A New Era of Interfaith Dialogue

St. Louis, MO, Oct. 7, 2001--The terrorists who attacked the United States on Sept. 11 may have expected that their deeds would separate American Muslims from mainstream American society.

The opposite occurred. A new era of interfaith dialogue has begun.

People of many faiths have reacted to the attacks by inviting Muslims to pray with them and to teach them about Islam.

At the National Day of Mourning service on Sept. 14 at the Episcopal cathedral in Washington, Imam Muzammil H. Siddiqi joined the Rev. Billy Graham and other Christian and Jewish leaders in prayer.

"I never, ever thought I would see a Muslim imam speak at the National Cathedral with Billy Graham," said Ingrid Mattson, a Muslim and a professor of Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. The school prepares Muslims to be certified for military chaplaincies.

Muslim leaders here, and across the nation, have been deluged with requests to pray or lecture to non-Muslims. Joint worship services that might have had a few Christian and Jewish clergy in August, now include Islamic imams. Bookbuyers and schools are clamoring for more information on Islam.

"We have been amazed," said Dr. Ghazala Hayat, chairwoman of the Islamic Foundation of St. Louis. "No one ever asked me to talk about Islam before."

No one is more surprised than Waheed Rana, a St. Louis Muslim pioneer in discussions and friendships among Muslims, Christians and Jews. The St. Louis University anatomy professor moved to this country from Pakistan in 1961 and counts rabbis and ministers among his closest friends.

In the past four weeks he has had almost as many requests to talk about his faith as he had in four decades.

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