Rumi Forum was founded in 1999, with its mission to foster interfaith and intercultural dialogue and to provide a platform for education and information exchange.

The principal goal of Rumi Forum is to promote love and understanding and spend efforts to find ways and more common ground among peoples of diverse faiths and cultures working with many distinguished universities and professors all over North America like Seyyed H. Nasr of George Washington, Sydney Griffith of CAU, Esposito of Georgetown, Maria Dakake of GMU.

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…” We welcome 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.

Rumi Forum wants to contribute to this ultimate aim by means of conferences, projects, scholarships, publications, and many other activities in conformity with scientific methods and universal democratic values.

Fr. Sidney H. Griffith, S.T.
Institute of Chrstian Oriental Research
The Catholic University of America
Washington, DC 20064

Dr. Alan Abd al-Haqq Godlas
Dept. of Religion
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-1625

Carl W. Ernst
William R. Kenan Distinguished Professor
Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill NC 27599-3225

Bilal Kuspinar, Ph.D.
McGill University, Institute of Islamic Studies
Montreal, Canada
Specialty: Hadith and Sufism

Vincent J. Cornell, Ph.D.
Professor of History and Director
King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies
Chair of Studies, Program in Religious Studies
University of Arkansas
202 Old Main
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701

Ali Unsal
Chairman of the Board
aunsal@rumiforum.org

Hasan Ali Yurtsever Ph.D.
President
yurtsever@rumiforum.org

Bilal Ankaya
Director of Counseling for Interfaith Dialogue
ankaya@rumiforum.org

We have 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.

We are completely non-partisan; however, in principal, we support activities pertaining to the better service to humanity, such as promoting conflict resolution in and among nations. As such, we are committed to universal values of freedom, justice, and the rights of all living beings.

Rumi Forum warmly welcomes everyone who wishes to work with, and supports the work of organizations and individuals to further peaceful relations, respect, and understanding between people with different faiths and beliefs. We make efforts to be absolutely inclusive, and to deny participation to no one.

Open uniformly to adherents of all views, the Rumi Forum is not committed to a particular religious or cultural perspective. Our members are entirely free to disagree on matters of belief, but join together to act in a common spirit of friendship and mutual respect. We recognize and honor the specific differences that distinguish individuals and cultural groups, yet seek the common principles and values through which they can be harmonized.

We are committed to universal values of democracy, human rights, and animal rights.

Provide a forum where all three Abrahamic faiths and others can meet to learn about each other and discuss matters of common concern in a spirit of mutual respect and understanding.

Encourage respect and tolerance for religious differences among followers of all faiths in the United States and elsewhere.

Promote, organize, and conduct seminars and symposia addressing current issues of interest to followers of all faiths.

Plan and arrange scholar and student exchange programs among institutions of different faiths and disseminate knowledge through scholarly publications.

As an ACADEMIC CENTER, we promote research toward ways of developing inter-religious dialogue, cooperation, and respect for religious freedom. The Rumi Forum helps to relate the academic study of religions to interfaith activity by organizing panel discussions and reading circles.

As an EDUCATIONAL CENTER, we encourage the production of educational materials serving the purpose of interfaith dialogue and understanding. Making educational materials available, especially those directed at children, is one of our priorities.

As an INFORMATION CENTER, we aim to establish a database and be a major source of information about the world’s religions and inter-religous activities. We want to create a facility that can accommodate the network-development needs of any spiritual organization or group.

As a COORDINATION CENTER, we try to facilitate cooperation between people and groups who are actively engaged or plan to be engaged in inter-religious work. We prepare joint activities and try to come to a mutual understanding of ways and techniques that will promote inter-faith dialogue.

As a SPIRITUAL SUPPORT CENTER, we provide opportunities for learning about prayer, worship and meditation in the world's religions. We organize courses and provide special presentations from able representatives of different faiths.