Interfaith leaders preach message of peace at ‘Love Your Neighbor’ event to welcome local Muslims in Concord

Concord, NH (AhlulBayt News Agency) - About 50 people showed up to the Sunday night Love Your Neighbor gathering facilitated by the Greater Concord Interfaith Council to show support for local Muslim families in Concord, NH (United States).

Interfaith Council President Kris Schultz said the event was put together about a week ago and was meant as a way for people of different faiths to come together and talk about ways to welcome local Muslims in the wake of the recent killings of Imam Alauddin Akonjee and his assistant Thara Miah, two religious leaders who were gunned down earlier this month in Queens, N.Y.

About 10 different faith leaders spoke and read prayers and poetry in the warm summer air. The event was kicked off by Hubert Mask, president of the Islamic Society of Concord.

Standing tall in a simple white caftan, Mask performed an adhan – or Muslim call to prayer – with a hint of his Arkansas accent coming through.

“If you want to understand peace, (evening prayer) is a time of peace,” Mask said.

Imam Mohamed Ibrahim of the Islamic Society of the Seacoast Area in Dover addressed the group, thanking the Interfaith Council for hosting it.

“When this event happened in Queens, N.Y., we were really brokenhearted,” Ibrahim said.

The New Hampshire imam added that after the Queens tragedy, members of his mosque were comforted when they started receiving many letters of condolence from around the area.

“This was a reason for us to have more dialouge with each other,” he said. “Similar to these beautiful, wonderful, neighborly faces, we have similar faces like yours over there.”

Ibrahim said his community was grieving equally for the Queens attack and a recent killing of 86-year-old Catholic priest Jacques Hamel in France by radical Islamists. He noted Hamel’s church had extended a warm hand to a local French mosque, donating land on which the mosque was built.

“All these tragedies seem to bring sensible people together to make sense of them,” Ibrahim said, before leading the group in a prayer for peace.

“We pray and ask you to put peace in our hearts,” he said. “You have not created us to dominate and oppress one another.”

The Rev. Brother Charles Edward of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church had a similar message.

Edward said he tries to preach a message of “radical hospitality” in his church and adds he often tells his parishoners to “be a risk taker for the sake of the kingdom.”

“The sake of the kingdom is here and now, we’re living it,” Edward clarified.

He said sets aside each Friday to worship with other faiths in New Hampshire, including Islam.

“We worship the same god,” he said. “Loving, passionate and forgiving. Unless we can look our brothers and sisters in the eye and say, ‘I pray with you,’ peace cannot be achieved.”

Schultz ended the event by asking members of the audience to brainstorm ways to strengthen the local community and be more loving to each other. Audience members of all ages and religions raised their hands and offered suggestions ranging from a suggestion to learn more about different cultures and religions before judging them to simply introducing yourself to your neighbors to foster a sense of community.

“I feel a little more hopeful and happy,” Schultz said at the conclusion of the brainstorming session. “I hope you feel the same.”




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