9/11 Prayer Services

Through all the Gothic spires of St. Stanislaus Church have dominated the skies of Cleveland's Slavic Village for over a century. Last night the bell tower called the faithful to a special prayer service for the dead and wounded. People were seeking solace after a day's worth of unbelievable images on television. Some were quietly thoughtful. Others like Joe were just angry. America ought to wake up to the the lets take our destiny in our hands and start watching these terrorists we know who they are. And we let them get away with this. Under a vaulted ceiling dense with religious imagery there was a reading from Matthew and father William goalless book on the topic of where evil really lies. Over in University Circle. Rabbi Jonathan fry rush reflected on the emotions he had seen and felt during the day as he counseled students at Case Western Reserve

University. And there is lots of anger coming out. I mean originally it was shock like disbelief like here we are watching something on TV and it can't be real I feel it looks like a movie. For Rabbi Frei rish that movie had a very personal subplot. I mean I'm and I'm a New Yorker and was struggling all day to be in touch with my parents. And New York and my sister my stepfather was actually in the downtown area and to have to walk back through clouds of smoke. And so I think by expressing my own difficulty as I may help students be able to express their views at that. The issue of and on the west side a dozen men got on their knees at the Grand Mosque of the Islamic Center of Cleveland as they were led through the evening prayer service by a mom a father was Dhamma. We will be praying for those who were victim and that from any recording of and I want to go one month as a tool bring perpetrators who are behind this act of terrorism to

justice and to have them bear the consequences of terrorism. A mom drama is pointed in his remarks about Clevelanders of Arabic descent. A Palestinian himself the a mom is concerned about the stereotyping that springs up in times of terror the Palestinians Americans like all Americans feel that we are part of this country and we being raised here we are walking here. We love this country because it has given us so many things and therefore we. I'm sure the Palestinian community like other communities would like to see an end for this type of terrorism and the old concern about how this third ism can take place right here. This in the Middle East. No it's the Midwest of America filled with people of many religious faiths who went to their houses of worship last night trying to make some sense out of a confusing world.

One student came to me very much upset and saying you know how can God allow the world to be dominated by haters when most of us are seeking peace. My response to that is that we live in a world that is a gift and it's a gift that comes with responsibility it's our responsibility to make the world complete to perfect it. God didn't make it perfect. And we are. Empowered to be God's partners. But the problem is it's more difficult to opt to be a partner it than to opt not to be. And it's something we have to choose to do. And clearly we have a lot of work to do. In Cleveland. David C. Barnett ninety point three WCPN news. Yeah.