New Resource from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America on Christian-Muslim Relations

The ELCA has just published a series of eight brochures to help foster positive dialogue between Christians and Muslims in our local communities.  The brochures are free and downloadable.  Here is the link:

TALKING POINTS 

A Palm Sunday Parable For Christians: The Good Muslim

Excerpt:

“A man was traveling from Washington DC to Manassas in the predawn hours Friday morning. At a stoplight, a gang broke his window and dragged him from his car. They stripped him naked, beat him to a pulp, took his wallet, his laptop, his iPhone and his car, leaving him on the sidewalk half dead.

A Catholic priest drove by minutes later and stopped at the light. He saw the man bleeding on the concrete and trying unsuccessfully to stand, but it was a seedy part of town, so he continued on his way.

Then a Protestant minister drove up and stopped at the light, but he too sped off as soon as the light turned green. But a Muslim, driving that same road, stopped at the light and saw the man. His heart was moved with pity, so he covered the man’s nakedness with a raincoat, helped him get in the car, and drove him to the nearest clinic.

When they arrived, the man had passed out, perhaps from loss of blood. The clinic did not want to take this unconscious naked man with no ID or proof of insurance, but the Muslim insisted, giving them his credit card and promising he would pay whatever it cost.”

When he finishes telling this parable, Jesus asks the Christian* ministers, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who was beaten and robbed?”

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES 

Do Most Mississippi Republicans Think Obama Is a Muslim?

There is not a shred of truth to the rumor that President Obama is not really an American citizen, or that he’s secretly a Muslim.  And yet the stories won’t die, because people keep repeating them and unscrupulous politicians are happy to capitalize on them.

Those who want to fan the flames sometimes try the grudging acceptance trick. It goes like this: “Well, if Mr. Obama says he’s a Christian, then I have to take him at his word.” Rick Santorum pulled that one last month. After questioning Mr. Obama’s Christianity, he said: “I wasn’t suggesting the President’s not a Christian. I accept the fact that the president’s a Christian.” How very generous of him.

And yet, I was a bit surprised to see a PPP poll showing that 45 percent of Alabama Republicans think Mr. Obama is a Muslim, and only 14 percent know that he’s actually a Christian. In Mississippi, the same poll showed that a majority of Republicans, 52 percent, believe the Muslim lie.

While there’s no question that far too many people buy into this propaganda, I’m not ready to condemn a majority of Mississippians based on this survey. PPP is a partisan organization that conducts automated surveys. That means it’s not clear who answered the questions and whether the sample is statistically representative.

Current law prohibits automated dialers from calling cellphones. So PPP is likely missing a big chunk of the population. (The latest research shows that about 25 percent to 31 percent of people now use cellphones exclusively.)

My point is that not all survey organizations are created equal, and it’s worth keeping that in mind when you come across polling data in news articles.

 

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES 

Group Issues ‘Hate’ Materials Prompts Cancellations at Islam School Near St. Louis

The Muslim Al-Salam Day School off Weidman Road closed Friday due to a Christian group’s promise to tout Christianity at the location, school officials said.

A letter, that reads as follows, was sent home to parents telling them classes were cancelled.

“Earlier this week we had informed members and parents of the community about a protest that will be taking place outside of the Islamic Foundation Property tomorrow. Due to the overwhelming incoming of increasing safety concerns from parents and teachers, we have decided to cancel school and after school activities for tomorrow.”

Ghazala Hayat with the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis tells Patch that the group Reclaiming Missouri for Christ contacted St. Louis County Police to inform them the group planned to distribute literature during the Dar-Ul-Salam Mosque’s prayer services Friday between noon and 2 p.m. The Islamic Foundation offices, mosque and school are all located on the same property off Weidman Road.

FULL ARTICLE FROM http://ballwin-ellisville.patch.com

Survey: Number of U.S. Muslims Grow by 30% Since 2000

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Radicalism among Muslim youth is not a problem, America’s Muslim leaders told researchers – sounding a lot like their Christian counterparts – keeping the youth involved in the faith is their problem.

The information comes from “The American Mosque 2011,” a two-year survey of Muslims in the U.S. released today (Feb. 20, 2012) byHartford Seminary, Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other groups.

The vast majority of mosque leaders, 87 percent, disagreed with a statement that radicalism is increasing among Muslim youth.

The study also shows that Islam in the U.S. is bucking trends of decreasing religious participation in general however. The faith has seen a 30 percent growth in members since 2000, from an estimated 2 million in 2000 to 2.6 million in 2011, which would be about the same as the number of Buddhists and about half the estimated number of Jews in the U.S.

FULL ARTICLE FROM AL.COM

Milestone At University Of Michigan: Muslim Chaplain

Although the population of Muslim students is growing, there are only about 30 Muslim chaplains at colleges across the country. This semester, the University of Michigan became the first public university with an endowed position for a Muslim chaplain.

“Muslims need to rely on somebody through times of hardship,” says Mohammed Tayssir Safi, who was recently hired to serve as the university’s Muslim chaplain.

Safi will help an estimated 1,700 Muslimstudents maintain their beliefs on campus.

The transition to college can be a difficult one for Muslim students who often come from tight-knit immigrant communities centered around mosques. Keeping their faith can be challenging since college life glorifies alcohol and premarital sex, which are forbidden by Islam.

At a gathering of Muslim students at a Middle Eastern restaurant Safi says, “There’s not a solid environment where a Muslim feels, perhaps, safe is the right word. Not from violence, but safe as in they feel safe and at home in being able to express themselves and who they are.

FULL ARTICLE FROM NPR 

 

Iowa Muslim Leader: Law Enforcement Betrayed Us

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By Kiran Khalid, CNN

(CNN)–The Muslim community in Des Moines, Iowa, is as small as it is diverse. The members of the four mosques here are from Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, among other nations. Although the roots of the Muslims here may be worlds apart, the community is a tight-knit group. That’s why what happened at their mosques here is alarming to so many of its members.

“That was really surprising, very sad that somebody would come or the FBI or Homeland Security would send somebody here to pretend to be Muslim and try to find out what goes on here. I feel there is no need for that,” said Dr. Hamed Baig, president of the Islamic Center of Des Moines.

Baig is talking about 42 year-old Arvinder Singh. Baid says he saw Singh a couple of times at his mosque, and that Singh would have been welcomed like all newcomers interested in learning about Islam. But it wasn’t until recently that members of the community discovered that Singh, who was raised a Sikh, was allegedly sent into their mosques to spy for the FBI.

FULL STORY FROM CNN 

Anti-Muslim General Withdraws from West Point Speech

Plans for a talk at West Point by a retired general known for his harshly anti-Muslim remarks were abruptly canceled on Monday after a growing list of liberal veterans’ groups, civil liberties advocates and Muslim organizations called on the Military Academy to rescind the invitation.

Lt. Gen William G. Boykin “has decided to withdraw speaking at West Point’s National Prayer Breakfast” on Feb. 8, said a statement issued Monday by the academy’s office of public affairs. “In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the United States Military Academy will feature another speaker for the event.”

General Boykin, a longtime commander of Special Operations forces, first caused controversy after the Sept. 11 attacks when, as a senior Pentagon official, he described the fight against terrorism as a Christian battle against Satan. His remarks, made in numerous speeches to church groups, were publicly repudiated by President George W. Bush, who argued that America’s war was not with Islam but with violent fanatics.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES 

NYPD Used Anti Muslim Film to Train Cadets

Last January investigative journalist Tom Robbins broke the story of how the NYPD endorsed the scaremongering Islamophobic documentary The Third Jihad. The film was funded by the pro-Israel non-profit group The Clarion Fund, and it contends that few, if any, Muslims can be trusted. “Americans are being told that most of the mainstream Muslim groups are moderate,” says the narrator, “when in fact if you look a little closer you’ll see a very different reality. One of their primary tactics is deception.” Newly released documents show the NYPD knows a thing or two about deception as well!

When Robbins’s story appeared in the Village Voice, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne initially said no cops had watched what he described as a “wacky movie.” Later, he said it had only been shown “a couple of times when officers were filling out paperwork before the actual coursework began. It was not approved for the curriculum. It’s not shown for any purpose now.” But one officer told the Voice his instructor “introduced it with a warning that some people found it offensive.”

FULL ARTICLE FROM GOTHAMIST.COM

Muhammad Liked Christians, Muslims Should Too

by Dr. David Liepert

I have a lot of great friends from a variety of religions, best evidenced by the outpouring of support, affection and prayers when my wife had major cancer surgery last month.

I was truly touched when I received word of prayer services in churches, mosques and synagogues literally from around the world. Words cannot express the depth of our gratitude for all your earnest kindness. My wife was particularly moved to learn that across her birth country of Pakistan and the Middle East, food was donated and hungry people were fed in her name. God bless you all.

But my agnostic friends also deserve a shout-out. Because even though they weren’t sure whether their prayers could do any good, they were in there with me throughout all the same, doing everything they could think of to help out too, as far as I’m concerned doing just as good of a job honoring God’s commands that we look after each-other as everyone else did, even though they’re not even sure whether God exists or not!

However, it’s the prayers I want to talk about.

Because although my Muslim and Jewish friends didn’t feel it necessary to clarify exactly which God they were praying to—because everyone of us knows we pray to the same one—many of my Christian friends; respectfully, kindly and to my mind tragically, felt they needed to assure me they were praying to the God of Abraham rather than to Jesus, because they thought I’d be offended otherwise.

FULL ARTICLE FROM THE AMERICAN MUSLIM