Parliament of World Religions: Keynote speakers at the Plenary: Sat., Oct. 17, 2015, 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

 
Allan Aubrey Boesak is a South African Dutch Reformed Church cleric and politician and anti-apartheid activist. Along with Beyers Naude and Winnie Mandela, Boesak won the 1985 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award given annually by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights to an individual or group whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy's vision and legacy.

Medea Benjamin is an American political activist, best known for co-founding Code Pink and the fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange. Benjamin was also the Green Party candidate in California in 2000 for the United States Senate. She currently contributes to OpEdNews and The Huffington Post. The Los Angeles Times has described her as "one of the high-profile leaders" of the peace movement and in 1999, San Francisco Magazine included her on its "power list" of the "60 Players Who Rule the Bay Area."

John L. Esposito is a Professor of Religion and International Affairs as well as Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. He is the Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. Esposito has served as consultant to the U.S. Department of State and other agencies, European and Asian governments and corporations, universities, and the media worldwide. Esposito is recipient of the American Academy of Religion’s Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion.

Dr. Tariq Ramadan, an adviser to the European Union, is a professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, teaches at the Oxford Faculty of Theology, and is the founder and president of the European Muslim Network. Ramadan earned a doctorate from the University of Geneva in Arabic and Islamic Studies. He established the Mouvement des Musulmans Suisses (Movement of Swiss Muslims) which engages in various interfaith seminars.

Dr. Karen Armstrong is a British author and commentator, as well as a former Roman Catholic nun. Leaving the convent in 1969, she pursued an understanding of major religions and their common understandings of compassion and the Golden Rule. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam was published in 1993, followed by a series of books exploring major religions, compassion, and the history of sectarian violence. In 2008, Armstrong was awarded the Ted Prize to launch the Charter for Compassion, a global campaign to activate compassion at the center of our lives and social institutions through collaborative partnerships worldwide.

Vishwanath D. Karad, is an educationist, thinker a devoted teacher and a dedicated social worker. He is a founder and director of Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune, India. He is also the Founding President & Director General of World Peace Center of Maeer's MIT, Pune, India. Moreover, he serves as a UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Democracy and Peace.

Mairead Maguire is a Nobel Peace Laureate distinguished for decades of peace activism beginning in her native Northern Ireland. A witness to ethnic conflict and political turmoil in Northern Ireland during the late 1970s, she has spent her life dedicated to mobilizing peace movements in Northern Ireland and around the globe. She and fellow Nobel laureate Betty Williams co-founded Peace People, an organization devoted to nonviolence, peace and justice.

Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in international security affairs. His publications include Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It(Chicago 2010) (with James Feldman); Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House 2005); Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell 1996), "Why Economic Sanctions Do Not Work,"International Security (1997), and more. His commentary on international security policy has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace. World renowned primatologist and conservationist best known for her landmark study on the behavior of wild chimpanzees in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. For more information on Dr. Goodall and the Jane Goodall Institute please visitwww.janegoodall.org.