Monday, June 4, 2018
It's Not the Anniversary Date That Bugs Me
Some people are upset that an Anglican Cathedral is holding a Ramadan service commemorating the ISIS London Bridge attack. I am more upset that a church is so remote from Christianity that a Muslim service is ever appropriate. I look forward to when a Muslim country allows the building of a church or synagogue.
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<insert snarky comment whether the C of E is a Christian church here..
ReplyDeleteRamadan in the cathedral is indeed a bad idea.
However there are Muslim countries that allow, even support Christian denominations. Saudi Arabia and the Wahhabist-oriented ones have gotten all the bad press in the past, but there are some others that are not at least overtly hostile.
I was stationed in the UAE for a summer back in 2002, and found he UAE not only has Christian churches, they even donated land to establish a Catholic church back in 1966, and they had a Mormon Stake there as well. The LDS recently opened a "Stake Center" to provide a place of worship for UAE, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar, on land donated by the UAE government. I believe there are other Christian denomination churches there as well.
I think official proselytizing is forbidden, but the UAE seems friendlier to Christians than, say, American universities.
All the little Arab countries in the Persian Gulf have long seen Iran as a big threat (Saudis #2 probably), and when 9/11 happened and we were winding up for the Iraq war, they were very cooperative about expanding existing US air bases and establishing new ones. I am sure they were looking down the road past the Iraq war and to the future conflicts with Iran, and wanted US support in the future.