Crying out for answers

Young Chang

People had always asked Rabbi Mark Miller about violence, peace,

God’s will and other weighty, important matters more for hypothetical

reasons and less because they really needed to know.

But since Sept. 11, abstractness has turned into urgency.

Questions once from the mind have gotten asked from the heart. People

have been crying out for answers.

“They’re grounded in reality,” said the rabbi from Temple Bat

Yahm. “They are in response to a specific event. Namely, the worst

attack of Americans in history.”

Religious leaders in Newport-Mesa agree that since the terrorist

attacks on the East Coast a year ago, issues that once seemed a safe

distance away, issues that were just a “global concern” suddenly

became a backyard concern. Interfaith discussions among leaders

became a necessity and not an ideal. Congregants turned to their

religious leaders with questions, hoping the answers would make sense

of senseless things.

“I think I’ve been more aware of the seriousness of the world

situation certainly,” said pastor Dennis Short, from Harbor Christian

Church in Newport Beach. “I’ve always tried to lift up the problems

and the difficulties of the world in my sermons and in my prayers,

but certainly the 9/11 tragedy brought things closer to home.”

Miller said he has given more lectures and sermons on Islam, the

relationship between Judaism and Islam, terrorism, vulnerability, the

pursuit of justice and confronting evil since Sept. 11 than in

previous years.

Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini, imam at the Islamic Educational Center

of Orange County, has been dealing with Islam’s lurch into the

spotlight.

“The tragic events of 9/11 was a major turning point in the

history of Islam in the whole world, not only in America,” Al-Qazwini

said. “It did even change my preaching my sermons here ... I had to

accommodate people’s questions of Islam, particularly about the

relationship of Islam to terrorism.”

He has also accommodated the dramatic increase of visitors to his

Costa Mesa mosque. Many came to support Islam and the Muslim

community. Many came to learn.

“These places were crowded after Sept. 11,” the imam said.

“American people of other faiths started to come immediately,

participating in our sermons and programs here. It has not stopped

even one year later.”

To meet the needs of its growing congregation, the mosque’s

leaders entered into negotiations recently to find a bigger plot of

land on which to expand. The Islamic Center is the only mosque in

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

Al-Qazwini has been emphasizing, in answer to the many questions

he has fielded from Center visitors, that Islam is a religion of

peace and tolerance, that extremism leads to the exploitation of

religion and eventually to self-destruction, and that Islam is a

moderate religion with moderate believers who hold the same ethical

values as other people of faith. He has also preached the need for

religious tolerance.

Miller said he is commonly asked whether Islam is truly a religion

of peace, about Judaism’s view of standing up to threats to national

security and about why more moderate Muslim leaders don’t speak out

against violence and terrorism.

“I say that I would only wish that Muslim societies had the

democratic structure, which not only allowed, but encouraged dissent

from fanaticism,” Miller said.

He is also asked how God could “let 9/11 happen.”

“I say that God chooses not to intervene in the exercise of our

moral free will or our immoral free will,” Miller said. “God gives us

the guidelines, the parameters of good and evil ... and then allows

us to freely choose between them.”

When asked what lessons we are to draw from Sept. 11, Miller’s

answer is that in recognizing our vulnerability, we gain strength.

He added that since Sept. 11, the responsibilities of

American-Muslims have changed.

“We open our arms for others and we welcome them because we need

to uphold the national unity, to safeguard future generations against

extremism and terrorism,” he said.

Short said the past year has continued to remind him that the

world is a “global village.”

“And the importance of understanding each other ... and of

realizing that there are fanatics in every religion and that there

have been for as long as we can remember,” he said.

Instead of preaching religious tolerance, Short advocates

understanding.

“To tolerate somebody means you sort of let them alone, but

understanding means really talking with them and studying,” he said.

Al-Qazwini admitted that Sept. 11 was a “turning point” in his

life because the questions and confusion that arose exposed him to

other faiths.

“It brought us together,” he said. “And it made us feel the

necessity of knowing each other.”