They don’t want to pray with you!
In their neverending quest to show we are all one big happy religious interfaith community, maybe an occasional slap in the face from Muslims, like this one in Minnesota, will force a reality check. I don’t know how much more it will take to show the Christian Left that Muslims have a very different idea of how the relationship should work. Islam is superior, right Allahsoldier? Muslims shouldn’t be mingling with Christians and Jews in religious settings, right? And, absolutely no praying together!
From the Star Tribune:
Local Somali imams are under attack for taking part in a multi-faith event that showed support for Muslims.
No one at the multi-faith prayer service expected the backlash that would unfold. Least of all Abdisalam Adam.
Adam was one of several local prominent Somali Muslims who stood with Christians, Jews, Hindus and others at a Minneapolis event designed to show support for Muslims at a time when a Florida pastor was threatening to burn Qur’ans and hostility toward Islam was rising.
Now, he and the others find themselves branded as apostates in a firestorm within the Somali community that has stunned local church leaders.
“Right now we’re in a survival mode to straighten things out,” said Adam, who has been fielding calls from as far away as London and Ethiopia. “At first we thought we would ignore it. Then we decided to respond.”
He and fellow leaders at Minneapolis’ Dar al-Hijrah mosque issued statements this week condemning what he called a “manufactured crisis” over his role in the service and particularly imam Abdighani Ali’s “extremist” view of interfaith.
The brouhaha began almost immediately after the Sept. 28 multi-faith prayer service at Central Lutheran Church in downtown Minneapolis. About 400 people attended the “Minnesotans Standing Together” event, which was organized by the Minnesota Council of Churches and sponsored by 30-some religious organizations. Several prominent local Muslim organizations were among the sponsors.
[…]
She (one local woman) noted the irony that the people objecting to the multi-faith service are fellow Muslims — the people the organizers were trying to support.
[…]
Gail Anderson of the Minnesota Council of Churches was disappointed by the backlash. “A lot of it is based on misunderstanding of what we did there,” said Anderson, who added that she’d like to talk with Ali and others who objected to the service. “We were very clear that we weren’t expecting anyone to pray in a tradition that wasn’t their own.”
No, Ms. Anderson, it is your misunderstanding of Islam, not what you did there on that particular occasion.