Campus community pauses for prayer Orono services echo theme of peace, healing

ORONO – Hundreds on the University of Maine campus joined Americans from coast to coast who paused at noon Friday, a day set aside by President Bush as a national day of mourning, to reflect on the victims of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks.

While Sister Mary Feeney of the university’s Newman Center led an estimated 500 students and faculty in a brief, interdenominational prayer service in front of Fogler Library, members of the university’s Muslim community gathered for their regular weekly worship service in Drummond Chapel, on the third floor of the Memorial Union.

The themes of both services – peace, healing and unity – were essentially the same.

Since Tuesday’s tragedies, people of Middle Eastern descent have been targets of misplaced anger in many parts of the country. Nevertheless, there have been few confirmed anti-Islamic episodes on the Orono campus and surrounding area, Dr. Mahmoud El-Begearmi, a lay leader in the Muslim community, said Friday.

While some Westerners are under the misconception that Muslims believe that dying for their faith is the way to heaven, El-Begearmi said that neither terrorism nor the killing of innocent people is condoned in the Quran, the Islamic holy book.

“It is a grave offense,” El-Begearmi said of the killing of innocents. The Quran teaches that the way to eternal happiness is through good deeds, he said.

While most area Muslims continue to keep busy with work and school, some women adherents have stayed home for the past few days because their khimars and jilbabs, traditional head coverings and loose overcoats, make them easily identifiable as Muslim and, as such, potential targets of harassment.

He said that a handful of hate messages were posted on the university computer bulletin board, but that the responses to those postings overwhelmingly opposed such intolerance. He said area Muslims have been the subject of a great deal of support, from UM President Peter Hoff on down.

After Friday’s prayer service, El-Begearmi issued the following statement on behalf of the Arab and Muslim communities at the University of Maine and in the Bangor area:

“We are deeply saddened and horrified at Tuesday’s shocking attack against our nation. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this. It is not only a national but, indeed, a human tragedy.

“A terrorist is a terrorist, with no faith or nationality. We pray for the truth to come out and that somehow this human tragedy will unify us and give us the strength and the resolve to pursue liberty and justice for all. We also pray for a more peaceful world for all children of all faiths, religions and nationalities.”

Lauren Swett, a freshman from Old Town pursuing a civil engineering degree, was among the hundreds who joined the open-air prayer service on the mall to remember the plane crash and explosion victims, those who perished while trying to save them, and others affected by the disaster.

“It gave me a chance to stop and think about every possible aspect of it,” Swett said afterward. “It really is taking a long time for it all to sink in.”

Several others who participated in the campuswide prayer service lingered to read or add to the growing number of messages appearing on the mall’s reflection wall, a row of easels holding large pads of blank paper. Students and staff have been encouraged to use the easels as an outlet for their feelings, hopes and fears. Following are some of the messages posted Friday:

. “Citizens of Afghanistan are showing signs saying, ‘against terrorism,’ and are very scared what the U.S. may do. Let the U.S. not commit a tragedy similar to that at the WTC.”

. “God bless everyone. May this unite us forever.”

. “It does not matter where we are from. We all bleed the same.”

. “We must remember those who died innocently and also remember peace will come into the world when all the hating stops.”

. “You are in our thoughts and prayers forever.”

. “Please let us not allow anger to overtake us – an eye for an eye makes the world go blind.”

Friday’s Muslim service is one of the last to be held in the Memorial Union. El-Begearmi said that the Islamic Center of Maine, an Orono mosque with community facilities, is expected to be ready for occupancy in the next few weeks.