An Islamic call to prayer in a Jewish synagogue set the tone for the 9/11 Unity Walk, an event designed to bring hundreds of people together from different faiths in honor of the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The event, now in its second year, took place yesterday at various churches, mosques, synagogues and other religious buildings along Massachusetts Avenue, including the National Cathedral, the Gandhi Memorial and the Islamic Center.
"If today we walk together and join together, tomorrow our children will do the same," said Rabbi Bruce Lustig, a senior rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation, the location where the event began.
Several AU students attended the event to show support for the victims of the attack.
Jenny Sparks, a freshman in the School of International Service, said she decided to attend the walk in honor of those lost in the attacks of Sept. 11. She said that a family member of hers was supposed to be at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, but was not there that day. Sparks said she wanted to pay tribute to all the people who lost loved ones.
The walk was an effective way to "demonstrate unity, not just to talk about it," she said.
Tim Moore, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the walk was a great way to "show support for those who had physical loved ones impacted and those who were emotionally impacted as well."
Lustig was one of the main event coordinators, along with the Bishop of Washington, John Bryson Chane, and Chair of Islamic Studies at AU, Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, who was recently nominated by his native country of Pakistan to be Secretary General of the United Nations.
The three work together to promote dialogue and cooperation between Christianity, Judaism and Islam and appeared onstage at the beginning of the event, conversing as friends and referring to each other as "brothers."
Bryson explained the necessity of forging relationships.
"Dialogue must occur by building relationships," Ahmed said.
Ahmed said we live in "a fractured world" and the Unity Walk is "telling the world that we do care ... that we're not willing to accept the world the way it is."
Ahmed described the Unity Walk as "a symbol to tell this world that even on this day, 9/11, we can rise together."
Sonya Hetrick, a sophomore in SIS who attended the walk, said it was important because it showed "unity within diversity."
"We can all come together around this shared vision [of peace] for a better world," she said.
A similar walk will take place today in New York City, across the street from the site of the World Trade Center.
