Word: flocked
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...Mohsen mosque in Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim slum in Baghdad, I watched tens of thousands of people cheering a militant cleric, Moqtada Sadr, who is refusing to deal with the U.S. authorities in Iraq. But his antagonism isn't as surprising, perhaps, as the friendliness of the flock of 10-year-olds outside the mosque. I couldn't shake them off as they persisted in giving me the thumbs-up sign and repeating things like, "Bush, good," and "Thank you, Mr. Bush...
Only to find it closing. Of the three Abrahamic faiths, Islam is the most ferociously opposed to the straying of its flock. Shari'a law calls for the death penalty for those who convert to other religions, and although the penalty is not binding in most Muslim-majority states, persecution is common. This alone would not retard missions work. Most evangelists accept it as a cost of sharing faith. What did slow their efforts was a more prosaic measure: the gradual elimination by most Muslim countries of professional "religious worker" visas. Established organizations built around salaried missionary lifers found themselves...
...more. And as always, there are glorious glimpses of the wider wizarding world. When Harry visits Mr. Weasley's offices at the Ministry of Magic, he's treated to the greatest elevator ride since Willy Wonka, an adventure he shares with a fire-breathing chicken and a flock of bewitched purple paper airplanes, official Ministry memos en route to their recipients. "Level three, Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes...
...Purists have long since written off the most famous of European festivals, the Montreux Jazz Festival (July 4-19), but the crowds who flock there don't care. As founder Claude Nobs cheerfully acknowledges, "I'm the traitor who crossed the line first." It was in Montreux 32 years ago that the Casino burned down during a Frank Zappa concert, inspiring Deep Purple's rock classic Smoke on the Water. "I feel a little bad to be called a jazz festival, but it's our tattoo, we can't change it," says Nobs, who was immortalized in the Purple anthem...
...turnstile with my student MetroCard. As I reached the top of the staircase and stepped out onto the far end of the concrete platform, fresh air would hit me in the face. I could look up and see the sky. It was usually empty—I think a flock of geese may have flown overhead once—but there was something so satisfying about being able to see the sky directly above Jamaica Avenue, unobstructed by that hulking strip of steel; it’s a small thing, though something I hadn’t been able...