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Prayer Services in New York And Washington Bring Faiths Together
NEW YORK, Sept 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Nearly 20,000 New Yorkers sobbed and embraced at a somber, yet celebratory, service on Sunday evening in the landmark Yankee Stadium for the victims of the September 11th attacks on the U.S., while a much smaller gathering on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington united different faiths in prayer and hope.
New York's Mayor Rudy Giuliani paid tribute to the memory of the firemen, police and emergency workers who perished on September 11th, when two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
"They raced in to save the human beings and they are the best example of love we have in our society," he said to a roar of applause, before turning his attention to the civilians buried in the Center's still smoldering rubble.
"The people they were trying to rescue were each engaged in the quiet heroism of supporting their families and pursuing their dreams."
The mayor, basking in adulation for his handling of the crisis, spoke with other dignitaries from a stage at the center of the grassy field, where only two weeks earlier, the Yankees baseball team played, in hot pursuit of the national championship.
Religious leaders of all faiths offered prayers to the crowd, many of whom wore miniature U.S. flags and black pennants of the twin towers, inscribed with the painful date of September 11th.
The "Prayer for America" service was restricted to ticket-holders, mostly relatives and friends of those who died when the 110-story floors collapsed shortly after being hit, and the crowd filled less than half of the 57,500-seat stadium.
Imam Izak-el M. Pasha, a Muslim chaplain with the New York City police department, was widely applauded when he condemned the allegedly Muslim terrorists and joined in the day's glowing encomiums to America's democracy and diversity.
"We Muslim Americans stand today with a heavy weight on our shoulder, that those who would do such dastardly acts claim our faith," he said.
"They are no believers in God in all. Nor do they believe in His messenger Muhammad [the prayers of peace be upon him]. We condemn them and their acts, their cowardly acts, and we stand with our country against all who would come against it," he added.
Steven Perna, 31, stood for the entire four-hour service, holding a masted U.S. flag. A poster hung from his seat of his childhood friend, Edna Cintron, who worked at an insurance company on the 97th floor in the northern tower.
"The prayers help me feel hope. I hope they find her," Perna said.
While the ceremony was largely religious in tone, it had its secular side. The queen of U.S. television chat shows, Oprah Winfrey, coordinated it.
Almost every speaker emphasized that the diverse social, ethnic and religious make-up of the United States - reflected in the casualty toll - was also a source of strength.
"Each life lost represents every one of us: the cook, the stockbroker, the janitor, the policeman, the teachers, government workers, the investment banker, the secretary, the firefighters, the children," Winfrey said.
Security was tight. Bags, backpacks, umbrellas and bottles were banned, and commercial flights were prohibited over the stadium.
About 1,000 police and national guardsmen were on duty. Only people with tickets to the service were allowed out of the stadium's train station, and all but four of its 16 parking lots were closed.
Blue emergency service trucks blocked off streets, and the bars, which would be crowded with baseball fans on a normal day, were shuttered.
The religious part of the ceremony began when Rabbi Haskell Lookstein blew into a
shofar, or ram's horn, noting that according to Jewish tradition, "it is to be sounded in times of danger or strife, but also in times of happiness."
Inberjit Singh, who had come to the stadium with about 200 fellow worshippers from the Sikh temple of Richmond Hills, was one of several speakers who quoted Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. president during the 1861-65 civil war.
"This country was conceived in liberty," he declared, before continuing:
"It is strong in its diversity and strong in its sacrifice ... We are strong, we will not be bowed, we are here as a symbol of the best that man has to offer."
Alongside Muslim- and Arab-Americans, the Sikh community has also been targeted in a violent wave of xenophobia since the attacks. Sikhs in the stadium wore buttons which red in bold red letters "I am a Sikh" and "God Bless America."
Echoing earlier appeals to New Yorkers not to stoop to revenge attacks, the governor of New York State, George Pataki, told relatives of the dead:
"We can't bring them back, but we can bestow on them the highest honor, to rise above the evil that claimed their lives."
In Washington, D.C., the honoring of those who died was echoed in a candlelight ceremony, where people of different faiths carried a huge American flag down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial towards the reflecting pool to the sound of the National Anthem and "God Bless America."
Before the ceremony, leaders of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities in America addressed the small gathering, reciting traditional prayers and affirming that "people of faith" could grant no true religious association to those who committed such acts of terror.
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