The agressors ten years ago thought that their act of carnage was justified, but justice is nothing if it is not tempered with mercy.
All religions preach this.
All Jews living in Muslim countries are there because Muslims and Ottomans welcomed them there out of scenarios of persecution.
At that point he was silent.
In tears, he gestured "'Come', we said to them. 'Come'."
At this point Sheikh Yusuf stepped down to a standing ovation.
The Most Reverend Barry Knestout spoke next, recalling his happy early childhood in Turkey when he awoke every morning to the Muslim call to prayer. At that time, he said, different religious groups dwelled in harmony there.
9/11 should be a time of forgiveness, he said, just as Jesus told the apostle Peter that he should forgive not seven times, but seven times seven.
We must find the good in each other; we must pray even for our adversaries.
As we stood up to begin our march, Rabbi David Schneyer of Clergy without Borders blew the shofar. Many were the open houses of worship we could visit en route to the Islamic Center before our final stop at Gandhi's statue.
We could choose among Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Hindu, Episcopalian, Greek Orthodox, Sikh, Buddhist, and Muslim options, all along Massachusetts Avenue, Embassy Row.
I opted for Pentecostal as the most exotic (in my experience) and then the embassy of the smallest country in the world, Vatican City.
It was a long walk on a hot day once I arrived at the Muslim Center, a white structure fronted by a row of colorful flags representing all of the Muslim countries in the world.
At 4:30 all 1000 or so of us sat in front of the mosque that some of us had toured. Then, further clerics addressed us, heralded this time not by a shofar but a traditional Hindu horn blowing with what must have been a conch shell.
We were addressed by three Abrahamics, including the imam of the Islamic Center, Abdullah Khouj, who has had this position since the 1980s.
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