‘Putting tolerance in perspective’
13th September 2010
It gets better:
The Quran doesn’t just preach religious tolerance; the Prophet Muhammad demonstrated it in his life, [Emad El-Din Shahin, a religion professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana] says.
The prophet would meet Christian delegations in his mosque.
“He would allow them to perform Christian prayers in the mosque,” Shahin says.
First Things’ Joe Carter has a relevant question: “Why would Christians need to pray in a mosque? Why don’t they just go to First Baptist of Mecca or St. Paul’s in Medina. Oh yeah, that’s right. Because there are no official churches in Saudi Arabia of any Christian denomination.” I mean, how — in a story such as this — do you not mention these basic facts about how Christianity is actually treated in Saudi Arabia? It’s just journalistic malpractice. One almost gets the feeling that mainstream reporters are just expressing their hopes and wishes in stories about religious tolerance in Islam. We’re certainly not concerned about accuracy, if stories such as this are any guide.
So if you think about the current global situation when it comes to religious freedom, who matches this better? Is it — as CNN writes — the pastor of a 50-person congregation in Florida? Or do you think we should consider other small and inconsequential groups, such as the entire nation of Saudi Arabia?