Worshippers from Different Faiths Voice Similar Prayers

By Phillip Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Local spiritual leaders of mosques, churches and synagogues in the United States are voicing similar messages following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington September 11.

In the southeastern U.S. city of Atlanta, Georgia, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported on the sermons in the city's mosques, synagogues and churches during the first weekend following the attacks and found a similarity in the messages.

The sermons invariably condemned violence and many affirmed the human ties connecting members of different creeds, the newspaper reported.

"The world has become one," said Imam Plemon El-Amin of the Al-Islam mosque of Atlanta. "We have to understand that there is one globe, one humanity, and we have to be patriotic to that one world."

"The terrible attacks that occurred can only be the works of those who forgot God," the imam said.

At the First Congregational Church, another civil rights leader, the Reverend Andrew Young, offered a pastoral prayer that "our anger be turned to understanding ... and our fear to faith and love."

In nearby Glen Ellyn, Illinois, the leaders of the St. Thomas United Methodist Church invited members of a mosque being built across the street to their Sunday service to express their opposition to violence directed at Muslims in America.

More than 150 members of the Ahmadiyya Movement joined in the service that blended teachings from the Bible and the Koran.

The Tribune reported that members of both faiths stood together and proclaimed that their unity demonstrated that the evil of terrorism could not overcome the basic goodness of mankind.

In Boston, where the terrorist attacks originated, Imam Basyouni Nehela, the Islamic Society's spiritual leader, organized an open house at the mosque on Prospect Street to honor those who stand behind his community, the Boston Globe reported.

The Globe reported that neighbors, clergy from churches and synagogues and local politicians filled the mosque. Cambridge, Massachusetts city councilor Marjorie Decker attended the event and said the city's human rights commission issued an alert urging residents to report incidents of harassment, the Globe reported.

A member of the Islamic Society, Hoda El Sharkawi, said the large number of non-Muslims who attended the open house eased her worries about harassment of Muslim Americans.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)