Ahead of hosting a forum of four U.S. ambassadors to Southeast Asian nations, Emory University has announced that it will honor Indonesia‘s envoy to the United States with its Global Innovation Award.
Ambassador Dino Patti Djalal will receive the award Nov. 30, two days after the American ambassadors to Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, discuss current issues at a public event hosted by Emory’s Halle Institute for Global Learning.
The innovation award is given to leaders who embody innovative leadership over an extended period of time. Mr. Djalal is a speechwriter, youth activist and former presidential spokesman who launched the Innovative Leaders Forum in his home country in 2008 to hold forums on issues of governance, education, entrepreneurship, pluralism and more.
Representing a nation of more than 200 million people with the world’s largest Muslim population, Mr. Djalal spoke last year at Emory ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He advocated tolerance and presented Islam as a religion of peace, not hatred, noting that economic struggles around the world lead to discontent that extremists use to foment violence.
“The more Muslims become successful, the less they blame the world, the less they become marginalized and the more they become models,” he said at the time. “There is a confidence that is growing in Asia, and Muslims in Asia are becoming more a part of that confidence.”
For an article and video based on his speech, read Ambassador: Indonesia is the Muslim World’s New Gravity.
For more information on the Nov. 28 ASEAN forum at Emory, click here.
