Article November 19, 2001 Issue

An e-mail from the Middle East

To a friend, from a friend:

Today is Friday, and the news on television is predicting large demonstrations against America and the US-led coalition attacks on Afghanistan, the Taliban, and the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden. They are to take place after the Friday noon prayer service at mosques in Pakistan and, who knows, even around the world.

In an effort to establish peace in my thoughts about these dire predictions, I remembered the story, which is told in all four of the Gospels, about Jesus purging the temple, overthrowing the tables of the moneychangers, and unseating the sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves (casting out all evils of convenience, indifference, corruption). And if a temple—why not a mosque, which is just another name for a house of prayer?

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