I recently saw a few articles on facebook saying that Duke Univeristy is planning to allow The Adhan (call to prayer) to be heard publicly over the campus prior to the weekly Friday prayers held by their Muslim students, and probably some faculty as well. When looking at some the links, there are many comments from people around the nation, and every one of them Ive read are hateful and disgusted. I am not referring to any of my facebook friends. These are comments on public posts, and none of the names I saw were local Barnwell people or anyone I know, but it did inspire me to share my thoughts to my friends. If any of you are scared at the thought of Muslims praying on campus and/or scared of whats being taught and/or scared of what this means for Christians, then dont be. Muslim students and professors have been on every major college campus in America for a long time. Muslim Student Associations have existed at all of them for a long time as well. Since Muslims are required to pray at least five times daily, there are probably millions of Muslim prayers performed on campuses around the country daily. The Friday afternoon prayer is the only one of the prayers that is mandatory to do in congregation, which means that such prayers have been taking place weekly on many campuses again, for a very long time. There is nothing new going on here except perhaps that the call to prayer will be out loud, as it is supposed to be anyway. Forgive me if Im a bit off here, but as I recall, the translation of the call to prayer is as follows: God is Great (4 times). I bear witness that there is no god except God (twice; basically, the 1st Commandment). I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God (twice). Come to prayer (twice). Come to success (twice). God is Great (twice). There is no god except God (once).. There is obviously nothing said in this call to prayer that should frighten anyone. When recited out loud, it is beautiful and melodic and has been recited, word for word in the same manner, before every congregational prayer held since the 7th Century. If non-Muslims hear it on the Duke campus, they will not run and hide, nor should they. By the will of God, some will take it upon themselves to ask their Muslim classmates to explain it to them and to explain the basics of their life and faith to them. If any of the Muslim students happen to be foreign students, who are not aware of the details of Christian life in America, they will also have constructive conversations with their classmates. What theyll all learn is what lucky people like me have always known, that we are brothers and sisters, and corrupt governments and reckless media cant change that. Common ground is the cornerstone of ending hatred and violence. I have a lot more to say, but realize that even the 2 or 3 people who are still reading to this point dont want to read anymore, so if anyone has questions, comments, insults, terms of endearment, I welcome them all.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 00:26:48 +0000
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