Journey into Europe

From left, Dr. Rafia Zakaria, Madame Ambassador Mrs. Shaista Jilani, and Ambassador Akbar Ahmed gather in front of the Pakistani and American flags, in addition to a portrait of Mr. Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, at the Pakistan Ambassador’s Residence in Washington following a talk and luncheon for about 40 Congresswomen and Congressional Wives.

Amb. Ahmed delivers a lecture to a luncheon of top women at the Pakistan Ambassador’s Residence in Washington on March 10, where he discussed the urgent importance of building bridges between the West and the Muslim World.

Amb. Ahmed delivers remarks to a full house of Congresswomen and Congressional Wives on March 10 at the Pakistan Ambassador’s Residence in Washington .

From left, H.E. Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani, of Pakistan, poses with Amb. Ahmed and Dr. Zakaria, who has presented Amb. Ahmed with a copy of her newest book, The Upstairs Wife. Dr. Zakaria, a distinguished columnist and scholar, spoke following Amb. Ahmed. 

All photos courtesy Pakistan Embassy of Washington.

Amb. Ahmed gathers with his team in the lobby of the State Department prior to presenting a preview of Journey into Europe to officials from across the agency.

Amb. Ahmed and his research team traveled to Foggy Bottom for a State Department visit on Feb. 24, where Amb. Ahmed presented a preview of Journey into Europe and discussed the importance of the project with a wide number of State Dept. officials. The event, chaired by Arsalan Suleman, acting U.S. Special Envoy to the OIC, and featuring Shaarik Zafar, the State Department’s Special Representative to Muslim Communities, as a discussant, drew a distinguished standing-room only crowd from across the agency. Senior figures from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and the Office of Religion and Global Affairs, as well as top officials from the Foreign Service Institute, were among those grappling with the challenges facing Europeans of all stripes and actively seeking means to improve interfaith relations during and following the question and answer session with Amb. Ahmed.

Amb. Ahmed, Arsalan Suleman, the acting U.S. Special Envoy to the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and their respective teams gather in the State Department’s Ralph J. Bunche Library to prepare for Amb. Ahmed’s presentation of Journey into Europe.

Amb. Ahmed delivers remarks to a packed hall as part of the State Department’s Bunche Library Speaker Series on Feb. 24. The lecture was chaired by Arsalan Suleman, acting U.S. Special Envoy to the OIC (right), and featuring Shaarik Zafar, the State Department’s Special Representative to Muslim Communities (center), as a discussant.

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.