Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement

Hello, my name is Angie Gates. I am from New Orleans, Louisiana, but I currently live in Washington, DC. I think one of the things I’ve truly learned, through not only this trip, this overall journey, is that life is so unpredictable. I had no idea seven or eight months ago when I first became familiar with the Turkish culture, the Whirling Dervishes that ultimately that one meeting would have me end up in Turkey. I am the manager of the Warren Theater in Washington DC which is an entertainment venue, and we hosted the Whirling Dervishes and that was my first time even experiencing anything specifically related to Turkey. Shortly after that was Ramadan, and although I am Catholic, I have been practicing Ramadan for four years. So during that time I was able to have several iftar dinners with Turkish families and we talked about Turkey, and over the course of conversations they would say hey if you ever get an opportunity to go to Turkey, would you go? Of course, yeah, but I never thought that opportunity was gonna come up a few months later. When I saw the invitation from Ali, I think I just come from a lunch meeting, had some desert, totally relaxed; I would say yes to everything. I was like yes, sure, I will go! And it hit me like a month later like what did I just decide to do? Then I had to break the news to my mom, which was very scary. So I was like, ok, I know if I am going, she is gotta go, because we are almost like a freaking frat. We have to do everything together. Since I’ve been here, I have been enlightened mentally. There is so much history that I don’t know: American History, History of Religion, Catholicism, Christianity, it is so much I don’t know. It took me a minute just to understand that 18th century means in the seventeen hundreds. It is so much I learned mentally. I’ve also been enlightened spiritually, and unfortunately I can’t put into words how I felt spiritually because what words cannot even remotely start to express the feelings that I experienced when I have gone to some of these mosques, particularly the one in Manisa. It is just, there are no such words that exist that can describe a spiritual connection that I felt that time. Physically I learned that I am not at shape, after eating these meals, trying to walk and go upstairs; I can’t breathe so obviously I need to go to the gym when I go back to work. So I learned that too. But I want; people say this all the time that your actions speak ten times louder than words, and that’s true. I mentioned this last night that we speak you know different languages, and culturally do things differently, we may practice different religions but if we never utter another word to each other I know how you feel about me, and hopefully you know how I feel about you. It is an unspoken love, and I think that we are all connected through God but it is the love we’ve shown to one another; and I have seen so vividly clear that you don’t have to tell me that you love me; you don’t have to tell me that I am welcome here because I feel it and I see it. You don’t have to tell me that you are not judging me, I know that through the actions that have been shown. And I think I am a better person from taking this trip. Anything that will make you grow will make you better. I’ve learned that respect is very important and you cannot be judgmental at all. I feel very fortunate to have been able to experience this with my mom, but this has been the development of a; it is not so much of a trip anymore to me; I feel like I am family and friends; and I have gotta say that it is coming to an end, I am gonna have to leave, I feel bad, but I am taking so much back with me. So although I am sad, at the same time I am happy because I am walking away better forward, and I wanna thank Ali and Jenna and RumiForum just for touching my life in a very special way.”