mchale if I may, I’d like to assist in a response here.
mchale;3395237:
Why would Christianity want to gather people in a mosque to listen to the Qur’an?
Holy Scripture–the Word of God
That would be nice, especially if we got the
whole story, which you don’t when listening to the Qur’an.
mchale;3395237:
Certainly millions of Christians attend services every week and millions more attend Christmas and Easter Services.
This is only equivalent to Muslim Friday prayers and khutbahs–but Muslims pray at the mosque not just every week, every day, but
five times a day! And you say millions more attend Christmas and Easter? Muslims experience a similar situation–millions more attending the Eid prayers (twice a year!). We have to rent a soccer field to hold this prayer–5-6 thousand people here! And every week our mosque brings in 1500 people for jummah. Usually 150 people for an average prayer. And this is not even one of the largest mosques in the country. Probably not even the largest in the state.
Muslims took the practice of prayer five times a day from the Jews and Christians. In the Catholic tradition it’s called the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Divine Office. When practiced in it’s fullness, including the readings as well as the prayers, we pray nine times during the course of a day. This is a practice that is encouraged, it is not forced as it is in Islam. It is something that is done either in private or in community. The necessity of bringing large groups of people together in a “soccer field” proves nothing. Prayer is between the individual and God, as Christians we are told:
Mt 6: 5-6 "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
mchale;3395237:
And certainly millions of people every year make pilgramages to Rome, Lourdes, Jerusalem, etc.
At the same time?
Eight million were expected to come to Lourdes this year for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the miracle there. The date just passed about a month ago, I don’t know the actual numbers. Four million visitors came to Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, there could have been more but state officials closed off entrance to the city. This is immaterial in my opinion though, going back to Mt 6:5-6, it’s just not necessary for us all to see a public display such as this. God takes as much pleasure from the small sacrifices of the sick, poor and lonely as he does from the grandiose displays of the many who can afford to travel and are in good enough health to do so.
mchale;3395237:
As for praying the same direction; well Jesus taught us that it is not where we worship, but what is in our hearts when we worship that is what matters.
At every moment, somewhere in the world, there is a Muslim praying, facing the Ka’ba. That is something!
Honestly, the treatment of the Kaaba seems to me to make it a gigantic idol. That’s just my opinion. At every moment, somewhere in the world there is someone praying the rosary or some other devotion. Seems immaterial that the same is true for Muslims to pray towards the Kaaba.
mchale;3395237:
There is a huge difference between the persecution that the first muslims experienced and what the Christians experienced.
Why?
Because Muhammad and his followers were fighting as much or more for political control as they were for freedom of worship. Their persecution was in part due to their use of violence. Christian theology preaches non-violence and has from the beginning. We were not told, and did not try to seize control of political authority, and so our persecution as compared to the Muslim persecution is unjustified.
mchale;3395237:
By the time of Muhammed’s death Islam had already conquored most of the Arabia. Certainly within 50 years of its founding, Islam as a whole could be considered relatively safe from persecution. Fifty years after the death of Christ, the persecutions of Christians were just starting.
Isn’t that interesting. More proof for the validity of Islam, it seems to me.
Again, proof only of the faith’s entanglement in politics, the need for Islam to seize political control. Not proof in any way of it holding any truth.
mchale;3395237:
I am not denying that Islam had martyrs, however, the level of persecution that Islam experienced simply cannot compare to the persecution of Christians prior to the reign of Constantine.
Would you like to tell the woman stabbed in her abdomen that it’s not enough torture? Frankly this seems to me again a proof of Islam.
It’s not a question of the method of torture, it’s a question of the numbers of people, and who committed the persecution. Christianity was illegal in Europe for 312 years. Christians were gathered up just for being Christian, thrown into the coliseum as fodder for lions and other ferocious animals to watch for sport by the ruling class. Christians were used as human torches in the Roman imperial gardens. Part of the difference between this sort of persecution and what occurred to the Muslims is that the Christians were not fighting anyone for political control, invading territories outside of their own, at least not violently anyway. One could argue Christians were a sort of conscientious objector by not paying taxes (because they’d given their money away to the poor), or taking care of the unfortunate (which was not the way you did things back then), and refusing to worship anyone but God. But that’s a big difference compared to physical battles where lives are taken for the purpose of usurping the ruling class.
mchale;3395237:
With respect, many Muslim “Martyrs” died in wars of conquest. That is not the same as “protecting” the Islamic state.
Didn’t I mention the Battle of Badr? Let me add the Battle of Uhud.
Both the battle of Uhud and Badr were battles of conquest fought in the years 624 and 625, they were battles to take control from the ruling authority of the time, not to protect any land that was already under their own political authority, since Islam was still just a budding political force at that time. An Islamic state did not exist, they were forming it at the battles of Uhud and Badr, i.e. they were battles of conquest.
When i know more in my mind i will right here. Rightnow is enough.
So allow me to condemn it in the strongest terms.