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A year after 9/11, can Christians, Muslims and
Jews find common ground? These women say yes
In this time of great worldwide conflict and tension, we have heard much about the direction of the future from men-most of whom neither think nor live as we do. That's why ESSENCE felt a particular urgency to bring together women who might give us a perspective that moves beyond retaliation into a real dialogue about healing and peace. We especially wanted to reach out to women who are both mothers and activists, who are faith-based and politically savvy, and who understand the causes of war and the pathways to peace. How might these women expand our ideas and vision? How might they wrestle back the discussion from the extremists who distort all our beliefs? The women we reached out to for answers come from backgrounds that appear very different: One is African-American and Christian; one is White American and Jewish; the third, Palestinian-American and Muslim. But as they talked with ESSENCE editor-in-chief, Diane Weathers, it was clear that the differences among them were not nearly as striking as the similarities.
Diane Weathers: Immediately after the September 11 attacks, American Muslims, Jews and Christians seemed to want to talk, to understand one another, and many of us felt there was a real chance for peace and reconciliation. But since then the international crisis has deepened, especially in Israel. Meanwhile, the war on terrorism doesn't appear to have brought us any closer to peace. So we've come to you to ask whether or not you believe that within this ongoing crisis there remains an opportunity for people to stop fighting, to stop killing and eventually heal?
Dr. Laila Al-Marayati: The hope I had right > after September 11 has dissipated. In my view the situation has gotten unbelievably worse since last year, not only in the Middle East but also right here in America. The charitable organizations we established here to send humanitarian aid to our families back in Palestine have been shut down. Supposedly they were fronts for terrorists, but if that was true, why was no one arrested?
So this is a very different moment from the one just after the attacks when the Muslim community experienced incredible...