In mid-April I spoke in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, amid a storm of controversy over the Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha — a plan to house a synagogue, a church, and a mosque in the same complex, with a joint community center. Joe Herring noted in the Daily Caller on April 10 that the Tri-Faith Initiative “features links” to the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) “on their website, under the ‘Resources’ and ‘Recommended Reading’ tabs.” The controversy highlighted the naivete and willful ignorance of so many non-Muslims who engage in “dialogue” with Muslims without being sufficiently informed or prepared.
And now, instead of simply removing the links to ISNA and CAIR from the Tri-Faith website, Tri-Faith officials appear to be doubling down.
Omaha’s Countryside Community Church, “an inclusive family of faith” of the United Church of Christ, which recently hosted a Muslim speaker in an event advertised on the Tri-Faith Initiative’s website, has posted on its own website a defense of ISNA, CAIR, and the Tri-Faith Initiative’s listing of them on its website. This purported information page, however, is highly disingenuous, doesn’t even address the points of contention, and thus obscures more than it illuminates.
About ISNA it says: “Along with other Muslim organizations throughout North America, ISNA has always strongly condemned and rejected the actions of terrorists and terrorism as being completely antithetical to the teachings of Islam.” It doesn’t mention, however, even to attempt to explain away, the fact that ISNA has admitted ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Nor does it say anything about the fact that ISNA was also named an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, which was once the largest Islamic charity in the U.S. and was then shut down for funneling money to Hamas.
ISNA in fact has a long record of support for jihadists and jihad. Discover the Networks reports that “when Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook was arrested in 1995 by U.S. authorities pending an Israeli warrant, ISNA rushed to his defense. The November/December 1995 issue of the ISNA magazine Islamic Horizons, which went to press nearly a full year after Hamas had been officially designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, featured an article lamenting that Marzook was being ‘held hostage in the U.S. at the whims of his Zionist accusers,’ even as it acknowledged that Marzook was ‘[a] member of the political wing of Hamas.’ In 1997 Marzook thanked ISNA for having ‘supported’ and ‘consoled’ him throughout his ‘ordeal.'” Also, it came to light during the Holy Land Foundation trial that “documents and wiretapped conversations showed that ISNA had helped support Hamas with checks deposited into the ISNA/NAIT account for the HLF, made payable to ‘the Palestinian Mujahadeen,’ the original name for the Hamas military wing. The funds were then transferred to the Holy Land Foundation.” There is much more about ISNA here.
And as for CAIR, the Countryside Community Church page says that it “counsels, mediates and advocates on behalf of Muslims and others who have experienced religious discrimination, defamation or hate crimes” — bitterly ironic in light of the relentless defamation CAIR directs against anyone and everyone who opposes jihad terror. The church doesn’t mention that CAIR, like ISNA, an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements. Its California chapter distributed a poster telling Muslims not to talk to the FBI. CAIR has opposed every anti-terror measure that has ever been proposed or implemented.
The church page does say: “Tri-Faith and the AIISC are local organizations and are in no way governed, supported or sponsored by international organizations such as ISNA and CAIR. Tri-Faith is not a member of ISNA.” Nonetheless, links to CAIR and ISNA still appear on the Tri-Faith website. They no longer appear on the “Resources” page, but the “Recommended Reading” page still lists “CAIR brochures,” and the “National Organizations” page touts ISNA under “Islamic Resources.”
The extensive ties of CAIR and ISNA to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are abundantly documented. The Tri-Faith Initiative should come clean and drop the recommendations of CAIR and ISNA from its website. That it does not do so, but instead dissembles about what these organizations are really about, is telling.
Tradewinds says
“The controversy highlighted the naivete and willful ignorance of so many non-Muslims who engage in “dialogue” with Muslims without being sufficiently informed or prepared.”
I cannot believe what’s happening to America. A mosk now with a church and synagogue? Good God. They mass-murder 3000 Americans and what’s our response? Grovel, toady, and kowtow.
umbra says
Initially, this structure would be used on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. After that, it would be used on Friday and Sunday only. Eventually, Friday only.
Tradewinds says
“First the Saturday people then the Sunday people.” – Islamic saying
Jay Boo says
A Gift from the “Friday people”
The Wiz of IZ
Circle around the truth on Muhammad’s merry-go-round.
No hearts or brains are needed; just ride and bow down.
Islam’s dishonor gallops on the donkey of Sharia.
Come along sell your souls with a knife and stone.
In the name of Allah, we bury our honor in the ground.
Let us gather the “perfect” stones then rain them down.
Somebody help us please, our honor is stuck, we’ve found.
We must not lose our honor, it is stuck, stuck, stuck
buried and bloodied deep in the ground.
Only a true religion can save our honor; we will not be fooled or led around.
Islamic faith is strong; yes, our faith is very sound.
So we’re off to see the “Wizard” The Wonderful “Wizard of IZ.”
You’ll find he is a whiz of a Wiz! If ever oh ever a Wiz! There was,
the “Wizard of IZ.” is one because,
because, because, because, because, because,
because of the black magic things he does.
We’re off to see the “Wizard”, the conjurer of Islam’s fraud.
umbra says
Once they are done with the Saturday and Sunday people, they will turn on the Friday people.
gravenimage says
Umbra, every time pious Muslims slaughter “apostates” or the “insufficiently Islamic” or “heretics” like the Ahmadi or the Alawites, they are turning on the “Friday people”.
The fact is that no one is safe from the devout members of the “religion of peace”—not even other Muslims.
Saleem Smith says
We ex-Muslims know that “interfaith dialogue” with Islam is worthless buffoonery.
The Muslims will deceptively use the “Tri-Faith Initiative” as a platform to promote Islam. They may smile and nod, but they will secretly never agree with what goes against the teachings of Islam.
The Qur’an teaches Muslims that both Judaism and Christianity are corrupted religions to be replaced by Islam and Muslims will never covert to another religion as long as they continue to believe the Qur’an to be the actual words of God as they mistakenly do.
Quran, 5:51
Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their number. God does not guide the wrongdoers.
Quran, 9:30
The Jews say Ezra is the son of God, while the Christians say the Messiah is the son of God. Such are their assertions, by which they imitate the infidels of old. God confound them! How perverse they are!
A young Australian Muslim recently sent the great ex-Muslim Ali Sina of the Faith Freedom website a list of questions thinking Ali was still a practicing Muslim. Sina goes on to explain to the Muslim that Islam is full of errors and contradictions.
>>>>>>>>>
Clash of Worlds >
by Ali Sina
1- How are young Muslims losing their faith due to lack of education?
Muslims are losing their faith, whether young or old and the reasons are multiple. Islam is not compatible with science, with ethical and moral values, with democracy and with commonsense.
Two factors contributed to the growth of Islam: a) ignorance and b) brute force. Islam has always been incompatible with the above mentioned values. Muslims are not allowed to question Islam. “Believers, do not ask about things which, if revealed to you, would disappoint you. Some people before you did ask such questions, and on that account lost their faith.” (Q. 5: 101-102)
Muslim authorities did their best to keep Muslims ignorant and instill in them religious fervor and fanaticism. This is however, not possible in the age of the Internet. Now anyone can access to any information and Muslims are asking questions they are not supposed to ask and when they get the answer, they lose their faith. There is nothing the authorities whose livelihood depends on Islam can do to stop the exodus of Muslims from Islam short of banning the Internet completely. As that is not likely to happen, Muslims will continue losing their faith and leaving Islam and this process with accelerate in future.
Education is the main reason that Muslims are losing their faith. So do you think denying them education would be a solution? That is what the real Muslims such as al Qaida and Boko Haram believe. Their view is in fact very much in accordance to Islam. But that requires another article.
2. How are young Muslims being influenced by western culture?
What do you mean by western culture? Are you talking about equality of men and women, democracy, equal rights for all the people irrespective of their religion, freedom of conscience and belief, freedom of speech, respecting the right of the children to their childhood? Although these values originated from the western enlightenment, they are universal values, embraced by people of all cultures and races with the exception of Muslims. Muslims can’t adopt these values because they go against the Quran and the sunnah of their prophet. In Islam women are not equal to men. All men do not have equal rights. Islam condones slavery and regards non-Muslims as inferior, najis (filthy) and second class citizen. Islam allows marriage to children as young as nine and according to some schools there is actually no age limit for marriage. Khomeini had intercourse with a five years old girl, with the consent of her father.
Most Muslims are decent people and when they compare their religion to the so called western values that are based on humanism they see the inferiority of it and lose their faith.
Not only Islam is incompatible with our time, it has not been compatible with any time. The cultures that succumbed to Islamic invasion were invariably superior to Islam…
http://www.faithfreedom.org/clash-of-worlds/
Know Thy Enemy says
In another blog post, Ali Sina reported an incident of Muhammad’s interfaith-dialogue-
Islamic scholar Abul A’la Maududi has this to say regarding the incident-
More from Ali’s article-
“As you see this verse is not about tolerance. It is a typical way a narcissist shows his disdain to those who don’t agree with him. Muhammad is saying, I don’t give a damn if you believe me or not. To you your religion and to me mine!”
“There was nothing tolerant in Muhammad. He was still in Mecca and had just a handful of followers when he started insulting the religion of the Quraish. When one day he was going around the Ka’ba, the elders were present. They told him to stop dividing people, setting children against their parents and inciting the salves against their masters. They asked him to not insult their gods. Muhammad then stopped and said. “Will you listen to me O Quraish? By him who holds my life in His hand I bring you slaughter.” [Sira Ibn Ishaq, p. 131]
Ibn Ishaq says, “When the apostle openly displayed Islam as God ordered him, his people did not withdraw or turn against him, until he spoke disparagingly of their gods. When he did that they took great offence and resolved unanimously to treat him as an enemy.” [Ibn Ishaq, p. 118]”
Steffen Larsen says
“you have your religion and I have mine”
This cannot be emphasized enough.
Always by apologists put forward as as evidence of islamic tolerance, in reality it decidedly distances Islam from the beliefs and ways of the unbeliever.
Know Thy Enemy says
You got that right! It is amazing how unabashedly Islam-apologists lie to the gullible non-Muslims.
el-cid says
“you have your religion and I have mine”
This is a recurring theme, isn’t it? It could be about tolerance, but…
As a Jew, I have nothing against this formulation. I want to be left alone to conduct my affairs without interference and am happy to let others do the same. I only expect my neighbors to respect the law and to treat me equally under the law. (Talmud “Noahide Law”).
The problem is that Islam like Christianity is out to convert people. As much as I enjoy studying other people’s beliefs, I thank G-d that he made me a Jew. Judaism is adequate for an entire lifetime of spiritual search–I do not need Jesus or Mohammed to be complete, nor do I need to convince anyone else of anything. I have often been handed propaganda by Muslims and Christians. Sometimes people do this door to door on Saturday! They think I need to be saved so they trample on my beliefs.
More importantly, in the Muslim based governments, non-Muslims are often NOT treated equally under the law. In Saudi Arabia, Jews are not even permitted to enter. The trend in the Muslim world is towards this kind of intolerance. My family experienced this kind of intolerance in Nazi Europe. We know where it leads. The lucky ones were thrown out of Austria and Germany, the unlucky ones were starved to death or gassed.
The concept of a tri-religious center is very ambitious. Robert is right to be concerned about who is influencing it. So, is it Saudi money and their medieval fundamentalism, or is it the Saudi’s sworn “enemy” the Muslim Brotherhood with their radical Jihad? I am afraid that the “moderate” voices may have been driven out. We don’t hear from them very often do we?
Jay Boo says
“Islam like Christianity is out to convert people”
That is a fair criticism and worth mentioning but I would also add that I suspect that Judaism’s lack of interest in converting people has something to do with the concept of the “chosen people” which when taken to extreme has caused much of the distrust between all three religions. (assuming Islamic political ideology is actually a religion)
Know Thy Enemy says
If someone does not want to read about other religions, wants to live by “you have your religion and I have mine” principle, and simply wants to be left alone, then personally I don’t see any problem with that nor do I think that people living by that principle should be feared.
However, such understanding is not what Muhammad was implying when he made that statement! As Maududi explained “one finds that it was not revealed to preach religious tolerance as some people of today seem to think, but it was revealed in order to exonerate the Muslims from the disbeliever’s religion, their rites of worship, and their gods, and to express their total disgust and unconcern with them and to tell them that Islam and kufr (unbelief) had nothing in common….” He further explained that by making the sura [revealed during this incident] part of Islam, Allah has made “expression of disgust with and dissociation from kufr and its rites a perpetual demand of Faith“.
Add to that what Ali Sina said regarding narcissist Muhammad, and add to that Muhammad’s open disparaging of other people’s gods, and the nature of Islam’s “you have your religion and I have mine” principle becomes clear as water. There is no way Islam-followers will leave anyone alone to conduct their affairs, and any interfaith-dialogues they do are simply deception to fool the gullible!
gravenimage says
el-cid wrote:
Islam like Christianity is out to convert people
………………………………
el-cid, I think the problem is how Islam takes a polite “no thanks” to Da’wa—with oppression and violent Jihad.
You can say “no thanks” to a Mormon or a Jehovah’s Witness, and they may try to press a tract on you—they are *not* going to behead you.
Traditionally, the “invitation to Islam” has preceded a Jihad attack. Not so Christianity.
To suggest otherwise is misleading at best.
Saleem Smith says
Muhammad probably never existed and Islam is most certainly a lie.
Islam is no “religion of peace.” Islam is primarily a religion of “injustice, intolerance, hatred, and violence.” The fact is, if we non-Muslims were to say about Muslims what the Qur’an says about us, we would be arrested for hate speech. The Qur’an largely preaches discrimination, death, and imposition of its dogma on everyone. Certainly some Muslims will be offended by such statements, but frankly, so what? Judaism and Christianity, the world’s two other major monotheistic religions, have had to face the harshest of scrutiny and criticism for several hundred years which continues to this day. Islam must not be granted any special privileges or be exempt from such treatment – the implications are of tremendous importance.
Here is a recent statement from a group of Bangladeshi apostates living in the UK explaining the reasons why they have abandoned Islam:
“One who claims to be a messenger of God is expected to live a saintly life. He must not be given to lust, he must not be a sexual pervert, and he must not be a rapist, a highway robber, a war criminal, a mass murderer or an assassin. One who claims to be a messenger of God must have a superior character. He must stand above the vices of the people of his time. Yet Muhammad’s life is that of a gangster godfather. He raided merchant caravans, looted innocent people, massacred entire male populations and enslaved the women and children. He raped the women captured in war after killing their husbands and told his followers that it is okay to have sex with their captives (Qur’an 33:50). He assassinated those who criticized him and executed them when he came to power and became de facto despot of Arabia. Muhammad was bereft of human compassion. He was an obsessed man with his dreams of grandiosity and could not forgive those who stood in his way…
The statement continues,
Muhammad was a narcissist, like Hitler, Saddam or Stalin. He was astute and knew how to manipulate people, but his emotional intelligence was less evolved than that of a 6-year-old child. He simply could not feel the pain of others. He brutally massacred thousands of innocent people and pillaged their wealth. His ambitions were big and as a narcissist he honestly believed he is entitled to do as he pleased and commit all sorts of crimes and his evil deeds are justified.”
killer koranski says
“Interfaith dialogue” with Muslims?
Yeah good luck with that…
Wellington says
Dumb for any Christain or Jew to endorse this “Tri-Faith Initiative.” Smart, however, for a Muslim to do so—–nothing like buying time and fooling the “other” if one can.
Saleem Smith says
Hey Wellington, how are you doing tonight my old JW friend?
I see in NBA action tonight the Spurs got beat by King James and the Heat. Should be a good finals no doubt…
Bye for now, Cheers, Saleem
Kepha says
Ditto. I can’t help but notice that the United Church of Christ is involved in this–a group united in anything but Christ.
john spielman says
absolutely correct! There is NOTHING in common between light and darkness, and between Christ Jesus and Belial (Allah/Satan); except tle light – Christ Himself WILL overcome the darkness as Revelation 19-20 tells us!
citycat says
It seems lots of people in through life ignorant of Islam’s directive to conquer earth.
Tri-faith evokes suspicion to me.
When was there ever a tri-faith, would a tri-faith exist if Islam did not exist?
Smart Guy says
Jesus said. “broad and spacious is the road leading to destruction and narrow and cramped is the road to life and few are the ones finding it.”
“I am the way the truth and the light and no-one can come to the Father except though me.”
“woe to you scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites how are you going to escape the judgement of Hell.” Only Judaism existed when Jesus was alive, there was no Islam. He clearly preached against the religion of the Temple of his day.
“By their fruits you will know them” Well we know the fruits of Islam.
So how is it that a so called “Christian Church” is connected with this nonsense of being connected with both Judaism and Islam?
I will tell you what will happen. Christians can read the Bible for themselves
therefore when they realize that the church does not obey Jesus teachings
they will leave the church. A synagogue and a Mosque together? How long will that last before the JDL gun down the Moslems? Or vise a vesa?
“What sharing does light have with darkness.” “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers.” Go to a church that does not follow the Bible and you will find an empty church, but go to a church that follows the Bible and you might have to stand! True story! It has happened to me !
JIMJFOX says
Blah…blah…blah… god…Jesus…faith…
Religion is the PROBLEM, not the ANSWER. But your blind faith won’t let you see it.
Jay Boo says
A little bit of drifting off topic into proselytizing
Champ says
I respectfully disagree, Jay Boo …Smart Guy stayed right on topic and did not proselytize at all. Take care!
Champ says
pros·e·lyt·ize
verb
convert or attempt to convert (someone) from one religion, belief, or opinion to another.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jay Boo …
Nowhere did Smart Guy attempt to convert anyone is his comment. I think it’s important that we understand the definition and what we’re actually accusing someone of doing; and still maintain our right to free speech here.
All the best to you and yours.
voegelinian says
Champ,
When I read Christian apologetics of any form anywhere, I am reminded of the greatness of Western Civilization.
Champ says
Indeed, Voegelinian! …and thank you, what a refreshing thing to read.
Jay Boo says
I always enjoy to see good points made from a Christian perspective especially when they directly relate to the topic and you were right that drifting into ‘proselytizing’ was not quite the right word to use in this case.
While I personally fully agree with the first two sentences, I could see how someone who is not a Christian might feel these sentences are saying that Christianity is the better than their religion.
Jay Boo says
@Champ Thanks for your input. I probably over-reacted out of caution in this case.
@voegelinian
“When I read Christian apologetics of any form anywhere, I am reminded of the greatness of Western Civilization.”
That is a good point and I am glad you respect the Christian point of view. There is certainly nothing wrong with YOU or ME or any one else feeling that way, however for either of us to say (any form anywhere) would seem to imply lack of consideration of other readers
Champ says
Thank you, Jay Boo …I have a lot of respect for you and enjoy your comments! 🙂
Jay Boo says
Same here Champ
God bless
voegelinian says
Well Jay Boo, in my estimation, “Christian apologetics” by its nature would limit the seemingly limitless implication of my phrase “any form anywhere” (since if it is bonafide Christian apologetics, its myriad “any forms” are not going to include anything that any reasonable person will object to as some kind of existential threat or aesthetic or moral repugnance to his sensibilities — with my qualifier “reasonable” including only those who do not indulge in the silly (and, necessarily, because of the global threat of Islam and the enablement of its stealth invasion by the Equivalencism, reckless) emotional opinions that regard Christian apologetics as some kind of existential threat or aesthetic or moral repugnance to their sensibilities…).
gravenimage says
“Smart Guy’s” assertion that the JDL is going to go on a spree gunning down Muslims is just his sick fantasy—while the “vice-versa”—Muslims actually attacking and gunning down Jews—happens all the time.
What a sickening and witless attempt at moral equivalence…
duh_swami says
Religion should help people get over themselves, but it does not, instead it creates religious supremacist bigots. So the tri faith nonsense will fail because my religious supremacist bigotry is better than your religious supremacist bigotry.
People have been arguing, fighting, and killing each other over religion since Cain killed Able. That will not change as long as human ego’s are running the show.
All these tri faith, interfaith, outreach programs are ‘feel good’ only and will never reach their goals of human unity. ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’, is actually the case, but you cannot realize that until you get yourself out of the way.
So tri faither’s and other religiously stupid kuffar, ‘The lunatic is in your head’, and is in charge. If you play with snakes, or invite ‘Drac’ullah’ into your house, expect to get bit.
Jay Boo says
Imagine two tri-faith initiative centers side-by-side squabbling over who’s interfaith, outreach is better.
jewdog says
I think I know the names of the Jewish and Christian places of worship:
B’nai Dhimmi and Our Lady of Political Correctness. I forget the name of the mosque, but I think it has Taqiyya in it somewhere.
Jay Boo says
And now a word from a young lady special ‘guest of honor’ reporting live
from the Dearborn Michigan TRI-FAITH center.
The crowd is restless. Everyone is hoping to find just the right spot.
So much energy and excitement, I can feel anticipation in my bones.
It is such an honor to look up from my low center stage.
I am dressed in proper modest white for this special occasion.
No alcohol is allowed. Nothing will be broken or out of place.
This is a religious celebration. No one will get wasted or stoned.
Listen to the chant as worshippers circle the pit and gather stones.
No one questions or is ashamed at this pilgrimage game.
It’s a ritual purification celebration in honor of a blackened desert stone.
A Sharia celebration really needs no explanation; as I look up, they gaze down.
Watch us COEXIST as my hosts become intoxicated by Islam’s ritual myth.
Their spirit is so infectious. Listen to the glorious shouts of “God is great.”
“DEFENDER’S” of God’s honor obviously need no humility or grace.
The Imam is happy to have me here today. I am just what he needs to be appeased.
His confident glare displays that he is full of “faith.” Yes he is so truly full of it.
Why does he pronounce together to-get-her? We must coexist and then celebrate.
Yet, I can’t help but wonder why everyone now has a stone and a look of hate.
It has suddenly gotten so quiet. “Come on everyone loosen up a little.”
They shout “Everyone rejoice to-get-her.” It’s pronounced “together,” I correct.
“I am oh so happy to be chosen as your “guest of honor”; I’ve just got to sing.
“There is a party going on right here, a celebration to last throughout the year
Celebrate good times come together… Celebrate good times come on, COEXIST here
No one needs to be stoned because everyone’s going to be appeased all right
Everyone around the world, don’t fear. Circle around…cel – e – bra – tion…
good times, good good times, come on, It’s a celebration… —- Yahoo!……….Yahoo!”
jewdog says
You just need Diane Sawyer interviewing Hillary and Huma to complete the tableau.
Jay Boo says
I can only imagine that image of Hillary (the ugly Wicked Witch of the West) bound in a pit smugly saying “What difference does it make, Islam is a religion of peace” while her very attractive ‘confidant’ Huma, who no doubt (comforted) Hillary during that lonely terrible Bill & Monica episode now stands there with a rock in hand and a fiendish honor killing pit grin.
JIMJFOX says
Ain’t RELIGION wonderful? So-called ‘faiths’ sticking together in their unholy delusions in spite of any and all good sense and evidence of wrongdoing.
GOD, what a twat you are!!!
Myxlplik says
Seems to me that there will be a lot of Christians reaching out to Muslims going on here.
Perhaps some of the bus adds are in order, there might be a lot of new Christian converts who need protection. Is it possible to alert the Church there about possible violence relative to preaching amongst Muslims & that they should prepare themselves to protect new converts.
Jay Boo says
If they attempt to ride on a bus, the bus will be empty.
The Muslims will be too preoccupied in trying to throw the Jews and Christians under the bus.
Elisheva14 says
A bunch of Dhimmis.
Jay Boo says
My goodness, it brings tears to my eyes to see this heartwarming outreach being extended to our dear and trusted Muslim friends during this Tri-Faith Initiative, It proves that the US is not an intolerant bigoted society full of awful Islamophobia against Muslim minority religion like those mean spirited Europeans.
Of course Muslim majority countries also offer religious outreach to the ‘People of the Book’ with a Tri-Faith Initiative but it goes by another name.
It is (Quran inspired) persecution and genocide.
Champ ✞ says
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” — 2 Corinthians 6:14
Know Thy Enemy says
Are you implying that Christianity has same attitude towards non-Muslim unbelievers as Muhammad had towards Meccans when he said “You have your religion and I have mine”??
BW022 says
Some obvious questions about the whole thing…
1) Why does a secular democratic government need to get involved in a tri-faith initiative? (Establishment clause doesn’t allow this.)
2) What problem is compelling enough to need state influence to correct?
3) Why is this problem limited to these three faiths? Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, etc. don’t have this problem?
4) Why is this problem specific to this geographical area?
5) If all three of these groups have this problem… how is their meeting or worshipping together helpful? Wouldn’t it be better to meet with a group which doesn’t have that problem? (We won’t let current drug addicts council themselves. We pick councillors who don’t currently have the problem.)
6) If this is a compelling problem worthy of state power… why aren’t other state powers being used? (Law enforcement, education, health care, taxation, etc.)
7) What evidence is there that a tri-faith worship place solves this problem? (If atheists don’t have the problem… it obviously isn’t a matter of praying together.)
8) What evidence is there that voluntarily attending a tri-faith worship place solves this problem? Does the problem not exist in members of these faiths who would not attend this specific place of worship?
9) If people would voluntarily solve their issues… why haven’t they done so already?
10) Why don’t these groups simply build their places of worship near each other?
11) Why don’t these groups simply visit each others places of worship?
12) Why does merely worshipping in separate buildings nearby solve this problem?
13) If these groups need to meet and talk to each other… why can’t they do so in a secular environment — say a school, hall, conference center, college, etc.?
14) If talking to each other solves this problem, then presumably the people proposing this can identify specific problems rather than meeting endlessly and discussing years of theology?
15) Why is this issue solved by worshipping nearby as opposed to living, working, and attending school with each other? If spending eight hours a day with people of different faiths in school, work, and other situations can’t solve the issue, why does a few hours a week (tops) of praying 200′ away from someone of a different faith solve it?
16) If it does require spending years of meeting people of other faiths in these specific settings (outside of schools, work, and other situations)… how is this a practical solution?
17) If merely meeting people of other faiths is an issue and there is nothing specific which one is directed to discuss or agree upon… why isn’t compulsory soccer, ballroom dancing, or Scrabble equally good at solving the issue?
18) If atheist don’t have these issues… why isn’t simply having people not worship at all equally effective as having them worship nearby each other? It takes less time, effort, etc.
etc., etc.
I have yet to imagine a problem which requires the government which (a) isn’t defined, (b) is specific to these three religions, (c) is solved by merely worshipping nearby or having unspecified discussions, (d) can be done voluntarily yet has not been done already, and (e) can’t be address by any other form of government.
voegelinian says
“Some obvious questions about the whole thing…
1) Why does a secular democratic government need to get involved in a tri-faith initiative? (Establishment clause doesn’t allow this.)
2) What problem is compelling enough to need state influence to correct?
…
6) If this is a compelling problem worthy of state power… why aren’t other state powers being used? (Law enforcement, education, health care, taxation, etc.)…”
Where are you getting all this information about “state power” being involved? I see nothing in the article here, in the Daily Caller, nor on the Tri-Faith Initiative website indicating any “state power” involvment.
Kepha says
Uncle Kepha pleads guilty to the charge of being a proselytizing Christian. I’m also glad that when I was a kid in school, I was subject to “proselytizing” math teachers who wanted me to know that addition is commutative (as for reading, my parents and older sibs at home were the “proselytizers”). I thank God as well for a few professors who “proselytized” an Anglophone monoglott to give him a fair grounding in the Chinese language as well. Jesus, the Way, Truth, and Life, told us to make disciples of all nations. I can’t claim to honor him if I don’t tell people about him.
However, I can’t find a text that tells me to hasten anyone on his way to Hell if he tells me, “No thank you.” Then again, who am I to say that the subtle work of the Holy Spirit won’t turn the “No thank you” of today into a “Tell me more” next year?
It is precisely because I’m a proselytizing Christian that I cannot accept this kind of interfaith business. Either M’shiach has come or he hasn’t. Either Jesus the Messiah died on the cross for our sins or he didn’t. Either the Scriptures end with the Amen at the end of Revelation or they don’t. If the Old and New Testaments are true, there’s no room for a reading of the Qur’an in my church.
Sure, I’ll be neighborly. Sure I’ll try to love my neighbor even if he’s rather unlovely. These are virtues commanded by my religion; and I’m reminded in the Parable of the Good Samaritan that my neighbor may be a “them” rather than an “us”.
Champ says
Love your comment, Kepha! 🙂
eib says
In policy and attitude, the Obama admin favors Islam.
There is no evidence to suggest they support Christianity or Christians.
gravenimage says
Omaha’s Tri-Faith Initiative defends links to ISNA and CAIR, whitewashes their ties to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood
…………………..
I think this shows that we are now just about as apt to find this sort of mindless dhimmitude in the American heartland as in more obviously “politically correct” climes.
Those involved in the “Tri-Faith Initiative” simply don’t want to know if the Muslims they are involved with actually endorse violent Jihad—so much better to just pretend otherwise…
After all, this pretense and willful denial is largely what Muslim “interfaith outreach” plugs into in the first place…
gravenimage says
Actually, I did a bit more digging, and am very happy to see that my cynicism may well have been a bit premature:
The Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha may become a “Bi-Faith” Initiative thanks to the efforts of Dr. Mark Christian, the Executive Director of the Omaha-based Global Faith Institute.
The Tri-Faith Initiative is a project that planned to co-locate a Jewish Synagogue, an Episcopal Church and an Islamic Mosque on the same campus, with a common building for the use of all three faiths at its center.
Dr. Christian’s discovery, of links between the Mosque organizers and the Muslim Brotherhood, was detailed in an earlier article published here at the Daily Caller…”
Bravo Dr. Christian!
Read it all here:
“Episcopalians Bail Out Of Omaha Tri-Faith Initiative
http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/27/episcopalians-bail-out-of-omaha-tri-faith-initiative/”
The article even has a reference to Robert Spencer. And kudos to the Daily Caller for accurately characterizing him as a “noted author and expert on radical Islam”—instead of the usual, where he is called something along the lines of an ‘anti-Muslim far right-winger’ or something similarly falsely pejorative.