Melting-pot dinner achieves kinship amid diversity

A Turkish-American group in Las Vegas invites you to a dinner of dialogue and friendship. You've never heard of the group. Could it be a front for something nefarious? Do you go?

In a heartbeat.

The thought of talking history, politics and, yes, religion, with members of Las Vegas' small Turkish community made this a rare opportunity.

A clue this was a group wanting to foster dialogue and friendship, just as advertised, was the guest list that ran the gamut of religions. Muslims, of course. But also Catholics, Christians and Jews.

The real clue the Pacifica Institute, which sponsored Monday's dinner, was legit? The presence of Steve Martinez, head of the Las Vegas FBI, at the head table, along with an assistant special agent in charge, Mark Doh. They're a couple of careful guys, and they wouldn't be going to something that wasn't on the up and up. Unlike me, they'd check it out first because they have reputations to protect.

In fact, Martinez earned the biggest laugh of the evening, when he asked, rhetorically, "What's the FBI doing here?" He explained how the FBI's work with diverse communities is one aspect of its mission.

But underneath that rational explanation was recognition that post-9/11, Muslims are feared in America. While none of the 9/11 terrorists had connections to Turkey, they did have connections to Islam.

The Pacifica Institute says its mission is "to promote cross-cultural awareness, in order to attain peace and diversity with our neighbors, help establish a better society where individuals love, respect, and accept each other as they are."

The Las Vegas branch, which sponsored Monday's dinner for 130 at Green Valley Ranch, was formed in 2007. A dinner celebrating friendship and dialogue. Not a fundraiser, not honoring someone who might or might not deserve it, but celebrating acceptance.

Ali Unver and his wife, Zeynep, answered my questions and also educated me about the noted Turkish preacher and scholar M. Fethullah Gulen, head of the Gulen Movement. Oxford Analytica said he has inspired a worldwide network of Muslims who feel at home in the modern world, who believe in the modernization and globalization of Islam and being open to Western ideas. News out of Turkey recently focuses on how a colonel has plotted to discredit Gulen and his followers.

Obviously no fan of talk radio, Gulen wrote, "Dialogue is a must today, and the first step in establishing it is forgetting the past, ignoring polemical arguments, and giving precedence to common points, which far outnumber polemical ones."

Admission: I had to look up polemical. It means involving dispute or controversy. Seems like a columnist would know that word.

Anyway, I've learned a new word, found out something about the leader of a moderate movement with millions of followers, and sipped Turkish coffee again.

The last time I had sipped Turkish coffee was September 2001, a few days before terrorists struck America. I was in Istanbul for five days, and among my best memories were the many kindnesses of people who helped me when I got lost on long walks.

At the Pacifica Institute dinner, Turkish coffee was presented and explained as an act of friendship, which plays a role in courtship as well. A woman sends a signal about how she feels about a prospective admirer by preparing his coffee.

If she makes it sweet, she's interested. Not so sweet, not so interested. If she tosses a little salt in it, then this is going nowhere.

It's a way to send a message without words and without anyone else in the room realizing.

Hard to beat an evening where the goal is accepting each other despite our differences.

Our political arena could use a dose of that.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.