Episcopal Press and News

New York Episcopalians Help Rebuild a Mosque in Afghanistan Bombed by U.S. Troops

Episcopal News Service. September 18, 2002 [2002-216-3]

Episcopalians from the Diocese of New York, many of them personally affected by the terrorist attacks of September 11, are helping to rebuild a mosque in Afghanistan that was bombed by U.S. troops last fall, raising more than half the funds needed for reconstruction.

The idea for rebuilding originated with New York bishop Mark S. Sisk when 'he heard that a mosque had been bombed in the Kabul area,' according to the Rev. Stephen Holton from Ossining. 'It was on the news for about a day and he was interested in a ground zero to ground zero exchange.' Sisk has made Christian-Muslim dialogue a central theme in his first year as diocesan bishop. 'I believe that it is our duty as Christian leaders, witnesses to the promises of the living Lord, to take initiatives that can bind up the wounds of the human community,' he said in his convention address last June.

Muslim leaders were surprised by the offer. Holton, a founding member of the Episcopal-Muslim Relations Committee, went to Afghanistan as part of an interfaith delegation that met with Muslim elders in the ruined mosque. By the end of the visit, they had settled on a contractor, come up with a building plan and chosen a local employee of an international relief agency to supervise the project. The people of the village believe that it is 'kind of a miracle that a Christian, someone from another religion, came to their country and showed respect for their religion,' said Imam Mohammad Sherzad, president of the Afghan Forum for Peace and Rehabilitation. He pointed to the paradox of a mosque destroyed by the Islamic Taliban and rebuilt by Christians.

Holton said that he told the Afghans that 'as Christians we believe in unconditional love. And what love could be more unconditional than building a house of worship for another people that we as Christians could not possible use?'