It is early '90s in Sarajevo. The Serbian Army is seeking surrender and expulsion of non-Serbs. Bosnian volunteer and civilian militias mount brave defenses.

People from around the world converge to help Sarajevo against the barbarians.

Fuelled by Hemingway and feeling much like the Spanish Civil War international brigade volunteers, Westerners joined. 

Soon the Serbs blockaded the city. A bloody rage overtook them and they started a modern day medieval siege. Bombings and constant shelling destroyed the mosques, synagogues and the elusive comforts of faith. The philharmonic playing in the streets was helping until Serbians shelled the marketplace and stopped that, too. The snipers were killing civilians with preference for beautiful young girls... The defenders were held, galvanized by fear, having knowledge of Serb atrocities and the mass murder of civilians. 

We got together and noodled over it for a while. Then one of us took a stand. Pano Kroko, a young American, rented an old central city basement that rumor had it, had been used as a bank vault in the past. He had some strange ideas about it but the rest of us were too busy compiling reports and counting the dead for the news wires. Yet he stayed on and worked to transform this cold basement. 

Then a white bearded ‘mufti’ who worked in the market as a hamal, took it upon himself to lead the Friday noon prayers and the ‘Salah’ with about thirty of his bazaar friends. Pano then offered the vault to a retired Jewish Rabbi. Surprisingly enough, he accepted it for Sabbath prayers. Pano didn't tell anyone about his plans for a multifaith center... For the longest time they each thought they were the exclusive users of the bomb vault for their faith. 

Next, Pano invited a Christian priest to preach Sunday services... A few weeks of frantic nightly cleaning and removing religious symbols of this clandestine effort at peace and reconciliation had followed before he worked up the courage to speak to the three communities. Exhausted, he simply said, "This is your space and you can do what you will with it in safety and comfort. I will guarantee your being here in peace. I will guarantee this with my life if need be, but you have to guarantee that you will tolerate the other faithful people of the book who come here to pray too. You are leaves of the same tree. Since you have found safety and comfort these last weeks here please continue, from now on knowing that by being here and worshipping freely you are the first peace workers in the midst of chaos." 

He got up and simply told them brazenly, maybe foolishly that they could coexist...