Source: The Oregonian
On November 21, 2002 The Oregonian reported that "members of many faiths will talk and read at the fifth annual gathering Sunday in Hillsboro. Now in its fifth year, the Washington County Interfaith Thanksgiving Service started with readings from the Christian, Jewish, Baha'i and Unitarian Universalist faiths. Last year, in an effort to reach out to the Muslim community after the Sept. 11 attacks, the service added a reading from the Qu'ran. Reader Shahriar Ahmed, president of the Bilal Mosque Association of Beaverton, is returning this year as the main speaker. Ahmed, an Intel engineer, is the perfect antidote for anyone who stereotypes Muslims as haughty, American-hating religious fanatics. Warm, loquacious and self-deprecating, Ahmed has spent the months since 9-11 building numerous interfaith bridges with Christians and Jews who have grown deeply fond of him... His talk Sunday will skip politics and focus on the philosophy of the Muslim, which he describes as 'every moment of our existence, from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep, is all a mercy from God.' As a result, Thanksgiving should be a nonstop way of living, he said."