

Then our Panelists took their places and discussed their stories, shared their thoughts and opinions and fielded questions from the audience. We would like to thank Mr Mack Lockhart, Mrs Lillian Brock-Fleming and Mr Jimmy Carter for sharing their history with us so that we can learn from them.

Mr Richard Walton MC'd the event for us and shared with us his experiences as well. This event was well attended and many thoroughly enjoyed the performance and discussion.

On January 21^st, the Atlantic Institute co-sponsored two events featuring a presentation on terrorism by Dr. Parvez Ahmed, author and Professor of Finance at the University of North Florida. Large audiences attended both events: one co-sponsored on Furman's campus by the Atlantic Institute and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Furman University and the other co-sponsored in Clemson by the Atlantic Institute and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Clemson University. Two other scheduled events had to be canceled due to a winter storm.  

Dr. Ahmed spoke on terrorism in general, with a focus on terrorism in the Middle East. His presentation was informative, interesting and challenging. Dr. Ahmed offered a 21^st century approach to a number of topics:

• The nature of terrorism.
• The relationship between scriptural sources and violence and terrorism.
• Contextual interpretation of specific verses in the Qur'an which deal with violence.
• The socio-political factors that contribute to terrorism.
• Factors that contribute to radicalization.
• Effective and non-effective methods of addressing terrorism.
• Public condemnation of terrorism by Muslim leaders worldwide.
• The American Muslim experience in today's climate of suspicion.

Following his presentation, Dr. Ahmed responded to questions from the audience.

Dr. Parvez Ahmed is Director of the Center for Sustainable Business Practices and Professor of Finance at the Coggin College of Business at the University of North Florida. In 2009 he was named a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Ahmed's research work has appeared in many major finance journals and he also writes editorials about Islam and the American Muslim experience. His articles have been published in leading newspapers, including the Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun Tribune, Houston Chronicle, New York Newsday, Charlotte Observer, and many others. In addition, he often contributes to the leading English newspaper in Turkey, Today's Zaman. Dr. Ahmed teaches a special 10-week course titled, "Islam: the faith, the people and their politics," at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of North Florida.

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Panel discussion on the nature of ISIS

The panel event at Furman University brought various community leaders together. Mr. Akif Aydin, Atlantic Institute president, Dr. Ahmed Abdeladl from Islamic Society of Greenville, and Dr. Vaughn CroweTipton, the Chaplain and vice president for Spiritual Life at Furman University, were the panelists in the event. Dr. Kadir Yildirim, assistant professor of political science at Furman University, moderated the event with an introduction to the ideology of ISIS. The event aimed at informing the general public about the extremist ideology of ISIS, how it uses religion and terrorism to further its own political agenda. All three panelists agreed on the necessity to condemn atrocities perpetrated in the name of religion. The panel drew its audience of 250 from the student body at Furman University and the broader Greenville community.

Science and Religion: Quantum Physics and Free Will

Atlantic Institute (formerly South Carolina Dialogue Foundation) organized a fascinating and engaging event:

"Science and Religion: Quantum Physics and Free Will"

A video interview with the Nobel and Templeton prize winning Greenville native Charles Townes was featured which was followed by a panel discussion of Furman University faculty experts on Thursday, September 6,2012 at the Westminster Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall .

The video interview was done by Dr.Mustafa Tabanli, a programmer at Ebru TV.

The panelists:

Dr. David Rutledge, Furman University Department of Religion.

Dr. Mustafa Tabanli, Producer, Ebru TV.

Dr.Susan D'Amoto, Physics, Furman University

Moderator: Dr. Akan Malici, Department of Politics, Furman University.

Celebrating culture through storytelling

Approximately 50 people from all various backgrounds and ages gathered together to enjoy an hour long storytelling event from three of the areas storytellers. Mr John Lasne, Mr Ray White and Storylady T did a great job of entertaining the audience as they each took turns telling a story from their different backgrounds.

We'd like to thank Greenville Technical College for the use of their TRC Auditorium. It is a great StoryTelling venue.