Muslim prayer

On September 11, 2001, minutes after we heard the explosion, Eugene,
the other assistant manager in the Borders in the store at the time,
made an announcement to evacuate. I didn't hear the announcement for
some reason. He was in the cafe upstairs where he could see out the
north window and I was on the ground level. All I could see outside was
lots of paper falling and people running, screaming. After a few long
minutes he called me on the cellphone and said he would check the lower
level and I said I'll make sure everyone had left upstairs. The staff
were collecting their things in the back office area. One of my
co-workers, a devout Muslim, was holding a copy of the Qur'an, She
apologized for not hearing the announcement to evacuate because she had
been praying. This is one of the most vivid memories, among many, of
that morning. My friend prayed every day, and we had to make time for
her. She was in charge of the religion section and had carefully
organized the Bibles by translation. Our store sold more Bibles than
any other Borders in the country. When I saw her again a few days after
the attack we took a long walk in Midtown and talked about faith, among
other things. I wanted to write something about her because I liked her
a lot and think about her, and the recent uproar over the Cordoba
House, and over the ignorant Florida pseudo-pastor who plans to
publicly burn Qur'ans, has disturbed me very much. I can't recognize a
"faith" that preaches this much hate and paranoia.
If your god does not hear the prayers of Muslims, it doesn't hear your
prayers either.

Peace Out,

Lawrence Swan