In Palo Alto Thursday night, more than one hundred community members and faith leaders gathered at King Plaza to mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. This annual event honors the lives lost and changed forever on 9/11 while also leaning on the community to build a better futur e. This event was orchestrated by Palo Alto resident Samina Sundas, who is the founding executive director of American Muslim Voice Foundation. Sundas explained that the event started in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 as a candlelit vigil and has expanded in the years since. “And the reason we are dedicated to doing this is because we think that if we get to know our neighbors, our colleagues, then we can just build peace,” Sundas noted. At this peace picnic, attendees ate together and reflected on their memories of 9/11. An array of local religious leaders led those gathered in prayers for peace. Rabbi Heath Watenmaker of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills said, especially on the 25th anniversary this year, “it feels particularly important to be here, be part of this interfaith program, show up for our neighbors.” Many in attendance also reflected on the division and Islamophobia that surged in the wake of the attacks. “I remember growing up in a post-9/11 America, and a lot of those wounds and those pains and those traumas are still ever-present in our community,” noted Musa Tariq with the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. ...read more read less