Imam Preaches Togetherness Among Faiths

May 3, 2007

Author: CHRIS ENGLISH

Source: Bucks County Courier News

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-05012007-1339187.html

He came bearing vitamins and baby formula for needy Iraqi civilians, but a Philadelphia imam also brought a message of religious tolerance and healing amid the continued turmoil wrought by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"My holy Bible and my holy Quran are side by side on the table at my house," said Imam Roberto Rashid during an interfaith service Saturday at God's Love Lutheran Church in Newtown Township.

"I have to embrace all of humanity," he continued. "I need to accept every person of faith. We are closer together than we could ever realize."

Rashid, of the Masjidullah Mosque on Ogontz Avenue in Philadelphia, traveled to the Newtown Township church with boxes of baby toys, clothes, formula and vitamins to donate to a program called Operation Build Iraqi Hope. It was organized by Middletown Supervisor Lisa Pflaumer, a God's Love member, and her husband, Jack, an Army Reservist stationed in Iraq