"Sacred Ground" is a slim volume that serious interfaith students or practitioners will read for the fascinating territory it surveys: the history of religious bigotry in American politics, the sociology of nonprofits in the United States, and the "science of interfaith cooperation."

The question truly at the heart of the book is how to encourage people en masse to go around the interfaith triangle in the right direction. The absence of movement could lead to indifference or even mutual suspicion.

In recent events, vigils and prayer meetings following, marking and responding to the horrific murders at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin there were many who beat the inter-religious/interfaith dialogue drum

Storytelling can do that. It can connect and inspire us to new ways of thinking, to greater empathy and to increased familiarity with different experiences, identities and values.

Religious pluralism is at the heart of the American tradition, a value inscribed in our soil from the very beginning. America's promise is to guarantee equal rights for all identities.

I believe Ground Zero is sacred. I believe every inch of America is sacred. I believe, in an era where more and more people are convinced that different faiths are fated to fight, America is nothing short of a mercy upon all the worlds.