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  • Children from three different faiths pour sand into a jar during a sand expression ceremony Sunday during a public discussion and celebration on Sept. 11 at the Nancy O'Brian Center. Transcript Photo by Kyle Phillips

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  • Rev. Mitch Randall, left, and Imam Imad Enchassi greet each other before a panel discussion on Sept. 11 Sunday at the Nancy O'Brian Center. Transcript Photo by Kyle Phillips

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Discussion

September 12, 2011

Panel discusses 9/11 and its impact on religious interaction

By James S. Tyree The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — The Rev. Mitch Randall was in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 12, 2001, when he walked out of a coffee shop and received a one-finger salute from an angry passer-by.

One day after the Sept. 11 attacks, the stranger saw Randall and apparently thought he was a foreigner because of his skin color. Randall would love to run across that guy again.

“I would like to thank him and buy him a cup of coffee,” the NorthHaven Baptist Church minister said Sunday. “In his anger and raw emotion, he showed me a bit of myself.”

Randall was one of three panelists who spoke at the Abrahamic Faiths Post-9/11 event that took place inside the Nancy O’Brian Center for the Performing Arts.

Rabbi Bradley Hirschfeld, president of CLAL — The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, and Imam Imad Enchassi of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, also served as panelists.

Barbara Boyd, University of Oklahoma adjunct professor and outreach director for its Religious Studies program, moderated the event that also recognized the Norman and OU first responders.

All three religious leaders looked back on Sept. 11 but concentrated on how the attacks affect how Americans relate to people of different faiths now and possibly in the future.

The panelists expressed, from their different faith perspectives, hope in improved understanding between people of different religions and cultures. It happens, they said, not only by recognizing similarities between religions but also accepting the differences.

Enchassi experienced a bit of that 10 years ago. He feared for his safety on Sept. 12, 2001, and his anxiety shot higher when he saw something shiny at the mosque’s door.

It turned out to be an aluminum bouquet of flowers with chocolate candies, cards and letters from Jewish and Christian friends who wanted to show their support. The gesture reminded Enchassi of the good Samaritan parable in the Bible; that “you will make a best friend out of a perceived enemy.”

Randall said he is encouraged because people, especially younger ones, are better at interacting with each other regardless of differences.

Hirschfeld agreed that it’s great when different people come together “until we can’t, and then what? That will be the real test.

“But the fact that you are a proud Baptist is truly helpful in this discussion,” he said to Randall, “because we want to be realistically hopeful.”

Randall, a co-organizer of the event, opened his remarks by saying he is proud to be a Baptist and he spoke like a preacher who is confident in his faith.

But he urged people, especially clergy, to “mind your rhetoric” and not “ostracize or villainize” people of other faiths. He learned for himself that finding peace is a journey and not an end point.

“I think of my circle of cleric friends and I had very few friends outside of my faith,” Randall said. “The friends (of other religions) that I have now are a direct result of what happened 10 years ago and as a result of my faith.”

Engrassi said some religious and political leaders use “the politics of fear” as a divide-and-conquer technique to attract followers or voters, but American Muslims must stand up to their national and religious identity.

Hirschfeld said peace must come about at several levels — within the person, family, community, places of worship, the nation, the world — but it is possible.

“I don’t believe the human project is limited to what we’ve done in the past,” Hirschfeld said. “I truly believe the best is yet to come.”

James S. Tyree 366-3541 jtyree@normantranscript.com

 

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