The first mosque to be built in North America in the classic Islamic architectural style is just two miles from my home in Perrysburg, Ohio. I see its gracious dome and stately minarets nearly every day. It has been here for 18 years, but prior to September 11, 2001, I had visited this place of worship only once.

In this mosque, the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo serves the largest congregation of Islamic worshipers on the North American continent. But I had never taken the initiative to get to know anyone who worships there. That's changed now. Terrorism has stirred me to action.

First, I was moved to pray. It was clear that God alone could enable me to respond to terrible events with clarity of thought and constructive action. In my prayers, three important ideas emerged. From the Bible's message, and specifically Jesus' teachings, I understood that God is good and has all the power. That evil comes about when human beings mistake the will of God, when they are driven by hatred, envy, or other evil impulses. And last, that good overcomes evil in proportion as the human mind rejects the impulsion to do wrong and yields to the will of God, which is always spiritual and good.

To help rid the world of terrorism, then, I concluded that it's essential to bring individual lives into full accord with God's love for humanity—and that I needed to start with me. My prayer was, and is, to understand more clearly than ever before that God is the Father and Mother of all, and that every individual is His pure and good spiritual reflection. And then to put this into practice by mobilizing my thoughts and actions against evil, the real enemy of humanity, which is not individuals or a particular ethnic or religious group. Evil is actually impersonal—the impulse to hate, to be cruel, envious, murderous. Certainly the wicked actions of individuals cannot be excused, but in each case we need to go behind the human acts and look for the root causes that led to them.

During the days following the hijackings, many people were immobilized with sorrow, confusion, and fear. A statement Mary Baker Eddy made in 1887 caught my attention: "The malicious aim of perverted mind-power, or animal magnetism, is to paralyze good and give activity to evil" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 213).

Here is how evil tries to influence us: Fear arises from uncertainty—from not knowing what one can trust. Fear, if unchallenged, can paralyze clear thinking. Then, fear leads to anger, and anger to hatred, and hatred to violence, which all too often is aimed at and injures innocent people.

We can stop this cycle by increasing, instead of decreasing, the activity of good. One way I saw to increase the activity of good in my life and my community was to remove my own ignorance of my Muslim neighbors by learning what they truly believe and by getting to know them personally. I felt comfortable in doing this because of my knowledge of God's goodness and of His good, spiritual creation. I knew that God gave me the ability to discern between good and evil, and to judge others rightly.

I began by going to the Islamic Center's Web site (www.icgt.org) and by reading and listening to current news reports about Muslims. These told of vandalism at the Perrysburg mosque and of incidents of hatred toward Muslims.

When I called the Islamic Center, I learned that a prayer meeting sponsored by a Christian radio station in support of the Muslim community would be held at the mosque the next evening.

I attended, along with 1,500 Christians, Muslims, and others. As we approached the mosque from the parking lot, Muslims greeted us warmly, handing out American flag stickers and Hershey's kisses. We prayed together silently, and listened to Christian and Muslim prayers of peace and brotherhood under one God. We locked arms as we formed a circle around the mosque as a symbol of unified protection, and sang the national anthem of the United States. Afterward we took the opportunity to get acquainted with one another.

I introduced myself to Farooq Abo-Elzahab, Imam [spiritual leader] and Director of the Islamic Center. The next day, this very approachable, loving man granted me a one-hour interview in his office at the mosque.

Imam Farooq (as he asked me to call him) said that Islam teaches that we all have "one Father and one Mother, one God," and that communion with God gets us back to "our bright and clean hearts" that God has given to each of us.

Asked if the terrorist attacks could be characterized as a holy war, he said, "There is nothing holy about it." He said that holiness is the goodness of God expressed in good toward humanity. He made it clear that terrorism is not the product of Muslim religious teaching but of individuals who, through disastrous lives devoid of religious training, have lost hope and do not know the will of God or how to follow it. He said, "Killing innocent people doesn't teach anyone anything."

I asked Imam Farooq if there was a single message he would like to communicate to humanity.

"Yes, yes. We are one family. In true religion you must feel about others as you feel about yourself. If I hear God, love God, I must feel the same about you as I feel about myself." He cited a tie with Jesus, which is common to both Christians and Muslims and commands them to love God and to love their neighbors as themselves.

This led me to ask if he had hope that individuals bent on hatred and terrorism could be brought back to their "bright and clean hearts." He said that this was not easy because "in their minds evil is more powerful than good." He said evil is bred in isolation, so communication with God and with one another is the way to restore hope. And when hope is restored, this brings people back to goodness. We agreed that this takes much time, patience, and love, but that by getting to know God and one another, and by working together, we can win the war against evil.

Toward the end of our visit, I shared with Imam Farooq two statements made by Mrs. Eddy—the one quoted near the beginning of this article, and this: "One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars ..." (Science and Health, p. 340). He nodded in agreement with every word and took notes. After our conversation, he showed me around the mosque, and when we parted, I couldn't resist giving him a warm hug (which he reciprocated).

For years my Muslim neighbors and I had been actively working in our separate ways to do the will of God for the good of humanity. Now, through our getting to know one another, the activity of good has increased in our community. And, hopefully, this is just the beginning.