iReport —
The tenth anniversary of 9/11 was a relatively quiet one, from what I saw. Starting off at St. Paul's Chapel, in lower Manhattan, I met up with my friend and fellow photographer Brenna around 11am. We saw a group of protestors holding signs and wearing T-shirts that said "The Bush Regime Engineered 9-11" and "9/11 Was An Inside Job". They were standing across the street from the Chapel, where visitors came to tie a ribbon and pay their respects to the victims of 9/11. The entire area around City Hall and Ground Zero was cordoned off and under heavy security. Apart from some heated exchanges, the inside-jobbers were allowed to stage their protest.



After St. Paul's Chapel, we visited the Madina Masjid, a mosque in the East Village, which is overseen by Imam Hafiz Choudhury. Imam Choudhury has been at the Masjid for thirty-five years. He and his fourteen-year-old son Ahsan showed us around. My colleague Brenna, an Irish-American woman, was allowed access to all areas of the mosque, and Imam Choudhury took the time to patiently explain some prayer rituals to her, including where the women sit during prayer (in the back, behind a curtain). I asked if the Masjid had faced any trouble in the neighborhood, and Imam Choudhury waved away my concerns, saying that they never had any problems as a mosque in the East Village of New York City. His friendliness and openness probably had a lot to do with the mosque's peaceful relationship with its neighbours. Outside the Masjid, seventeen-year-old Shumon was selling perfumes and other Muslim knicknacks from a sidewalk table -- a business that he inherited from his grandfather. Shumon arrived in the US one and half years ago, from Sylhet, Bangladesh. His English is rapidly improving, and he is in school taking extra lessons. We were welcomed warmly by everyone at the mosque, and spoke to our hosts at length. We thanked everyone for their time, and moved on to our next event, the ICP.