My name is Fatina Abdrabboh. I am from Cambridge, Massachusetts and I would like to just thank the RumiForum of course for this opportunity. It has been spectacular you know to say the least. I certainly echo everybody else’s sentiments.   It is so funny that all of us have given lengthy concluding remarks, you know this elevated nature, inspiration and enthusiasm, yet we all are somehow able to add to that already kind of gigantic level of things and energy. I think that is kind of telling that we all had kind of unique experience equally, you know uniquely grateful.

 I am Jeanne Clarkson. I am from Vienna, Virginia. This whole trip to me is somewhat of a surprise. I came to it by way of the baptism of my first grandchild. The priest who baptized her from Georgetown Father John Huoy was the individual who told me about RumiForum and who said that there is this upcoming trip and asked me to contact Ali which I did. So this is one of the, if not the happiest surprise of my life. That being said everything that has happened back in this past week has been extremely unique and extremely special.

 My name is Debbie Reichmann and I am from, I currently live in Potomac, Maryland and I am from Georgetown University. As everyone has been speaking, I have become more and more nervous as to how I can add to this with any relevance not because just of ego or not because we all managed to speak a fair amount of such wonderful things and truly moving things. When you started this, saying that we were gonna speak and we will get the DVD and we will listen to it again, you know I said yeah sure, whatever, sounds nice; but no! Ali, you are absolutely right: I will take this and I will listen to every single one of these statements again probably more than once because the kernels of truth I mean the golden nuggets that have been put forward to this table already this evening have been tremendous. So is now my contribution, as best as I can:

 My name is father Conrad Pecevich. I want to say, first of all that, this has been for me a very spiritual experience and cultural and many other things. I first of all want to say spiritual; because I have appreciated so much the faith of the Turkish people and people here in Turkey of various religious traditions especially the places of worship that we have visited during the week. This is a trip that I would never be able to have taken in my lifetime or afford it. Every day I made a point to get to a mosque or two, to thank God, thank Allah for the people who have made this trip possible, because it hasn’t been a simple trip. It is a very complex and wonderful and beautiful trip with every little detail has been taken care of.

 I am thoroughly impressed. If Turkey wants another citizen I may be applying so that could possibly happen. I found the whole organization of the trip the way that it was put together in such a thoughtful way that I think it really exceeded my expectations way beyond I could have ever imagined.  I have really enjoyed the culture immensely. I find the experience that we have that we were talking earlier today on the bus trying to figure out what was the best highlight of the trip, and I can’t think of the best highlight because each one of them was the best. I am forever appreciative for this opportunity. I could have come to Turkey on my own but I don’t think I could have seen it the way that you showed it to us Ali. I am looking forward to coming back to Turkey with my own family. Then I will be their tour guide at that point and show them around because I am really excited about the opportunity to do that. I want to be able to go to Konya and other parts that we didn’t see this time.

 My name is Yvette Moy. I am a student at American University studying for master’s degree in public administration, as well as a journalist for more than two decades in United States. Many times what we write or see is not actually what we see for ourselves. And so I was very excited to come to Turkey. It was a place where I only read about in books through my childhood. I was also very excited that it was part of a mission of peace and of love. And it was very spiritually moving for me to see Ephesus where Saint Paul preached to the people and not only that Christianity is here but also Muslims and Judaism as well, and we are reminded that we are sons and daughters of Abraham. That rich culture and history belongs to all of us, children of God.

 My name is Emran Qureshi. I am a Wertheim Fellow at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. This was a roughly targeted trip for me. I knew very little about Turkey’s modern history. I have always wanted to come to Istanbul. The trip through geography through history through culture through languages was amazing. Being in the Blue Mosque, being in Izmir, being in all these places that are right about but never had the opportunity to visit was amazing. I sent an email from Grand Bazaar to my friend saying that you have to come to Turkey, you have to come to Istanbul, and you have to see the great strides that Turkish people have made.

 I am Father John Langan. I am a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University. I mostly teach Ethics in International Affairs but I am also actively involved in interreligious dialog. I have been thinking about making this trip for a while as Ali knows; he has been pressing me to do it. I was finally happy to do so, and I am very glad he has. I think in my own case moving along three different tracks. One is the track of coming to encounter a lot of good conscientious hard work of people who are facing a lot of very common problems of religion and education in contemporary society. For me that is just a very valuable experience to have. It is a lot of powerful corrective to cheap and negative stereotypes of Islam which circulate in largely parts of the West. So that’s one level of the experience. Another level is the tourism which is wonderful and impressive: the cultural and religious monuments, the Aga Sophia and Sultan Ahmet Mosque, and the in Ephesus.