My name is Herold White. I am a rabbi. I have been on the faculty at Georgetown for forty years. I have been a member of campus ministry. I was the first rabbi appointed to a full-time position at a Catholic university. I have been very involved in interreligious dialog and I am very impressed what I have seen in terms of interreligious dialog here in Turkey. The best part of trip for me was not seeing the sights so much as being exposed to people, and particularly the fact that we ate with families. I appreciated what I saw because it was what I remembered as a child. My grandparents lived with us. I saw respect for the elderly which I don’t always see in the United States. Older people in the United States are shunted off to institutions what is considered to be good care. Well that was not what I saw here, and that was deeply appreciated.

 My name is Abla Sonbol, and I am a student at the American University in Cairo, and study political science. When my mom first told me that we were going to Turkey, I thought it was going to be somewhat like Eygpt, kind of Muslim country but not so modern, and then of course we went to Grand Bazaar, as soon as we got to the hotel, I emailed my friend, you have to come to Turkey, to Istanbul the first that I went to. The one side that for me was amazing was the Blue Mosque.

 My name is Amira Sonbol. I am a professor at Georgetown University, the Center for Muslim Christian Understanding. I teach Middle East History, therefore I know a lot about Turkey and a lot about the Ottoman Empire, since that’s what I teach. So I am familiar with Turkey and have been here several times, but I have never seen Turkey the way I have seen Turkey this time. Thanks to the wonderful invitation, in particular to Ali, who is quite an amazing man. We have seen a Turkey that I know Turkey is the leader of the Middle East, and I do hope that it begins to think the rest of the Arab world as a possible partner in the future. I was also very impressed with the Gulen Movement. I didn’t know anything about it. I knew about him, I knew about the RumiForum and I had no idea, and I want to learn much much more. This is something that worthwhile looking into and I intend to make a point of doing so.

 My name is Andrea Jones and I am a Pastor in Earlysville, Virginia, and I am also a doctoral student at Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond. Some of the things have already been said but I did notice also that the people on this group seem to have a deep appreciation for each other’s sacred spaces, and that meant a lot to me. Christians could step into Blue Mosque and be moved by it, and Muslims can step into the churches in Cappadocia and be moved by that; just a high reverence for each other’s sacred space was meaningful to me.

 My name is Brent Jones, I am a PhD student at the University of Virginia in American Religious History. Like Mike I agree that, I imagined mostly a group of the Christians or even secular intellectuals travelling around a Muslim country having conversations occasionally with Muslims; but one of the biggest strengths of this trip is that actually we were a blended group in a lot of ways: Muslims, Christians, and different types of Christians, and even secular intellectuals, and so really the good dialog I felt like a lot of best dialog happened on busses and planes, and sitting around talking as we moved between places and that I guess was the biggest strength of the trip. The good news was we were doing that as we were seeing some incredible places. And so anyway that’s what I got most out of the trip.

 I am Don Zigler, I am a geographer at Old Dominion University, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This trip didn’t really start for me a week ago; it started perhaps eight or more years ago when Zafer first appeared in my class as a teaching assistant. He was one of the first of three or four Turkish students who became my graduate assistant. Then in itself was a wonderful part of my continuing education. It was good for me, it was good for my class, it was good for my students. A little I did realize was to end up do for me than I ever did for him. In putting personal face on Turkey and putting a personal face on the Islamic religion. I suppose our intercultural dialog took place over many years but one of the things I asked Zafer actually my other graduate students to do too, was to go along with on meals on wheels runs, that through my church we do regularly, and Zafer was delighted and very often when Zafer sees me he still mentions it which comes as real boon to my soul.

 I am Ed Campana. I teach Humanities at Strayer University in the Washington DC area. It is working adults who take usually four hour classes once a week. I want to thank, and this is not pro-forma; I mean it in the bottom of my heart. I wanna thank the RumiForum for this opportunity and especially Ali, Jenna, Zafer and Vedat who is not here. You are all the underpinnings who really make this what it is. And to my class; without you I will be the only student in the group. This is just a small movement but the principal of, it is better to light one match, than to curse the darkness, and this is a start. I had tremendous anxiety; this is the first time I came to Turkey and I was not sure what to expect. What I did is, I left my USA flight t-shirt and Boston Red Sox cap at home because I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t want to be a moving target.

 I am Ed Ondrako, I am a Franciscan, and I would like to echo the magnificent sentiments that we have been listening to all evening, particularly emphasizing the gifts that are brought by everybody in this room, from the leaders, all of us participating, from the insights sharing on what’s going on in our hearts, in our minds, and our hopes for the future. I am struck by one short part of the conversation last evening when I sensed such an authentic compassion by those who are hosting us. Compassion and more than that! Empathy and loyalty towards truth and candor about difficulties! That had to do when there were comments made about 9/11.