Fifteen young American religious scholars and 14 teaching assistants from Al Azhar University – one of the oldest and most influential Islamic institutions in the world – spent two weeks together this month at Georgetown University in an attempt to bridge the divide between the Muslim world and the United States.
The potpourri of young religious scholars studied the legal foundations of American democracy and religious diversity in the U.S. and met with political figures, including White House advisor Valerie Jarrett and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim American elected to Congress.
“I met people that I love, and I consider them as my brother, my sister, my mother,” said Ibrahim Elbaz, 30, from Mansoura, Egypt.
To what end, “bridging the divide” between Moslems and all the other religions represented at this event? I wonder if the participants go for “bridging divides” because they can’t face/accept the real world?
Seems these do-gooders, on both sides of the “divide,” find less fascination than fear when confronted with national, cultural and religious differences. Seems they deal with the world, and each other, by redefining differences in terms of their own interests and preferences. Or, in fact, by doing the opposite: caving in to them.
Therefore, what a blessing to discover what they had not known before the Obama conference: that not all Moslems are terrorists, that Christianity has nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy, and that civil liberties are extended to Muslims in the U.S. How happy for the Egyptian to discover that Christians at the event displayed some Islamic tendencies!
I wonder if this conference also explored the irreconcilable differences among its participants– policies toward Israel, say– and, if so, what students’ reactions were. Maybe, with a little give and take, the tough differences can also be redefined and eliminated. If they can’t, might be just like these do-gooders, God forbid they ever come to high office, to blow us all up!
Sad to see what mushhead ‘homoginizers’ are at work at Harvard, Georgetown, Chicago Theological Seminary and Al Azhar University.
What a naive effort this was. #1, “mushhead” is the right adjective. From the article: “”The imam opened the prayer in Arabic, but it didn’t matter. They say ‘Allah,’ I say ‘God’ – you know when a prayer is being lifted up.” Islamic prayer is not ex tempore. It consists of formulaic repetitions of belief in God as represented in the Qur’an and in Muhammad as God’s final and supreme Messenger.
Knowing about other faiths is a good thing. Pretending they all teach the same things is another.