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In the days since the terrorist attacks that scarred Mumbai's financial district, Muslims have joined their neighbors around the world — from San Francisco to Mumbai — to denounce the attacks that left at least 188 dead and 293 injured.
Across the U.S., somber denunciations have taken place including a Dec. 7 interfaith prayer service held in New York City where Muslim and Jewish leaders denounced the attacks, offered condolences and prayed for the Mumbai victims. This event brought together Rabbic Marc Schneier, director of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, and Imam Shamsi Ali, spiritual leader of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, along with dozens of other American Jews and Muslims.
Rabbi Schneier said at the even: "We, the Jewish community stand with Muslims, Hindus, and all victims of the Mumbai attacks in solidarity against terrorism."
Interfaith candlelight vigils and peace rallies were also held across the U.S. in cities such as Boston, New York and San Francisco and on college campuses including New York University and Princeton. American Muslim leaders, including those from South Asian organizations and the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Muslim Public Affairs Council, led the vigils jointly with Christian and Jewish leaders calling for increased cooperation between India’s Hindus and Muslims. They also spoke out strongly against terrorist violence perpetrated in the name of God insisting that no act of indiscriminate violence can cloak itself in the piety of any one religion.
Internationally, the New York Times reported on Dec. 7, "Throngs of Indian Muslims, ranging from Bollywood actors to skullcap-wearing seminary students, marched through the heart of Mumbai and several other cities on Sunday, holding up banners proclaiming their condemnation of terrorism and loyalty to the Indian state."
Posted on December 9, 2008
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