sanddy
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2012
- Messages
- 494
- Reaction score
- -1
CAIRO Extending help to their fellow
Muslim neighbors, churches in a
Missouri city have come together to
host an iftar for Joplin local Muslim
community after their mosque was
burnt down in an arson fire.
"The Council on American-Islamic
Relations needed a place," Father
Frank Sierra, rector of Saint Philip's
Episcopal Church, told Christian Post. They were going to come down in
support of the Muslim community and
they asked us.
The iftar, which marks the end of a
fasting day in Ramadan, was held
Wednesday evening at Saint Philip's
Episcopal Church.
In addition to St. Philip's, other Joplin
congregations involved in the iftar
included South Joplin Christian Church,
United Hebrew Congregation, First
Community Church and Peace
Lutheran Church.
"We have worked with them before
on interfaith events that we've had
with them It turned out that we, our
parish house was best," Sierra added. The mosque in southeast Missouri was
burned to the ground early Monday in
the second arson attack on the Muslim
worship place in a month.
The mosques roof was previously
destroyed in a similar arson attack on
July 4. No injuries were reported in Mondays
attack, but the building of the Islamic
Society of Joplin was a total loss after
the blaze.
Immediate investigations were
launched by the FBI, the Bureau of
Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the
Jasper County Sheriff's department. CAIR has recently offered a $10,000
reward for any information that would
lead to the arrest and conviction of the
guilty party.
The arson fire at the Joplin mosque
followed the deadly shooting at a Sikh
Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. "These disturbing incidents point to
the urgent need for increased police
protection for Muslim and Sikh houses
of worship nationwide," said CAIR
National Executive Director Nihad
Awad.
"If left unchallenged, religious
intolerance can and does harm
innocent people."
Fundraising
The iftar was not the only help offered
by the Muslim community as a
fundraiser event was planned to
reconstruct the burnt mosque. "At this point in time," said Sierra, "we
are having a group of clergy and
churches we are working on a
response that would be an official
statement and then we are going to
have a fundraiser" to benefit the Islamic Society of Joplin.
"At this point, we want to do some
type of response, but we are trying to
plan it to get as many people involved
as possible and to be open to anyone
who wants to participate." All across the US, mosques have been
facing fierce opposition recently. At least 35 mosque projects from
Mississippi to Wisconsin have found
foes who battle to stop them from
seeing light citing different pretexts,
including traffic concerns and fear of
terrorism.
Even more, some mosques were
vandalized including a 2011 Wichita
mosque arson case. In multicultural New York, a proposed
mosque near Ground Zero site has
snowballed into a national public and
political debate, with opponents
arguing that the Muslim building
would be an insult to the memory of the 9/11 victims. Advocates, however, say that the
mosque would send a message of
tolerance in 9/11-post America.
Missouri Churches Host Iftar for Muslims - Americas - News - OnIslam.net
