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With U.S. air travel grounded, mail delivery halted and phone lines into New York City and elsewhere hard to access, church-related relief agencies have had to rely on the Internet for much of their communication.

"At the moment communications are next to impossible with our congregations, synods, districts, social ministry organizations," said Gil Furst, director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Domestic Disaster Response Program. "They will all be part of our response."

ELCA congregations throughout the U.S. would be open for shelter and prayer, Furst said, and asked that pastors "be available for prayer and counselling."

The mood in New York City remained grim but determined. In one of the most culturally and religiously diverse cities in the world, churches, synagogues and mosques remained opened for prayer in the wake of the unprecedented terrorist attack, and numerous New Yorkers sought solace at places of worship.

But only one day after the two hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers of the landmark World Trade Center, a high level of uncertainty reigned in the city, where the number of fatalities is believed to be in the thousands.

US officials were evaluating early clues that responsibility for the attacks—which also included the Pentagon and the hijacking of a fourth plane that crashed in western Pennsylvania—may lie with Islamic militant Osama Bin Laden, who is believed to be in exile in Afghanistan.

There were reports of sporadic harassment of Arab residents in some parts of New York and Chicago, and a number of well-known Muslim-owned stores and restaurants in the borough of Brooklyn remained closed, apparently from fear of violence.

In the immediate aftermath of Tuesday's attacks, Islamic institutions in many cities were placed under round-the-clock police guard, the Guardian said.

Leaders of the U.S. Muslim community—estimated to be 3.5 million strong—have issued statements of grief, and have called on Muslims to offer assistance to relief efforts. But they have also tried to prepare for public anti-Muslim sentiment, in some cases telling members not to wear "distinctly Islamic dress in public," the Guardian reported.

"This is a terrible time, not only for Muslims but for all believing people who believe in coexistence," said Mohamad Yusuff, editor of the Washington-area Voice of Islam newspaper. "No true Muslim would do anything like [these attacks]."

The fear of inter-religious tension caused both New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Roman Catholic Cardinal Edward Egan to warn against expressions of vengeance against Arab Americans. "Hate never begets peace," Egan said at an September 11 homily at St Patrick's Cathedral in mid-town Manhattan. "Justice does."

Most emergency efforts continued to focus on finding possible survivors, and thousands in the New York area awaited word on the fate of missing family members and friends.

Copyright © 2001 ENI.

Yahoo has compiled aid organization contact information, closure notification, and survivor lists.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Domestic Disaster Response staff members are involved in a response to Tuesday's hijackings and explosions.

Osama Bin Laden is said to be a "guest" of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Christianity Today's other articles on the attacks include:

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September (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45