By David Virtue, Virtueonline.
Ramadan is a sacred moment for Islam. It is not so for Christians or Jews. While it is a significant religious event for Muslims, all three religions do emphasize fasting as a means of spiritual reflection and atonement.
With Ramadan, we are slowly but surely seeing the encroachment and dismantling of cherished Anglican institutions as Islam is invited into once-hallowed Christian places of worship.
At Bristol Cathedral last week, a group of Muslims sat on the floor eating their Ramadan Iftar meal. For liberal-minded Anglicans, it might look like a gesture of hospitality — a moment of interfaith goodwill. But is it?
According to an observer, the call to prayer was sounded at the cathedral entrance. Here is what that prayer proclaims:
“Allah is the greatest…
I testify there is no god but Allah…
I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah…
Come to prayer.”
Historically and culturally, the Adhān (Arabic: أذان) literally means the call to prayer proclaimed five times a day from a mosque.
It functions as:
• A proclamation of Islamic faith
• A claim that a place has become a site of Muslim prayer
• A signal that an area belongs to the “realm of Islam” (dar al-Islam)
Do liberal and progressive Anglicans and Episcopalians understand what this means — or what it does to their churches?
At Sewanee: The University of the South — the Episcopal Church’s only university, owned by 28 southern dioceses and home to an official seminary — an end-of-Ramadan feast was recently held with this welcome from the Muslim Student Association: “MSA seeks to unify both Muslims and non-Muslims at Sewanee through various cultural events and gathering opportunities, all aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of Islamic culture.”
As one longtime observer of Sewanee noted, “Only a racist would ask: Why are those who didn’t create this university now telling us what the university is? That is why incrementalism defeated Christianity at Sewanee — because of the anti-racism ideology.”