Monthly Archives: February 2016

Amb. Ahmed congratulates Adnan Sarwar ,the director, writer, and lead actor of Shah, for his contributions to Pakistani cinema following the launch of the film at American University. 

On Thurs. Feb. 25, Amb. Akbar Ahmed had the distinct honor of welcoming guests to the American University screening of the critically acclaimed biopic Shah, featuring the film’s director, writer, and lead actor Adnan Sarwar as chief guest. Shah tells the captivating story of legendary Pakistani boxer Syed Hussein Shah and his challenges in becoming the only Pakistani boxer to win a medal in the Olympics. In his opening remarks, Ahmed said that by developing cinema and arts, one develops an effective way of combating the violent acts and thought patterns of the militants who attack schools and kill children. Ahmed also spoke of the great artistic traditions of Pakistan that Sarwar so proudly represents and how Sarwar acts as a beacon of hope and pride for his fellow countrymen in his outstanding cinematic portrayals of the nation. The screening attracted a number of senior figures from the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, the World Bank, the IMF, and Voice of America.

On Feb. 19, following a successful run in the College of William and Mary’s Global Film Festival in Williamsburg, VA, Amb. Ahmed spoke to a full-house audience at Washington, D.C.’s Cosmos Club, a distinguished private club that counts a number of Nobel Prize winners as members, on the urgent need for the West and the Muslim World to begin better understanding one another. Chaired by Dr. Marcel Horowitz, who named Ahmed “one of the most inspirational individuals I have ever encountered” in his introductory remarks, the event attracted a number of the Club’s distinguished members. The audience was also treated to a 20-minute preview of Journey into Europe. 

The Cosmos Club advertises the lecture in its monthly bulletin.

The distinguished audience of Cosmos Club members attentively listen to Ahmed discuss the urgent need for the West and the Muslim World to take the effort to understand one another.

Ahmed addresses a full-house at the Cosmos Club on the vital lessons of the Journey into Europe project for global bridge-building.

Knoxville, Tennessee: Join the University of Tennessee’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy and the Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Seminar (SERMEISS)  for a screening of Journey into Europe at the Baker Center’s Toyota Auditorium on Saturday, April 16 from 7-9:30 pm. Associate producer Harrison Akins will also provide a brief commentary on the film. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, please see the following flyer: UT Flyer

Greater Milwaukee: Join the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition as they screen Journey into Europe on Thursday, March 24 at 7p at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Union Cinema! A discussion following the film will be hosted by the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. For more information, see the Festival’s website here.

Join Amb. Ahmed on Monday, March 21 at 9am for his keynote address to the “Civilizations in Embrace: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Ideas, Peace, and World Order” conference at the University of Maryland (UMD). The conference is co-hosted by UMD’s Baha’i Chair for World Peace and American University’s UNESCO Chair in Transitional Challenges and Governance. For more info, please see the following flyer: UMD Keynote 3.21.

For those of you in or near the Virginia Tidewater region, Amb. Ahmed and Journey into Europe will be in your area next week!

Join us next Thursday, 2/18, at 5pm for the opening night screening of Journey into Europe at the William and Mary Global Film Festival in Williamsburg, VA.

Amb. Ahmed will also be giving a brunch talk on Friday, 2/19, at 11am at William and Mary to discuss the broader issues of relations between Islam and the West in follow-up to the screening.

Finally, on Wednesday, 2/17, at 5pm, William and Mary will be screening Amb. Ahmed’s 2009 documentary film, Journey into America. For more information, see the following flyer: W&M GFF Flyer.

Join us at Georgetown University this Thursday, 2/4, at 6:30pm for a screening of the full two-hour version of Journey into Europe. A Q&A with Amb. Ahmed hosted by Georgetown Professor Tamara Sonn will follow. For more info and to RSVP, click here.