Interfaith Peace Walk brings students of different or no faiths together. They walk around Athens and stop at different churches and temples, then end at the Islamic Center.
Many sang “Down to the River to Pray” together and introduced themselves to the person next to them, as they all walked in reverence in memoriam of 9/11.
More than 300 Ohio University students and Athens church members participated in the Interfaith Peace Walk around Athens. The march ended at the Islamic Center of Athens on Friday.
Many people held signs saying “standing on the side of love” or “I’m a scientist, and I’m at the Interfaith Peace Walk because we all have the same beating heart inside.”
Before the walk, Rev. Evan Young, the United Campus Ministries campus minister, spoke about justice. He started with the title from Pope Paul VI’s declaration of the celebration of the day of peace in 1972, “If You Want Peace, Work For Justice.”
“When 9/11 happened, I found it really upsetting and disturbing,” Young said. “What was more upsetting and disturbing to me was the way people responded to it by judging people different from them, by responding to people who look different, acted different or people who believe differently with fear and hatred.”
Young said regardless of faith, humans all come from the same source. The peace walk depicts this, he added.
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During the walk, some people had peace sign flags with them. The walk continued for about two miles down Congress Street and Mill Street, past Casa Nueva and several fraternity houses. Along the way, the crowd stopped and prayed.
“I feel like a lot of religions, some people say, ‘All people in this religion are like this.’ They group a whole religion together based on one person’s actions,” Shoshana Blair, a fifth-year senior studying theater, said. “I feel a cringe in my spine and in my neck when it happens. Not everyone is like that. No one fits in between the lines you’re putting them in, or not everyone does.”
Emmanuel Tweve, an international graduate student from Tanzania studying national security and public administration said people from Tanzania first thought it was good that United States was challenged since the U.S. oppressed people in Somalia. But, Tweve said public opinion quickly changed when they found out terrorists were behind the attack.
“Terrorists don’t target. One of the attacks happened in Tanzania. They didn’t care who (was) there, who’s who, they just ran down everyone,” Tweve said. “They just attack anyone to prove a point. ... It was some kind of fear to be caught in the tension of two big places and we are in the middle.”
Waleed Lameshal, a second-year graduate student from Saudi Arabia said after he grew a beard, he was pulled aside at an airport for two hours for no reason and had to show all of his documents. He said he almost missed his flight.
“(The Interfaith Peace Walk) is a thing the whole world needs. We are human beings,” Lameshal said. “That’s the connection with all of us. This is the most important thing about us — being a human being.”
The walk ended at the Islamic Center of Athens on Stewart Street, with a candlelight vigil. Everyone crowded together in the rain, helping each other re-light their candles as the wind tried to blow them out.
Bashar Kayali, a pediatrician from Logan, Ohio, who is from Syria, said war cannot be won but can only be prevented.
“I look at it as a very serious effort, the same effort that is devoted to preparing for war should be devoted to preparing for peace, and unless the effort for preparing peace is equivalent to that of preparing for war, war will win all the time because there are people who benefit from wars,” Kayali said. “And it’s the average person, man or woman who are going to pay the price for the war. Not those who are benefitting from it. So unless the average person does something else, we are all going to lose.”
Young ended with a slow song about love, hope, peace, joy and justice.
“There is more peace somewhere. There is more peace somewhere. I’m going to keep on ‘till I find it. There is more peace somewhere,” the crowd sang.
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