Rendell urges religious tolerance
At an interfaith rally he organized in Phila., the governor warned against extremism.
Gov. Rendell talked Saturday about a little-known aspect of the 9/11 tragedy: how Muslim workers at Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the North Tower of the World Trade Center, would use a stairwell between the 106th and 107th floors for their daily prayers.
The closest mosque was more than 100 floors down and four blocks away, so that impromptu prayer space had to do, he said.
That stairwell disappeared along with both towers in the disaster. And the restaurant workers were among the estimated 60 Muslims in the buildings who died that day, Rendell said.
The governor made that point during his keynote speech in front of Independence Hall at an interfaith rally he had organized to deliver a message of religious tolerance.
Rendell originally called the event to send out a countervailing message to the expected burning of Qurans on Saturday night by the pastor of a small Florida church.
Yet even after the preacher, Terry Jones, dropped his threat, Rendell said he saw a need to go forward with the gathering.
Standing before an assemblage of imams, rabbis, ministers, bishops, and other religious leaders, Rendell warned, "Throughout this country, there are clear signs of anti-Muslim feeling."
He added, "There are people who seek to advance their own agenda by doing this."
Rendell urged the audience of about 200 to speak up on behalf of a Muslim community facing intolerance.
The Democratic governor, who is Jewish, noted that he had long ago forged political ties with Arab and Jewish communities.
"Who would have thought that an American Jew would have become the favorite candidate of the Muslims in the city and this commonwealth?" he asked.
In his remarks on the national stage, Rendell has taken a muted position regarding the furor over a planned Islamic center several blocks from the World Trade Center site.
On CBS's Face the Nation last month, Rendell said: "The mosque is an unfortunate situation, but we do have a right to practice our religion freely wherever we choose. Rights are not subject to the popular vote or majority vote."
On Saturday night, Rendell was followed to the outdoor lectern by seven leaders of various faiths. The last brief address came from Imam Mohamed Shehata, a leader of the 1,000-member Al Aqsa Islamic Center in North Philadelphia. In Arabic, he read from a section of the Quran calling for harmony among faiths.
The passage, translated by another speaker, concluded that Allah made "no distinction between any of his messengers."
