May 20, 2011

Facing Towards Mecca: Episcopal Cathedral Confronts “Islamophobia”

“The call to sunset prayer issued by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf echoed through the room, and worshippers came forward – some in Muslim garb, others in western clothing. Removing their shoes and kneeling to face Mecca, the worshippers uttered prayers from the Qur’an, led by the controversial cleric known for his plan to build an Islamic center near the Ground Zero site in lower Manhattan.

Yet this Muslim prayer observance took place not in a mosque, but in the sanctuary of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle.

Gathered for a conference entitled “I Am My Brother’s Keeper: Confronting Islamophobia,” hundreds had come to hear the imam give a keynote address, as had local television crews and about a dozen protesters across the street. What they heard was a warning that irrational fear of Islam was sweeping the United States, and a plea that the alleged purveyors of such fear – fundamentalist Christians, Tea Party members, Republican candidates, the Israel lobby, and “Jewish neo-cons” – needed to be silenced.”

-Jeff Walton

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