An Interview with Dr. Majid Naini on 670 AM

April 3, 2012 - PRLog -- UVR is proud to announce that Professor Majid Naini just appeared in a new program called, “Khorshid,” on 670 AM (the very popular Iranian station in California), in the section, “One Look, One Celebrity (یک نگاه ، یک شخصیت).”
http://soundcloud.com/laura-universalvision

Professor Majid Naini is truly a rare treasure in this world. He is a highly charismatic man, memorizing speaker, acclaimed writer, renowned scientist and inventor, promoter of world peace, and one of the foremost Rumi scholars in the world, in addition to being a kindhearted, compassionate and caring individual. Since the tragic events of 9-11, Dr. Naini, a true citizen of the world (who has studied, taught and lived in four different continents), left his position as Dean of a college of Information Technology and has been devoting his life to promote peace and understanding and to enhance the dialogue and communication among people of all faiths and backgrounds (Sun Sentinel full page article http://www.naini.net/article_sun_sentinel_july_02.pdf).  For most of the past 30 years Dr. Naini has been a Professor, Department Chair, and College Dean at major universities throughout the world, such as University of Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Iran, Colorado, Oman, American University in Cairo, and  Florida.

Dr. Naini’s journey of love has been an exciting experience, as he has actually traveled over 400,000 miles, and has been a keynote or main speaker at over 500 national and international conferences, seminars, workshops, talks, and programs with some of the most distinguished authors, academicians, artists, and Nobel laureates such as Professor Noam Chomsky, Shirin Ebadi, Sufi Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, Professor Hossein Nasr, Ma Jaya, Master Farshchian (the famous artist), and Master Shahidi (the famous musician and singer). Professor Naini has been honored as the distinguished keynote speaker at numerous prestigious universities and cultural centers throughout the world such as Yale, Princeton, Penn, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, UCLA, George Washington, CalTech, University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne, University of California San Diego (UCSD), University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), San Jose State University, Ventura College, Rutgers University, John Carroll University, University of Tennessee, University of New Mexico, Embry Riddle University, Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida International University, Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, American University in Cairo, Universities of Tehran, Sharif, Amir Kabir, Esfahan, Sanaati Esfahan, Shiraz, Yazd, Nain, Najafabad, Tabriz, Khorasgan, and Dehaghan, and Anjoman Masnavi pajoohan Iran, Khanehe Honarmandane Esfahan, Niavaran Palace, Lincoln Center, and many other cultural and art centers. Dr. Naini was honored as a distinguished keynote speaker at the two-day Mayor’s Summit on Race, Culture & Human Relations in Florida’s capital. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFFlZ16Pl1w). Several thousand people, including the officials of the State of Florida and City of Tallahassee and internationally known speakers including Professor Peggy McIntosh (the famous writer/speaker and Director at Wellesley College) attended the conference. Dr. Naini's programs were widely covered by the Tallahassee newspaper and were the highlight of the summit, as evidenced by WCOT TV station continually replaying his lecture. Dr. Naini was also chosen from among all of the Rumi scholars in the U.S. by celebrated American composer Shawn Crouch (http://shawncrouchmusic.com) to collaborate on a new musical work, “The Garden of Paradise,” for which he selected and translated some of the most beautiful of Rumi’s poetry about love and peace. The Grammy Award winning ensemble Chanticleer performed this piece as part of their "Composer/Our Age" program in Berkeley, Santa Clara, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Minnesota. Professor Naini also has spoken at the Kashi Ashram Interfaith Spiritual Community Center at the invitation of Ma Jaya, and numerous other multi-cultural and spiritual centers throughout the world including Science of Mind Centers, Unity Church, United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, and Center for Living in Palm Beach.  On Rumi’s Wedding Night (the night of Rumi’s passing), Professor Naini was honored as the distinguished keynote speaker at James Bridges Theatre at UCLA in a completely sold-out program including the Lian Ensemble (http://parstimes.com/gallery/rumi800/). Dr. Naini was an invited speaker at the International Rumi Anniversary Celebration at  University of Tehran (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlYHTxUi8II), along with other international scholars such as Prof. William Chittick from the U.S. and Prof. Durring from France . Dr. Naini was also honored as a special distinguished keynote speaker in honor of the Year of Rumi at an international conference in Antalya (http://www.naini.net/year_of_rumi_turkey.pdf  page 6) and Konya, Turkey. In addition, Dr. Naini was honored as the Special Keynote Speaker at the widely celebrated two-day Rumi Celebration of 2007, The Sun of Love, at the Niavaran Palace, of which parts have been televised. He was also interviewed on TV for this celebration. Professor Naini was also the director and master of ceremonies for several days at an international conference which included 19 different countries. In 2010, Dr. Naini was honored to be invited as a keynote speaker by Turkey's government and the Mevlana International Foundation at the grand 737th anniversary of the passing of Rumi (Rumi’s Wedding Night - Sebi Arus) in Konya, Turkey (the most important event honoring Rumi with around 100,000 people from all over the world traveling to Konya to memorialize him). In Konya, Dr. Naini was given the title, “Rumi’s Nightingale,” by Rumi’s grandchildren (in charge of Mevlana International Foundation) when he was introduced to the Turkish Minister of Culture. He was interviewed by several Turkish and American radio stations and newspapers.
 
Dr. Naini has been featured in over 500 newspapers, magazines, websites, and TV and Radio shows world-wide, including PBS (TV special hosted by Emmy award winner Shohreh Aghdashloo) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvYeWgUxyjc, San Francisco Chronicle (full page article in Sunday edition Can Rumi Save Us Now?) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/01/INGA7OTN521.DTL, Sun-Sentinel (full page article) http://www.naini.net/article_sun_sentinel_july_02.pdf, Tallahassee Democrat (5 articles including front page articles) http://www.naini.net/picture_newspaper_frontpage.pdf , Boca News, Penn Gazette, Huffington Post, Willie Nelson’s website, Deepak Chopra’s Satellite Radio, Liz Sterling Talk Show, WESH (NBC affiliate in Orlando, Florida), ITN Cable TV, Ettellaat, Keyhan Havai, Radio Farda, Radio Farhang, Voice of America, Jam-e-Jam International TV, Pars Times, Payvand on-line news, Radio 670 AM in Los Angeles with around 1 million listeners, and Radio 93.1 FM in Vancouver, Canada. Recently, Dr. Naini was honored by a Malaysian magazine for a featured article about him and his work, for the section “The People Whom We Are Most Proud of.”  In addition, Dr. Naini presented an 18-part TV series on an international network, Mysteries of the Universe and Rumi’s Discoveries, and was featured on the international TV three-part special: Rumi Documentary for The Year Of Rumi (2007 UNESCO). Over 500,000 people have seen clips of Dr. Naini’s programs on YouTube and other websites. His clips can now be found on a variety of websites internationally. Another sign of his extraordinary popularity and recognized ability and talent is that he is constantly being barraged with requests and is collaborating with various renowned composers, singers, musicians, movie directors, and artists.

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UVR was founded by Dr Majid Naini, one of the foremost scholars of Rumi, the 13th century Persian mystic (Sufi), who is the best-selling poet in the U.S. Our mission is to promote peace, harmony, and love among people of all faiths and backgrounds.