A Story

A recent discovery: C-Span is sometimes much more interesting than the so-called “news” programs. I get tired of hearing about fires and murders and petty corruption cases every morning. The names and addresses change but it’s no more “news” than original sin.

Therefore I was watching it this morning and they were presenting a panel of “young Muslim leaders” who were talking about their concerns and experiences. One of them, Masood Daanish, Executive Coordinator of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, was telling a story I thought worth passing on.

He has been in this country nine years, and five years ago was just finishing up at NYU. When he heard about 9/11, he headed for the A.S.M.A. office thinking things might “get messy.” This was, he said, about twenty minutes after the second plane struck. At the door he found a friend called Jedda Israel, an Orthodox Jew, wearing his yarmulka. “What are you doing here,” Daanish asked. “Well, I thought things might get messy,” Israel answered, “and the women who work here wear head scarves. I thought maybe I could help by walking some of them home.”