Fethullah Gulen and the Gulen Movement

…Michael Rosenberg and I think probably the least qualified of everyone in this room, in terms of being on this trip; and the reality is, the only reason I am here is because of Amira. She has been always involved in interfaith discussions; she is the theologian in the family, I am the entrepreneur; I am the business person, so we are extreme opposites. In fact that the running joke is I have no idea what she does, she has no idea what I do… in terms of everything. We are Orthodox Jews, and for us that’s how we have been brought up, that’s how it has been the life for us. For a Jewish-American to come to a Muslim country and to experience a moderate Muslim experience and lifestyle and to learn about the culture, to learn about the people has been quite surprising. I have to say I have grown up in such a way that I didn’t have Muslim friends. My Muslim experience is not from academia. I am not in the academic world. My Muslim experience is CNN, it is the news. It is the newspaper. It is what’s portrayed on TV. It is the PAlestenian Israeli conflict so it is extremely negative. So this trip has opened up my eyes in terms of what that experience can be, what the potential is. I would say I have one piece of advice, one criticism would be, is that we saw the, you know, the itinerary for the trip and we decided to come a day early because the itinerary really didn’t include going to some of the Jewish synagogues, or learning about the Jewish history so we decided to come a day early to take advantage of that. It is a tremendous Jewish history here. 2:07.