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Last Friday, about 7,500 Muslims from all over the country gathered in DC to participate in the first ever Islamic Day of Prayer on Capitol Hill.
Muslims sat on the East Front of the Capitol facing east towardMecca.
Participants prayed, worshiped and seemed to enjoy what appeared to be a day of peace and unity.
The event’s focus was the prayer and was followed by a large banquet.
The leader of the event, Abdullah Malik, said the sole purpose of the event was prayer, devotion and spiritual unity – not politics or hatred of any kind.
Abdullah came up with the idea during the summer after becoming inspired by President Barack Obama’s speech to Muslims in Cairo last June.
Since the event was religious in nature, it was suspected that there would be prominent Muslim personalities in the forefront of the event.
This didn’t occur because the event’s leaders felt it would paint a false picture and inevitably take away from the event’s real purpose.
The event made clear that American followers of Islam are just as loyal and supportive of America as anyone else.
They, as a people, are tired of the prejudice against them because American trust was bruised by terrorists, who also happened to be followers of Islam.
Protest and displeasure was an expected reaction to the event. Picketers rallied near the event, many of which were part of radical Christian groups that were praying for the "salvation" of those participating.
Rev. Canon Julian Dobbs, leader of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, released a statement saying that the event was nothing more than "a well-defined strategy to ‘Islamize’ American society."
Using the word "Islamize," Dobbs was referring to many drastic steps to rid the country of Christianity – leaving Islam as the dominant religion.
Dobbs said that if Christians were not careful, the first steps taken would the replacing the Bible with the Quran and switching out the Christian cross with the Islamic crescent.
Fortunately, his very strong sentiments do not reflect most, as radical views are usually never held by the majority but by those on the fringes.
As a devout Christian, there is nothing that could make me adopt another religion, and I am sure that there are millions of other people who feel the same way in regard to their religious beliefs.
That is why statements like those made by Dobbs appear to be made out of fear rather than fact.
Though he has the right to voice his opinions, he is stigmatizing the whole Muslim faith.
American Muslims deserve the same rights of religion and speech that everyone else receives under the United States Constitution.
This is not to say that there aren’t radical Muslims in the country and in the world, because there are – just as there are radical Christians, Jews, Buddhists and so on.
America needs to stop stigmatizing whole groups of people based on the actions of a few individuals.
We must learn from the mistakes of our past.
America has dealt with terrible tragedies at the hands of a few individuals, not a whole religion.
The guilty tried to justify their actions by manipulating parts of their religious practices.
Their actions invoked fear and unease among the American people and understandably so.
However, Americans cannot be skeptical of all Muslim people forever.
Just like the country moved on from the tragedy of Pearl Harbor and the skepticism that followed, we must move forward from Sept. 11 and stop casting hate and doubt on those who practice Islam.
It is not fair.
This country is judged based upon the actions of our leaders, and that isn’t right because the actions of an individual, even a president, do not always represent the feelings of the majority they represent.
America has been through much in its relatively short history, and the tragedies we have suffered should never be forgotten because they are what make this nation so strong.
Let’s leave fear and prejudice behind because there is no room for them in our new tomorrow.
4 comments
let me remind you that President Bush declared a beginning of the crusade before invading Iraq and that resulted in taking the lives of around hundred thousands. However, no one called him a terrorist or christian radical. I don't think you would call him that even if that fits your criteria when you said "The only difference is that there are no Christians, Jews, and Buddhists murdering tens of thousands every year in the name of their religion. "also, about the nonexistence of islamic clerics when terrorist acts occur, they have been crying out loud for the past 9 years against these acts but apparently your "news" Channel did not have interest on that. next time, maybe they should knock on your door and let you know that they are there.
So the terrorists that killed thousands of American on 9/11 as well as thousands others in acts of Islamic terrorist attacks on civilians around the world before and after just "happened to be followers of Islam"??...What an amazing coincidence!!You go on to state, " American Muslims deserve the same rights of religion and speech that everyone else receives under the United States Constitution." Where exactly are they being denied these rights? Can you cite a single example?Later you refer to "the tragedy of Pearl Harbor and the skepticism that followed". Just to fill you in, immediately following the attack on Pear Harbor almost all Japanese Americans in the US were rounded up and imprisoned in internment camps until after the defeat of Japan. Is that what you mean by "move forward"?The icing on the cake is:" This is not to say that there aren’t radical Muslims in the country and in the world, because there are – just as there are radical Christians, Jews, Buddhists and so on." The only difference is that there are no Christians, Jews, and Buddhists murdering tens of thousands every year in the name of their religion. There were no prominent Muslim personalities in the forefront of the event for the same reason that rebuke and criticism from the same personalities as well as most influential Islamic clerics is muted or nonexistent when Islamic terrorist acts are carried out.CS Prosser, BSME 1986