I am Amira Rosenberg and Father Thomas said that everybody came at this fromtheir own perspective, so from my perspective, to me this has been a Persian allusion I suppose and Stephon Wolfe’s Magic Carpet Ride... I really feel like from the moment we landed until right now when I am sure the time we depart, our feet have not touch the ground. We have been loved and taken care of ... We have been loved and taken care of in the most nurturing way that really represents the best depiction what the Gulen movement is about; it is about being beloved and about loving, and that’s really the only thing we’ve experienced, and it’s been phenomenal.
I started this journey when I was very young. I grew up discussing Maimonides who was a medieval philosopher around our dinner table when I was about eight years old. When I got to undergraduate school I added Al Farabi and Avicenna to that dialog; and it just turned me on, and I realized there was a moment in time where Christians, Muslims and Jews not only discussed theology but led the world, really led the world through their spiritual quests in medicine, in science, in philosophy, in mathematics, in art...and I just wanted to recreate that magic. That’s what propelled me to go to the Divinity School, that really continuously propel me include dialog whether it be very accomplished adults or with my four year old’s classroom. I just; it just is a magic thing to have this dream so many years to have an opportunity to bring it into reality.
One of the things about Turkey that is so phenomenal that I did not realize that I didn’t appreciate is that not only are you at crossroads of different religions but you are also at the crossroad of communism, of radical extremism, and of modernity. I cannot imagine; I mean we think that Israel is under a lot of pressure, I cannot imagine any other country in the entire world that is under that kind of pressure. As a result of this trip, and I have been looking forward to this for a very long time many years, the beauty that Turkey has showed in this extreme cauldron is phenomenal and I really think it is a beacon of light for the world and I think all of us came to Turkey some ambivalent some not knowing what to think. I think we are all leaving with our hearts and souls praying for Turkey and for their success. Because it is really a tremendous, a tremendous country, and has tremendous opportunity for us to learn.
