on Friday, March 22, 2013
A priest who has allowed Muslims to pray in his church has told how he has been hit by a barrage of abuse by internet 'trolls'.
St John's Episcopal Church became the first church in the UK to share their building with Muslims after Rev Isaac Poobalan saw members of a neighbouring mosque praying outside in the snow because of a lack of space.
on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
on Thursday, March 7, 2013
The boys were kicked out of the Assembly of God church in Perham during a question answer period following a speech by Walid Shoebat. Shoebat says he is a former terrorist, and claims to be an anti-terrorism expert. He now calls Islam the devil and tours the country speaking to churches and schools – even collecting fees from Homeland Security.
CNN has exposed Shoebat, calling him a fraud. Today, the DC based Council on American-Islamic Relations contacted WDAY and said it is calling for a meeting with Assembly of God church leaders in Perham, in hopes of strengthening interfaith relations and promoting understanding.
The two teenagers are Muslim, and attended the event featuring Walid Shoebat, a Muslim turned Christian.
Fikri, from Indonesia, and Elshan, from Azerbhjan, came to the United States as exchange students. Their home right now is Perham, Minnesota and host Mary Anderson. When the students heard that Walid Shoebat was speaking at a public forum at Assembly of God in Perham, they wanted to go.
Shoebat is known as a former Muslim, now Christian, speaking out against Islam.
Elshan Mirzazade – Perham Exchange Student: "Our message is not to argue with him, but to say to people that what he says is wrong."
The boys heard what they say are mistruths and distortions coming out of Shoebat. So, during question and answer time they questioned Shoebat, and quickly were told to leave.
Fikri Rahmat – Perham Exchange Student: "I would conclude in my mind that he got mad because maybe he was afraid of the truth. One of his companions came to us and said, 'Out, Out,' rudely to us."
Elshan Mirzazade: "They ushered us out and asked us to leave and we said, 'OK, OK.' So when I was leaving, I shouted, 'Good way of promoting peace, bravo, bravo.'"
See also "CAIR-MN seeks meeting with church after Muslim students kicked out", CAIR press release, 5 March 2013
on Sunday, January 20, 2013
Hoping to nurture good will between two major faiths, Christians and Muslims will mingle Sunday at a Texas barbecue at a Keller church.
The Rev. Bob Roberts, pastor of the 3,000-member NorthWood Church, said the gathering is intended to create friendships and recruit Muslims and Christians who will work together on a series of community projects.
"We've got a big Muslim issue in America," Roberts said. "There are 2 billion Christians in the world and 1.5 billion Muslims. If we don't learn how to get along, we are going to have a very sick world."
Those attending will be served beef slaughtered according to Islamic rules.
It's a follow-up to a similar service at NorthWood – attended by 1,500 Muslims and 1,000 Christians – shortly after the 10th anniversary of 9-11. That service, labeled "repulsive" by a political activist, was highly emotional.
At one point, Roberts told the Muslims, "We love you." After a standing ovation, a Muslim in the audience stood and replied to Roberts, "We love you too."
At Sunday's event, Muslims and Christians will sign up to work together on several volunteer projects, including painting and remodeling homes and renovating a Haltom City baseball field. Also, women will take part in cooking clubs, sharing recipes from their different cultures.
Among the speakers will be U.S. Rep. Kay Granger; former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, director of the Center for Global Strategies in Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Azhar Azeez, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America in Plainfield, Ind.
Star-Telegram, 18 January 2013
on Saturday, December 8, 2012
Church officials claim they received more than two dozen emails from individuals condemning All Saints Episcopal Church for hosting the 12th Annual Muslim Public Affairs Council Convention on Dec. 15.
Church officials produced three of the "close to 30" emails they received. They described many of the others as too "vituperative" to release to the public. At least one email accused the parish of "providing cover and legitimacy to an organization dedicated to overthrowing the Constitution, and substituting Sharia law." Another email warned parishoners to not "be gullible suckers."
During the Thursday press conference, convention organizers and church staff said the conference will go on as planned and denounced the emails as hateful.
"What we hear too often unfortunately, is that what we are doing is a waste of time," MPAC President Salam Al Mayarati said. "What we also hear is people trying to drag us back to the rivalries of the middle East, the bloody rivalries of the middle east."
All Saints Rector Ed Bacon characterized the emails as a tragic reminder of the political and cultural realities of contemporary America. "The fact is our life in America is transacted in a culture of fear, and transacted in a culture of hatred; and a politics of fear and a politics of hatred," Bacon said.
Bacon said he hoped to convert the negative attention from the emails into something positive for interfaith relations. "We are very happy to have this occasion to put on a display of our relations and stand in solidarity," Bacon said.
In one email, a South Carolina man said "Islam is indistinguishable from Nazism," "Islam caused the Dark Ages" and that "every host country that has invited Islam into it has either been destroyed, or is in the process of being destroyed."
Church officials said the attacks came after Institute on Religion and Democracy published a criticism of the convention on its website. "If MPAC's convention is like past ones, Islamists will again be given a platform to rally Muslims to their cause but this time, it won't be in a mosque or a hotel conference room. It'll be from a church pulpit," the Nov. 30 article by Ryan Mauro, the "national security analyst of RadicalIslam.org," who is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel.
MPAC Senior Adviser Dr. Maher Hathout said groups like IRD often cite Hathout's work with the Muslim Brotherhood as a reason to doubt his good intentions. I "was working with the Muslim Brotherhood student movement 60 years ago against the British occupation and against the Nasser (Gamal Abdel Nasser former President of Egypt) dictatorship and I am very proud of that record," Hathout said Thursday. "Since that time I have no connection with any group or party. In the last 40 years in America, I never dealt with any organization outside the U.S."
The MPAC national convention is scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Dec. 15.
MPAC and the church are working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pasadena Police Department on increasing security for the event, Al Mayariti said.
Pasadena Star-News, 7 December 2012
Update: In a piece for the Washington Post's Guest Voices blog ("Hate mail over Muslim conference provides opportunity for Christian witness") the Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite points out that the Institute on Religion and Democracy article that provoked this outpouring of hate was crossposted from David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine.
on Monday, November 19, 2012
Choral director Jeffrey Cobb told his singers and orchestra – roughly 180 local adults and teens drawn from college, a high school, and churches – that a pastor barred an Islamic prayer from the piece they planned to sing.
Their concert was to be performed the next day, on Veterans Day, at First Congregational Church in Traverse City for the annual Mel Larimer Concert Series.
Pastor David Walls and other church officials wanted nothing to do with the Islamic Call to Prayers portion of the performance. They did not want to offend their congregation and military veterans they planned to honor that day, church leaders said.
A shock wave rippled through the choir during their tune-up at the church, and no one took the jolt harder than Alya Nadji, 16, a Muslim and member of the Traverse City West High School Chorale.
Alya tried to keep singing, but couldn't compose herself. She ran to the bathroom sobbing. She sent a text message to her parents and asked them what she should do. They decided she should leave the rehearsal.
"I felt like I wasn't being treated equal ... I felt that I was unwelcome and that I didn't belong any place near there," said Alya, a junior, who wears a head scarf in the Islamic tradition.
The church's decision to ban the prayer sparked protest by choir and community members. Northwestern Michigan College officials held an impromptu meeting hours before Sunday's concert and said the college would withdraw as an official supporter of the Larimer event.
Walls, First Congregational's senior minister, said he and other church leaders rejected the prayer because they did not want to offend audience members.
"We were concerned that there was potential that some of our active military personnel, military families with sons or daughters in Iraq, who have even lost their lives there, would find it much too hard to handle," he said.
"A prayer in Arabic, addressed to Allah, with references to Muhammad for an event that was intended to honor veterans," Walls said.
Traverse City Record-Eagle, 16 November 2012
Northwestern Michigan College issued an admirably firm statement condemning the decision and announcing that it planned to hold a special presentation of the mass including the excluded Adhaan section. Unfortunately, the college administration has had second thoughts. See "NMC reverses plans to hold choral performance", Traverse City Record-Eagle, 18 November 2012
The piece that was censored, The Armed Man, is by the Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, who was once a member of the jazz-rock group Soft Machine.
on Monday, June 4, 2012
Christian and Muslim leaders came together to support the Murfreesboro Islamic community and imam Ossama Bahloul Sunday afternoon at The Village Church in East Nashville. "We just really wanted to reach out to him and to let him know that we cared about his community and him and that we would be praying with them," said Dr. Andrew Anyabwile, Village Church pastor.
On Tuesday, a Rutherford County judge nullified the permit to build a multimillion dollar Islamic center in Murfreesboro after ruling that not enough public notice was given before a planning commission meeting where the construction was approved.
"It seems like the Muslim community being singled out in this because we did follow the exact process of everyone else," said Ossama Bahloul, the Murfreesboro Islamic center imam. "If we respect our constitution, then we'll have no choice but to support each other because the freedom of religion is the core of our constitution."
While the congregation at the Village Church had a very vocal support for the imam's words, the Murfreesboro Islamic center still has plenty of opponents. "If they're this peaceful, loving religion, that they claim they are, they need to abide by the laws that all of us have to," said attorney Joe Brandon, who has been representing clients that oppose the construction of the Islamic center.
Brandon has voiced several controversial claims like the stance that Islam was not an actual religion, and the group is out to spread Sharia law. "Sharia law provides that their law dominates the law of Tennessee, the laws of all 50 states, the law of the U.S. constitution," Brandon said.
"It seems like this is a small group with a very vocal voice against the freedom of religion in Murfreesboro," Bahloul said. "But I am really optimistic because I know that what's right will prevail by the end." Bahloul said he hopes the Islamic center will open in July to celebrate the month of Ramadan.
See also "Murfreesboro mosque ruling stirs confusion", The Tennessean, 3 June 2012
on Sunday, April 15, 2012
The Norwich Reformed Church held a weekly outreach bookstall from the Norwich City Council-owned site on Hay Hill, but has been informed it is no longer allowed to use the stall after the council received a complaint about literature on it. The complaint prompted a review of the materials produced by Reverend Alan Clifford, pastor of the church, and the council contacted police as materials, particularly the leaflet entitled Why Not Islam, were considered to be hate-motivated.
The church has been prohibited from using the site, while the council-run Eaton Park Community Centre has also been contacted with a view to ceasing any further bookings made by the church.
A council spokesman said: "We received a complaint from a member of the public about material published by the Norwich Reformed Church (associated with the Farthing Trust) which uses council facilities. This was considered to be hate-motivated and, in accordance with the agreed Norfolk Multi Agency Protocol, we contacted the police.
"Although the police advised that no criminal offence had been committed, we have a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to foster good relations between people of all backgrounds and religions. By allowing premises owned by the council to be used by an organisation publishing such material, we would be failing in that duty. People across Norfolk have recently been urged to stand up to hate-motivated and intolerant behaviour through a publicity campaign and as a council we have to play our part and take action where necessary."
Rev Clifford, who has written to the Christian Institute for advice, said an "extraordinarily silly" form of "political correctness" had emerged. He said: "While the opinion of the Christian Institute is awaited, it is hoped that in due course, common sense might prevail, and that Norwich Reformed Church's rights to worship and witness will be restored."
A police spokesman confirmed a complaint had been received from a member of the public regarding leaflets that were distributed but, following discussions with the council, the force's diversity team and CPS it was "deemed that no offences were carried out".