Posted on 08/13/2007 4:37:16 PM PDT by NYer
WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. (CNS) -- In late July, carloads of curious Catholics caravanned north from their church to a mosque in the next county.
Three dozen Catholics who regularly attend Mass at the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement's Graymoor Spiritual Life Center in Garrison accepted a Muslim visitor's invitation to attend services at Masjid Al-Noor, his mosque in Wappingers Falls.
Entering the two-story white frame building, the visitors placed their shoes alongside their host's on wire racks lining one wall of the foyer.
The women, already modestly covered from chin to ankle, pulled on scarves to cover their hair. The men were directed through double doors to a large simple, rug-covered room on the first floor and the women were invited upstairs to a balcony overlooking the same prayer room.
The walls of the prayer room were sparsely decorated with metal plaques proclaiming God's greatness in Arabic, a large clock and several bookshelves with various editions of the Quran and devotional books. The front of the room had a small, raised carpeted platform for the imam, the religious scholar who led the service.
People greeted one another quietly and lined up, shoulder to shoulder, in rows that stretched across the room. Everyone faced east, the direction of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Islam's holy city. Folding chairs in the back of the two prayer areas were used by people who had difficulty sitting and kneeling on the floor, or accomplishing the deep bows that punctuated the prayers.
Muslims are required to pray five times a day and men are obliged to attend a communal service on Fridays. Women are not required to interrupt their routines to go to the mosque for Friday prayer. Three-quarters of the more than 200 people who attended one recent Friday service at Masjid Al-Noor were men.
The 45-minute service was conducted in spoken and intoned Arabic, with three portions in English: a short reflection on the reading from the Quran, intercessory prayers and communal announcements.
At one Friday service, Imam Mohammed Asil Khan chose to speak on a Scripture passage, or "sura," that described the "Miracles of Jesus and the Miracles of Mohammed." He later explained that Muslims consider Jesus to be a prophet, but not divine.
The Catholic visitors told Catholic News Service they were grateful for the opportunity to attend the services and speak with members of the congregation.
"Our hosts were very welcoming and it was insightful to have casual conversation about being Muslim and learning about the diversity within their own community," said Ruth Ann McAndrews.
She was particularly interested in the discussion of the "challenge of instilling each religion's traditions and faith in the youth through Sunday school and after-school programs."
"The thing that struck me," said Dan Donnelly, "was the commonality that pervades. We have significant doctrinal differences. They don't believe in the Trinity or in the divinity of Jesus, but we have a common father who created us and we should all love one another."
He was also intrigued by the lack of a hierarchy and came to a better understanding of the role of the imam.
"I thought of the imams as the priesthood," he said, "but I learned that they are religious scholars who are chosen by the community to be teachers. If an imam is not available, the people can choose another person to lead the service."
Joyce Evans said, "I left there knowing for certain that our faiths could make us closer to each other. Praying with the Muslims can't take anything away from Catholicism. In fact, it enhances my Catholicism to honor them and work with them."
She continued, "You can read about Islam in a book, but to see the fervor of their devotion really touched me and I came away being a better Catholic."
Most of the worshippers at Masjid Al-Noor are Sunni Muslims, although Shiites are welcome and constitute a small percentage of the congregation, according to Imam Khan. There is no official membership roll, he said, so it is hard to estimate the size of the congregation.
The worship community represents 26 different countries and includes a small number of converts. Imam Khan is a Pakistani who holds master's degrees in Arabic and Islamic studies. He has a full-time association with the mosque.
Atonement Father James J. Gardiner, director of the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, organized the visits, which came out of a December 2006 event at the center.
"At our Advent vespers, we invited people from different traditions to speak. We had Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Christian Missionary Alliance and Muslim speakers," he said. "At the time, Umar H. Ahmad was the president of the Mid-Hudson Islamic Association, which worships at Masjid Al-Noor.
"Dr. Ahmad spoke 'In Praise of Mary' and at the end of his talk he invited the participants to visit his mosque, attend services and enjoy fellowship with the imam and other members of the congregation," the priest said. So two visits were scheduled in July.
Imam Khan expressed interest in making a reciprocal visit to Graymoor. "Quran tells us that how you deal with your neighbors is very important," he said.
No other confession is treated that way on FR. Mormons aren't. Jews certainly aren't.
Isn't this making it personal?
Wa wa wa. Would you like some cheese? You're soooooo persecuted.
I guess you don’t see any point in fairness, huh? Some animals are more equal than others?
Go look at the crater where 2 fine buildings once stood.
You’ll learn all you need to know about Eyeslime.
When I warn anyone on thread, all participants should consider themselves warned.
Thank you.
Utterly false and slanderous.
Since when is calling ME a liar NOT “personal”?
Can you explain THAT?
I’ve repeatedly posted the common ground that Muslims and Catholics have - both share the false prophetess Fatima and elevate Mary as someone to also pray to and worship. It comes from Catholic sources! Is it against the rules at FR to state you don’t believe in praying to and worshiping Mary or Fatima? I personally find it offensive that Campion isn't warned to stop calling people a liar. WHY is that allowed?
Thank you.
This thread is now on zero tolerance.
Where in heaven's name do you get that? Because the Church has said Our Lady's apparitions at a place in Portugal called Fatima, we supposedly honor a "false prophetess Fatima"? The only things wrong about the woman named Fatima is that she was a Muslim and that she was the daughter of Muhammed (though that's no fault of her own).
I don't pray to, worship, venerate, talk to, study, admire, or have anything whatsoever to do with Mohammed's daughter, Fatima.
One more time.
I don't pray to, worship, venerate, talk to, study, admire, or have anything whatsoever to do with Mohammed's daughter, Fatima.
To state that Catholics generally (thereby including me) do that, is to state a falsehood.
Where in your Bible does it say that it's okay to do that?
Perhaps you need to explain that to Catholics that do. One even has the name of Fatima on FR. It is a general belief amongst Catholics - even if you don’t buy into it.
“Where in heaven’s name do you get that? Because the Church has said Our Lady’s apparitions at a place in Portugal called Fatima, we supposedly honor a “false prophetess Fatima”? The only things wrong about the woman named Fatima is that she was a Muslim and that she was the daughter of Muhammed (though that’s no fault of her own).”
Perhaps you need to read the Catholic sources I posted. It is VERY common for Catholics to pray to and worship both Fatima and Mary. Also this is being used as a bridge to Muslims - Mary and Fatima. You don’t have to like it but it is true.
I don't know of any.
One even has the name of Fatima on FR.
Her screenname refers to the place (town, city, neighborhood) in Portugal, not to a person.
How many times do we have to keep saying that?
The poster calumnied Catholics and the Catholic Church by stating that we worship the daughter of Mohammed, Fatima.
“Catholics and Muslims both worship the false prophetess Fatima and Mary.”
The poster has utterly failed in his/her posts to demonstrate that even MUSLIMS worship Fatima. The rest of the poster’s arguments also fail to show:
- that Catholics worship Mary;
- that Catholics take particular notice of Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima
The poster has confused, for all to see, the fact that one of our Lady’s appearances happened at a TOWN named “Fatima” with the idea that Catholics worship the PERSON named “Fatima.”
I speculate that the poster makes this confusion because he/she sees that Catholics see that this tie could draw MUSLIMS closer to Catholicism. This doesn’t actually say anything about Catholic belief.
Of course, the whole falsehood is even more laughable when one considers the absolute monism of Islam. As a result of the influence of Arianism, Muslims deny that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Rather, they believe that God is wholly other from man, entirely and completely transcendant. Thus, for them, the worship of ANY human being (including Jesus) is considered blasphemy and idolatry. It is not possible, in Islam, for ANY human being to have a divine nature.
That’s kinda one of the reasons they like to cut our heads off - that we worship a man in the person of Jesus.
Thus, although Muslims revere their prophets, including Mohammed and Jesus, and although they look highly on Mary, the mother of Jesus, and highly (though not quite as highly) on Fatima, to accuse them of worship of any of these folks is to entirely misunderstand the whole point of Islam.
Yet, these vile, anti-Catholic, Chick-like posts haven’t been pulled down, and the poster continues to post the falsehoods with impunity.
sitetest
The Catholic sources you posted do not tell Catholics to pray to or worship Mohammed's daughter. Did you even read them?
Allah was a pagan moon god that Muslims later claimed was the original God to find validity in their death cult religion of peace.
They worship a crazy god of war and vengeance.
Jews and Christians are peaceful when they worship their ONE GOD!
Big difference IMO.
The Bible says to do a whole bunch of things; I have seen few of them demonstrated in your posts.
We do not worship Mary. We do not worship anyone named Fatima.
We do, however, take evangelization of the world a tad more seriously than some.
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