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Last week, a devastating fire left hundreds of Muslims without their religious sanctuary.

The fire destroyed part of the Islamic Society of Mid-Manhattan mosque, a place of worship that catered to a sizeable portion of practicing Muslims in New York City.

When the nearby Central Synagogue heard about the incident, they sprung into action.

Rather than just offer thoughts and prayers, the synagogue warmly opened its doors to provide a safe place for their afternoon prayers.

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl caught a moment of prayer on camera and shared the image on her Facebook page along with a poignant message about embracing community in times of crises regardless of religious differences.

“Our neighbors at the 55th Street mosque had a terrible fire this week. Hundreds arrived for afternoon prayer only to find they couldn’t enter their mosque,” she wrote alongside the photo. “So we invited them to pray at Central Synagogue. Their Imam said this was the holiest moment he has experienced in New York. It is certainly one of ours as well. Salaam. Shalom.”

Turns out, the synagogue is no stranger to a loss of this nature.

On the synagogue’s official Facebook page, they explained that they suffered a similar loss 20 years ago. “Today, more than five hundred worshipers came to our Lindenbaum Pavillion to pray together as a community in safety,” they wrote. “As we approach Shabbat, we are thinking of our neighbors overcoming the difficult road ahead, but know they will rebuild.”

According to the New York Post, per their rituals, worshippers left their shoes in the hallway, and quickly prepared a hand-washing station.

Daniel Mutlu, Central’s senior cantor, told the Post that the experience bonded the two congregations in an important way.

“The most incredible part of the day, besides getting to experience their worship in our space — which was just a symbol of people coming together in a climate where there’s so much perception of disharmony and not getting along — was when they were streaming out of the pavilion following their service, the gratitude and love coming out of each one of them was palpable,” he said.

“They were just so grateful to have been welcomed into our space, and we felt the same, that we could be together in that moment. As the imam preached, we’re all praying to the same source of life. We might do it a little differently. We might have a different background. But we’re all really doing this for the same reasons.”

In a video from the sermon posted to Youtube, the mosque’s imam called it “the most blessed moment” of his life in New York.

“I feel very good for all of you,” he said to the group. “You were able to be part of this historic moment in New York, to show your children and your grandchildren, to witness the love and the care of our neighbors who show us their love and solidarity.”

“Light can come out of the darkness,” he added.

It’s a great reminder that, whatever your religious beliefs might be, reacting to unfortunate situations such as this with love, results in a win for everyone.

It's not often that a hate crime has a happy ending — or something close to it.

The True Islam Symposium at the Baitul Aman, or "House of Peace," mosque. Image by Wajid Ahmed/YouTube.

Back in November, angered by the terrorist attacks in Paris, Ted Hakey Jr. fired shots at an empty mosque near his house in Meriden, Connecticut.

The Hartford Courant reported that Hakey, a former Marine, pled guilty to intentional destruction of religious property in February. He is set to be sentenced in May and faces eight to 14 months in prison.

Five months later, he did something unusually brave: He stood up in front of members of the mosque and apologized.

"I want to just apologize to everybody," Hakey said at the event, hosted by the Baitul Aman mosque. "I really have no excuses, and I don't think you could imagine the amount of regret I have, and just the heartache I caused for everybody, brought discredit upon myself, the Marine Corps, everything I stand for."

The leaders of the mosque did something even braver, something they did not have to do: They forgave him.

"What was said that day made a huge difference to us," Mohammed Qureshi, president of the mosque, told the Courant. "We greeted and we hugged just like a Muslim neighbor. We know why he did what he did — because he never heard our message. We now see it in his heart and we see it in his eyes."

Hakey told them he wishes he'd gotten to know his Muslim neighbors better before leaping to conclusions about them.

Image by Wajid Ahmed/YouTube.

Qureshi said there were tears in the room as Hakey delivered his apology. After the event, Hakey gave and received hugs from congregants, many of whom reported being moved by what appeared to be a sincere plea for forgiveness.

"We look forward to being good neighbors in the future, and having a close friendship as well," Qureshi said after Hakey's address.

Sadly, Hakey wasn't alone in resorting to anti-Islam violence after the Paris attacks.

In the month following the November killings, there were nearly 40 documented attacks on Muslims in the United States. A Washington Post report found that hate crimes against Muslims are five times more common today than they were before Sept. 11, 2001.

An anti-Islam ad in the New York City subway in 2012. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

It's a danger that makes the Baitul Aman members' willingness to forgive all the more remarkable.

Hakey said that while "sorry" doesn't excuse his actions, he's grateful to the congregation for giving him the opportunity to learn.

His biggest regret was not having come by sooner.

"I was a neighbor, and I did have fear, and the fear was always when you don't know something," Hakey said in his address. "The unknown, you are always afraid. I wish that I had come and knocked on your door, and if I had spent five minutes with you, it would have been all the difference in the world. And I didn't do that."

You can watch Hakey's entire emotional apology below.

(The important part starts at 34:02)

President Obama visited a mosque in Baltimore today, and it's big news.

Obama visits a mosque in Malaysia in 2009. Photo by Mandel Ngan/Getty Images.

It's big news because it was the first time the president visited a mosque in the U.S. during his presidency, according to a BBC report.

It's also big news because Obama used the visit to take a stand for religious freedom and show support for a Muslim American community that's been subject to an increasing amount of distrust, violence, and suspicion.

"An attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths," Obama said, per an NBC News report. "We have to be consistent in condemning hateful rhetoric ... none of us can be bystanders to bigotry."

It's pretty cool that the president did this.

American Muslims have had a rough go of it lately, largely owing to the backlash after November's shootings in Paris and December's San Bernardino attacks as well as the ridiculous, bigoted ramblings of a certain presidential candidate. That the president is willing to stand side by side with fellow Americans — against intolerance — in their place of worship matters.

But it's kinda sad that it's still a big deal when a U.S. president visits a mosque.

The Islamic Society of Baltimore, a totally normal American place of worship. Photo by Mandel Ngan/Getty Images.

Obama's mosque visit, understandably, is big national news.

Meanwhile, Obama could basically just waltz into any church or synagogue in America without so much as a single camera flash going off (to the extent that Obama could go anywhere without reporters following him).

Islam is just as "normal" an American religion as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism — or any other faith. Over 3 million Americans are Muslim, and that number is growing.

An American president visiting an American mosque should be a totally boring move. You know who else visited a mosque when he was president?

This guy...

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

...six days after 9/11.

The fact that it's still a big deal for a U.S. president to go to one 15 years later means we still have work to do to ensure Muslim Americans are always included when we say "Americans."

Hopefully Obama's visit will help highlight the obvious: Muslim Americans are American, and Americans should treat Muslim Americans like Americans.

Obama participates in a roundtable at the Islamic Society of Baltimore. Photo by Mandel Ngan/Getty Images.

With any luck, next time, this will be less of a thing.

On Nov. 15, 2015, residents of Peterborough, Ontario woke up to the kind of news that makes your heart sink.

A mosque — the only one in the community — was burned down. Though the motive for the attack is still unclear, police have declared that the fire was set intentionally, and the blaze is being investigated as a potential hate crime.

Since the Paris attacks, hostility towards Muslims has become far more visible in Europe and North America.

The U.K. has experienced a huge spike in attacks against Muslims. Many U.S. presidential candidates have called for halting the flow of Syrian refugees into the country — especially if they're not Christian. Some have gone so far as to propose shutting down mosques and have insinuated that American Muslims cheered on the 9/11 attacks.

But residents of Peterborough refused to give into suspicion and fear and were determined to do something to help their neighbors rebuild.

"Damages are estimated to exceed $80K. We encourage members of the community, of all or no faiths, to help the Muslim community restore their place of worship," Peterborough resident Duane Rouselle wrote on a fundraising page he created.

Rouselle told Upworthy that he donated all he had — the 17 cents in his bank account.

"When I heard the news — I heard it from somebody who lived beside the Mosque, before it hit the news — I felt compelled to do something, anything," he wrote in an e-mail.

The fundraiser hit its $80,000 goal before the first day was over.

And the donations kept pouring in. As of Nov. 23, 2015, the community had raised over $110,000 to help rebuild the mosque.

The community didn't just rally to raise money.

Other religious groups in the city immediately stepped up to offer displaced members of the mosque space to gather, worship, and pray.

"There are no words to describe how amazing our community has represented itself as a giving, loving, peaceful and supportive community," Rouselle wrote.

The mosque will be able to rebuild, and the Peterborough community deserves massive congratulations for living up to its highest ideals.

In the wake of a terrible tragedy, it's natural — and understandable — to be afraid. It's easy to look at the perpetrators of unspeakable violence and draw quick, and not always accurate, conclusions about people who look like them.

"Our acts of kindness should not conceal the very real threats that people have to live with on a daily basis," Rouselle wrote in his e-mail. And he's right.

It's important to stand up for the least empowered members of our communities — even when we don't know them that well, or disagree with them.

In the wake of the positive press, some have pointed to the Peterborough imam's retrograde views on marriage and women's rights. And it's OK to be offended by them! But they're not a reason to not help a community. And they certainly don't justify what happened to the mosque.

Far too often, we turn to people in our communities who look different, think differently, pray differently and think, "You are other," and "We're afraid of you." And we turn our backs.

Peterborough didn't. They said, "You are all one of us. And we've got your back."

We could all stand to learn from them.