Who cant sense the ongoing angst for Muslims trying to be accepted or not looked at suspiciously or resented? With the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, upon us, we must work at separating Muslims, et al, from those events. We must be about castigating bad people and not their ethnic and religious heritage.We are witnessing the creation of a new Muslim American identity that is still a work in progress, Zahid H. Bukhari, director of the American Muslim studies program at Georgetown University, told the Los Angeles Times. Through history, people have adapted out of threat and danger, and Muslims have little choice in this environment than to try to be more transparent and, alas, even prove themselves more. The Times Louis Sahagun gives some examples. In La Habra Heights, Calif., a Muslim woman stopped donating to any Muslim charity that touched her heart because she suspected that authorities were monitoring her charitable giving. Now, taking no chances, she gives only to safe and less suspected” organizations. Worthy groups suffer.

In order to appear less threatening to non-Muslims, a young imam in Sacramento has quit following the ancient tradition for Muslim prayer leaders of wearing a full beard. He has shaved part of it. But Sahagun points to a 19-year-old University of California at Irvine student, who wears a hijab, who has been steeled by events and has mustered the courage to organize rallies and fund-raisers to support Muslims she believes federal investigators have targeted. One was a program that was critical of Israels policies in the Mideast. In the five years since the terrorist attacks, some Muslims have tried to be less visible, others more bold, as they live and work beside their fellow Americans, Sahagun said.

Bukhari explains that American population groups like blacks, Latinos, Jews, Japanese and Catholics have faced their share of prejudice and suspicion — many still do — and they have, through time, diminished it through forces on many fronts. Its Muslims turn to become part of the fabric of American life , Bukhair said. Before 9/11, many Muslims were physically here but mentally back in their homelands. That is starting to change. Muslims may be making the adjustment, what with law enforcement, the media and neighbors monitoring them, or at least showing wariness.

So the adapting to the environment includes gaining general public confidence and trust. Sahagun notes that those who have studied Muslims since the tragedy five years ago are witnessing some of that and that it otherwise could have taken another decade for Muslims to enter the public square and get away from their reclusive and largely immigrant community.

Surely, Muslims would serve themselves well by common citizenship — things like engaging broadly in their communities, whether its getting their kids into the panoply of recreational leagues, joining community boards, PTAs, homeowners groups and causes that transcend ethnicity. Trust will be built on friendships, work and common bonds as it has with other distinct groups of the melting pot

It caused immediate outrage when the U.S. Border Patrol arrested two immigrant-aid volunteers in July 2005 in the Arizona desert after the two tried to get emergency medical care for three sick migrants they had found in the desert. It sparked support from Amnesty International and earned international news attention.Volunteers from Tucson-based No More Deaths (No Mas Muertes) found the trio literally dying in the merciless desert a few miles north of the border. They were extremely dehydrated and could not hold down water given to them. So the workers acted on their best instincts. They called doctors and reported what happened and were instructed to take the sick men to a Tucson clinic. But the process the Border Patrol cited the two 23-year-olds for breaking the law.

Had America, the land known for compassion and its tradition of helping the desperate and needy, become a hardened, legalistic place where rules and law always trump humanitarianism? So the arrest of Shanti Sellz and Daniel Strauss triggered countless references to Jesus legendary parable of the Good Samaritan who went to the aid of the man beaten up by robbers and left on the side of road between Jerusalem and Jericho, as told in Luke 10:30-37. As the ancient story goes, a priest saw the half-dead man, stripped of his clothes, and walked to the other side of the road to avoid having to pass by or help the man. So did a Levite. But a Samaritan came by and took pity on him, bandaged the wounds, poured oil and wine on his injuries and delivered him to an inn where he gave the man further care. Finally, the Samaritan gave the innkeeper two silver coins and the instructions to look after the man. He further promised to pass by again to pay for any additional expense of the care.

The classic story of help follows immediately after Jesus answers the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life? His answer echoes through the canyons of the civilized time: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all our mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Sellz and Strauss were indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiracy to transport and transportation of an illegal immigrant. They had insisted they were only following a procedure or protocol that the Border Patrol had found acceptable. The case languished in the court for 14 months until last Friday when U.S. District Judge Raner Collins dismissed the charges, saying the two had followed reasonable efforts to make sure they were not violating the law. The judge said further prosecution would violate the defendants due process rights.

Throughout the case, the battle cry had been Humanitarian Aid Is Never A Crime. With the outcry against the prosecution, U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton was overwhelmed by tens of thousands of postcards calling for him to drop the case, No More Deaths reported. Sellzs attorney, Bill Walker, called it a victory for human rights. This is a wonderful result for humanitarian work in general and should be seen as a victory for everyone, he said. The judge made it clear that the real winners are the migrants who both the Border Patrol and No More Deaths are working to rescue.

The organization is holding a press conference Thursday at Southside Presbyterian Church in Phoenix to give perspective to the incident and the case. They grimly note that 275 migrants have died crossing the desert since Sellz and Strauss were arrested, including 171 who have perished since Oct. 1. No More Deaths said the arrest of the two had not dissuaded other volunteers to travel the deserts to look for people in medical distress. The project continues in several areas along the border to meet the traveling migrants and ensure they dont fall victim to the fierce environment in the quest for what they seek beyond the desert, in more fertile venues of the U.S.

Humanitarian Aid is Never a Crime.

So here it comes: In church and temple, this weekend, the new year really begins. In Arizona, congregational life runs from September to June, with July and August pretty much a bust. With Labor Day weekend out of the way, houses of worship get their litmus test this weekend. The YEAR begins, and “homecoming” starts.Who is coming back after the summer slump, after that summer time off, after the respite? Many people in a congregation get the benefit of the doubt during the summer. After all, who keeps track of whose work and family vacations are when? The living is easy, and some families need to make their cabins and time-shares pay for themselves. There is a more relaxed attitude about keeping up a pattern of attendance during the summer months.

Most Jewish congregations carried out their mid-summer open houses where temple shoppers could check them out, meet the rabbi and cantor, find out about the religious school and get the feel of the campus. They are now geared up to celebrated the Jewish New Year and the rest of the regular year.

Look at the attendance at temple on Friday and Saturday and at churches on Saturday and Sunday. Who is missing? Have some families finally broken the bond, faded away and vanished over the summer months never to come back. The long summer was a time when some folks changed jobs and moved on. Families that opt to change homes often find themselves moving out “too far” to make going to their “old church” convenient for regular worship and may come only on occasion — then slip entirely out of grasp.

Believe it or not, there was a time when people hunted for houses in close proximity to the churches they want to attend. They might get into town, move into an apartment and find their way around town to get to know neighborhoods, schools and churches. In time, they concentrate house hunting in an area where they plan to sink roots to take advantage of those institutions. Especially when they are denominationally attached, they may be limited in their options. In this Valley, it might be hard to find that ideal home within a couple miles of a Quaker, Seventh Day Adventist, Unitarian Universalist or Mennonite church or a certain tradition of Orthodox church.

And, if you are like me, adamantly opposed to living in a neighborhood controlled by homeowners association, your church-hunting options are lessened further.

But back to the fall kickoff of the church and temple year. Heres suggesting that if you got lazy the past summer and didn’t darken the door of a house of worship, tighten up you habits and show up this weekend. In most cases, classes will be starting. The teachers will be primed and ready to lead children, teens and adults in classes. They prepared and want eager people to be part of the chemistry. Clergy and choirs will be primed for a new year. Custodial staff will have made sure floors are waxed and book cases are dust-free. They beckon people.

Summer vacation is over, and if study and faith discovery matter to you, this is a good weekend to give it a try.

With much of conventional practices of culture and society being second-guessed, funerals and burials are getting another look in the movement to make things simpler. One of the new options is burial in green graves to expedite ones returning to the dust.The Valleys New Age monthly newspaper, Omega Directory, carries an article in its newest issue titled: Green Graves: Natural burials growing in popularity. With things like home birthing, natural medicine, a renewed emphasis on breast-feeding, simple hospice care and an emphasis on being one with the earth comes green burial. A 93-acre spot called Greensprings Natural Cemetery in the Finger Lakes of northern New York has been designated the perfectly natural place to spend an eternity. For $500 for a 15 by 15-foot plot and a $350 fee to dig the grave, families must put their loved ones into biodegradable caskets without metal ornamentation or linings. Bodies cannot be embalmed or chemically preserved in any way.

Its suggested that caskets be of locally harvested wood and wicker and cloth shrouds be used. Concrete and steel burial vaults are banned. And importantly, Uncle Howard cannot be remembered with a standing monument, an upright tombstone or statue. Flat field stones may be laid across the grave and be engraved. The cemetery would be prefer shrubs or trees be put there rather than markers. This is more than just dig a hole in the woods and roll them in, said cemetery president Mary Woodsen, ardent conservationist. We see it as a natural return to the Earth, becoming part of the circle of life.

Its said that me than 10 percent of burials in the United Kingdom are in natural and woodland cemeteries. Now they are taking root in the U.S. as people look at land conservation, preserving the look of the natural environment and simply returning bodies to the earth to blend back into the terra firma. Omega Directory said there are green cemeteries in California, Washington, Texas, Florida and South Carolina, as well. Its common, too, for ashes to be scattered across their lands.

Theres life in the land. Its not a dead place like a conventional cemetery. Its intensely alive, and thats what you focus on, noted one woman, Elizabeth Stuckman, who plans one day to rest in Ramsey Creek Preserve in rural South Carolina. Earlier, she had the ashes of her brother scattered there, noting that kids from the family played in a nearby steam, others enjoyed a picnic and friends played bluegrass music. Stuckman likes the idea that she will go into a land allowed to remain wild, allowed to change with time, where all trace that she lived can only be found in stalwart trees and wildlife.