What do Mohandas Ghandi, Twitter and Sept. 11 have in common? Georgetown University is hosting a lecture Friday by Simon Cohen, managing director of the London-based Global Tolerance communications agency, who will explain the connection. His lecture, “The Other 9/11 - Faith, Hope and the Media,” matches interreligious dialogue with new social media.
Organizers said the event will not only commemorate and reflect on the tragedy of America’s Sept. 11 but also look further back into history at the hopeful example of Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance.
The “Other 9/11” refers to Sept 11, 1906, the day Gandhi spoke in front of 3,000 Indians in Johannesburg, beginning his movement of nonviolent resistance to oppose the oppressive measures imposed on Indians in South Africa. The movement would later be called Satyagraha, meaning “the Force which is born of Truth and Love or nonviolence.”
The Georgetown lecture will make more connections of how to communicate Gandhi’s universal message of compassion and community in the post-Sept. 11 world through both private citizens and the media. It also will discuss the way media coverage influences public opinion of religious belief systems.
Mr. Cohen told The Washington Times, “As Malcolm X once said, media is probably the most powerful phenomenon in society. It has a huge influence on the public’s perceptions about religious and interfaith issues, as we saw after 9/11 for better or worse. The media themselves need to improve their faith literacy in order to reflect accuracy of theological beliefs.”
His presentation will be distinctly 2009 as he explores the way new social media can promote interreligious understanding.
“So much of Twitter and Facebook is about listening and dialogue instead of ’speaking to’ or ’speaking at,’ Mr. Cohen said. “The sustainability of faith in today’s society faces the challenge of both honoring age-old beliefs, yet staying relevant to the contemporary mind. Social media present a unique, fascinating forum to continue interreligious dialogue. We are all the media now.”
The organization Mr. Cohen directs, Global Tolerance, characterizes itself as a “positively different communications agency” on its Web site. It promotes the social responsibility of the media to take “the power of reporting” seriously. It also supports the Charter for Compassion initiative, which “seeks to remind the world that while all faiths and traditions are different, they all share common principles, one of which is compassion,” according to the Global Tolerance Web site.
Mr. Cohen’s biography at TED.com notes that he worked to develop his message with Nobel Peace Prize recipients the Dalai Lama and South African Bishop Desmond Tutu and even with Gandhi’s grandson Rajmohan Gandhi.
The free lecture will take place in Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at 3 p.m.
“As we look back on 9/11, there couldn’t be a more important, universal message today than Gandhi’s of Satyagraha, ” Mr. Cohen said.
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