Tag Archives: Islam

Islamic call to pray in Vancouver’s Christ Church Cathedral

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No doubt about it, the Cathedral clerics are practicing for the year 2040 when, according to recent projections, the Anglican Church of Canada will cease to exist. Something will take its place and it will probably be Islam, so the church might as well get a head start and turn the cathedral into a mosque now.

The event was billed as an attempt to “improve interfaith understanding and constructive engagement”.

Here is the Islamic call to prayer which, you will not be surprised to see, makes no mention of Jesus but makes much of Muhammad being the messenger of God, a contention which, if true, make nonsense of Christianity.

God is Great! God is Great! God is Great! God is Great!
I bear witness that there is no god except the One God.
I bear witness that there is no god except the One God.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
Hurry to the prayer. Hurry to the prayer.
Hurry to salvation. Hurry to salvation.
God is Great! God is Great!
There is no god except the One God.

The Muslims attending the event were there to explain Jesus to the Christians who attended. An odd choice considering that Islam teaches that Jesus did not die on the cross, was not resurrected, was not the Son of God and did not make atonement for the sins of the world.

If that hasn’t irritated you enough, you can seek further irritation by reading the entire article here (page 13). Perhaps you will get the same impression as me: Cathedral Christians are ashamed of their own beliefs.

An open exhibition on Jesus from an Islamic perspective was set up in the Cathedral’s parish hall, where members of the Muslim community engaged with the congregation and shared their belief and love for Jesus. Imams from Vancouver Mosque were also available for any detailed questions.

[…..]

Islamic Call to Prayer was made from the Cathedral pulpit at 12:30pm with an English explanation. This call to prayer is similar to the Christian church tradition of ringing bells before important services. The attendees also witnessed the Noon Prayer at 1:15pm followed by an explanation about the concept and purpose of prayer in Islam.

I suppose the good news is, when the Cathedral completes its metamorphosis into a mosque, there will be no more same-sex marriages held there.

An Imam speaks at Synod

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The Imam spoke about interfaith dialogue. He sounded more sensible than most of the Anglican clergy. He ended his talk by saying something that you won’t hear from the bishops: “we should unite against our common enemies of secularism and liberalism”. Obviously no one briefed him on the fact that he was in the midst of an organisation that is a bastion of secularism and liberalism.

Funnily enough, nobody asked him what he thinks about same-sex marriage.

Anglican Archbishop stands with Muslims at Danforth vigil

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Here is Archbishop Colin Johnson posing with Muslim youth at last night’s Danforth vigil.

By doing this I imagine he was trying to make a point; but what was it? That Anglican Archbishops believe Islam is a religion of peace despite mountains of evidence to the contrary? That Anglican Archbishops think ISIS – who have taken credit for the attack (not that that means much) – is not entitled to self-identify as Islamic even though men are entitled to self-identify as women? That there is no gulf between Christianity and Islam; after all, we believe in the same God, don’t we? This particular brand of Islam even has its own messiah:

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at; Arabic: الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية‎, transliterated: al-Jamā’ah al-Islāmiyyah al-Aḥmadiyyah; Urdu: احمدیہ مسلم جماعت‎) is an Islamic religious movement founded in Punjab, British India, in the late 19th century. It originated with the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), who claimed to have been divinely appointed as both the promised Mahdi (Guided One) and Messiah expected by Muslims to appear towards the end times and bring about, by peaceful means, the final triumph of Islam; as well as to embody, in this capacity, the expected eschatological figure of other major religious traditions.

Or perhaps he was just standing in his comfort zone.

Bishops distressed by Bill 62

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When I applied for a visa to visit China, before my photograph was taken I had to remove my glasses because they are photosensitive and were darkened from being in bright light. My wife had to make sure her ears were not obscured by her hair: the Chinese don’t want unidentified ears entering their country.

When we arrived in China, bleary-eyed and crotchety, we were photographed again by Chinese immigration. None of this was particularly distressing, although, admittedly, wearing glasses is more of a practical consideration than a religious observance.

Quebec’s Bill 62 requires people to uncover their faces while giving and receiving state services. Clearly, this affects niqab wearing Muslim women – or men, I suppose since gender is now fluid – more than anyone else. Showing one’s face to identify oneself before receiving a state service doesn’t seem to me to be a particularly unreasonable requirement. But it has distressed some Anglican bishops whose priority, having largely abandoned Christianity, is now one of defending Islam; when not marrying people of the same sex to each other, that is.

Here is the wail of distress by our Anglislamic bishops:

As leaders of minority faith communities in Quebec we feel compelled to express our deep distress at the manner in which the religious neutrality law passed by the National Assembly implicitly targets another minority religious group in this province.

Although veiled as a question of identification and security , Bill 62’s provisions regarding face coverings will most directly impact a small minority of Muslim women in Quebec, whose freedom to express their religious beliefs is enshrined in the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For Christians, these human rights are grounded in the dignity accorded each human being by virtue of having been made in the image and likeness of their Creator.

The January 29 shooting massacre at Quebec City’s Grand Mosque — and other acts of violence before and since — demonstrate that our Muslim neighbours live in a climate of suspicion and fear that threatens their safety. Bill 62 helps foster that climate at a time when we are turning to our governments and public institutions to protect vulnerable minorities in our midst.

We recognize and support the desire for Quebec to be a secular society. However, to be secular means to be pluralistic, allowing freedom of belief both in one’s private and public life. The provisions of Bill 62, however they are applied, unnecessarily put that fundamental freedom —  and potentially people’s security — at risk.

We invite our elected leaders, and all Quebecers, to join us in trying to foster a safe and welcoming environment for all who make Quebec their home, whatever their culture or religion.

The Rt. Rev. Mary Irwin-Gibson, Bishop of Montreal, Anglican Church of Canada

The Rt. Rev. Bruce Myers, Bishop of Quebec, Anglican Church of Canada

The Rev. Michael Pryse, Bishop of the Eastern Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

Interfaith replaces Christian faith

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Western Anglicanism seems to have reached the point where it no longer believes in its own creeds. After all, if Anglican clergy actually believed that God came to earth as a man, if he is the propitiation for our sins, if he rose bodily from the dead, if he is alive today and will one day return, surely they would want to convince others of this. Including those of other faiths. Including Muslims – they rarely tire of telling us how inclusive they are.

Rather than “make disciples of all nations” the mission has become “observe similarities with all religions”.

From here:

St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in Leamington, Ont. made headlines recently with an ongoing foray into interfaith cooperation.

Following its annual picnic last September in which the church had invited Syrian refugees to attend, St. John established an arrangement with a local Muslim community to use the church’s community hall. A CBC report was shared thousands of times on social media, and the Anglican Journal later offered its own coverage.

At a time of rising Islamophobia across Canada and around the world, instances of solidarity between Christians and Muslims such as that at St. John provide counter-examples of Canadian attitudes toward Islam. The Rev. Andrew Wilson, rector at St. John, has received much positive feedback since the story on his church picked up traction.

“The response that people have actually sent to me, they said, ‘This is Canadian. This is who Canada is.’ And they say, ‘Yes, and this is who Christ is.’ So I’ve had both responses,” Wilson said.

Islamic prayer and worship within St. John Anglican church has provided an opportunity for the Anglican clergy and members of congregation to observe similarities between Muslim and Christian worship.

Diocese of Ottawa parish hosts a course on Islam

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Christ Church Seaway has as its motto “to know Christ and make him known”. I first heard this in a visit to St. Paul’s in Darien, Terry Fulham’s church; that was their mission statement.

Christ Church Seaway has decided to make Christ known by inviting an imam to the church to talk about Islam, not something that Terry Fulham had in mind, I suspect. There is nothing at all surprising about this: for years liberals have been stealing words and phrases used by evangelicals in order to twist them into meaning something different. For another example, I’m sure you have noticed that no decision is made at an Anglican synod without the wholehearted endorsement of the “Spirit”. Another spirit, not the Holy Spirit.

From here:

It is common for churches to offer courses on Christian spirituality during the season of Lent. This year, Christ Church Seaway hosted a different kind of Lenten course. In response to local confusion about Islam and how Christians should respond to a growing Muslim presence in our region, The Rev. Patrick Stephens decided that the time was right for his community to formally begin the work of inter-religious dialogue.

A special guest speaker was present for the first session and helped the group get started on the right foot. Imam Dr. Mohamad Jebara from Ottawa’s Cordova Centre shared with the group about his own faith and was gracious in responding to questions from the floor. The course ran for a total of five sessions and was based around readings, video presentations, and group discussions.

Ottawa parish offers a Lenten course on Islam

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There is an abundance of evidence that the Anglican Church of Canada has lost interest in Christianity. The replacement we’ve all become used to is a variation on cultural Marxism: we are all equal; there are no longer men and women because the sexes must also be equal – gender is fluid; the state substitutes for the traditional family; social justice replaces charity; Gaia replaces God, smudging replaces confession and Two Spirit replaces the Holy Spirit.

That isn’t enough, it seems. The Diocese of Ottawa’s Christ Church Seaway is so ashamed of its Christian heritage it is plumbing new depths of idiocy by encouraging its members to convert to Islam.

From here:

It is common for churches offer courses on Christian spirituality during the season Lent. This year, Christ Church Seaway hosted a different kind of Lenten course. In response to local confusion about Islam and how Christians should respond to a growing Muslim presence in our region, The Rev. Patrick Stephens decided that the time was right for his community to formally begin the work of inter- religious dialogue. A special guest speaker was present for the first session and helped the group get started on the right foot. Imam Dr. Mohamad Jebara from Ottawa’s Cordova Centre shared with the group about his own faith and was gracious in responding to questions from the floor. The course ran for a total of five sessions and was based around readings, video presentations, and group discussions.

Over all, approximately thirty people participated. For many course participants, this experience was the first meaningful encounter with the Muslim religion. As the course came to an end, there was much interest from the group to reach out to a nearby mosque to explore opportunities for further learning and relationship building. Later this spring, the group hopes to visit and tour a mosque, and possibly reciprocate by offering similar hospitality at the church.

Another terrorist attack, another candle

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Candlelight vigils will be held in numerous cities in wake of the terrorist attack at a Quebec mosque.

As Theodore Dalrymple put it about a prior attack:

A moment used to be defined as the amount of time between a Mexico City traffic light turning green and the sound of the first car horn, but now it might be defined as the period between a terrorist attack in a Western city and the first public appearance of a candle.  Every terrorist attack, including the latest one in Berlin, is immediately followed by the public exhibition of lighted candles.  It is almost as if the population keeps a store of them ready to hand for this very purpose.

[…..]

The candles, then, are a manifestation of modern paganism, a striving for transcendence without any real belief in it.  They are also a somewhat self-congratulatory symbol of our own peaceable temperament: the violent are not great candle-lighters.  We cannot, for example, imagine Genghis Khan lighting many candles for the souls of the departed (not that we really believe in souls).

I think Dalrymple is correct when he says the candles signify a striving for transcendence without any real belief in it. It is only fitting, then, that Anglican bishops and lesser clergy will be well represented in Quebec, London (Ontario), Halifax, Edmonton, Toronto, Hamilton and, no doubt, many other locations.

Why?

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Why, when a person who has X and Y chromosomes self-identifies as a woman, do we take him seriously in spite of the simpler explanation that he is self-deluding not self-identifying, yet, when a terrorist self-identifies as a Muslim, we insist that he is self-deluding not self-identifying, in spite of the simpler explanation that Islam is a fecund breeding ground for terrorists?