Sunday, July 15, 2007

Sunday papers: Rumi

"I go into the Muslim mosque and the Jewish synagogue and the Christian church and I see one altar."


On the turntable: Talking Heads, "Remain in Light"
On the nighttable: James Sydney, "The Warrior's Path"
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1 comment:

Michael said...

Beautiful quote, Ted.

Today, I visited a mosque in Manhattan's East Village in hopes of taking some photos of the interior, and of people at prayer.
Services weren't being conducted just then, but I ran into a solitary worshiper with whom I had a wonderful chat about the mosque, a very important one in that part of New York. The goodness this man radiated was palpable.

As an aside (and I hope you don't mind), it's not Islam, Judaism or Christianity that's the problem. It's fundamentalism of any stripe that I believe is the true enemy.

After the Sept. 11 attacks on lower Manhattan, the aftermath of which I witnessed through my newspaper's bank of windows on the skyline, I lashed out at Islam in general and at Muslims in particular and said some things of which I'm not proud.

I've since come to know some Muslim people as friends -- not as Muslim friends, but just as friends, in the purest sense of the word. And I hope this sharing of our hopes and dreams and foibles and victories has purged the hatred and animosity from me, though I know it's a long path.

Anyway, you Rumi quote stirred these thoughts in my mind, for which I thank you.

9:31 AM GMT+9

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