Two Faiths Share One
Message
By Nicole Johnson
A
group of Muslim women listen as the Rev. Robert Gibbons
reads from the Bible at St. Paul’s Catholic Church
in St. Petersburg on Sunday [Times photo: John Pendygraft] |
They were common themes at Sunday
morning Mass at St. Paul's Catholic Church, where a group
of Muslims were visiting in a gesture of reconciliation between
the religious communities. "God created us different
so we could get to know each other better," said Ahmed
Bedier, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
in Central Florida.
His visit to the church came on the heels of news that a mosque
in South Florida had come under gunfire Friday while people
inside celebrated the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.
The rift between the faiths also has been widened by Muslim
outrage over remarks by Pope Benedict XVI. Benedict, who quoted
words of a Byzantine emperor that characterized some of the
teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as "evil and inhuman."
In St. Petersburg, between hymns and the Eucharist, Bedier
spoke to the congregation about the similarities between Islam
and Christianity and how to bring about better relations.
"We need to look for ways to forge a bridge between Islam
and Christianity," Bedier said. "As Muslims, we
have to act more like Mohammed and as Christians you have
to act more like Jesus."
Bedier's visit was a part of a larger campaign by his organization,
and other American Muslim groups, to change the tide of associating
violence with Islam.
Last week, the council announced that it would work through
the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg to donate money for
repairing churches in the Middle East damaged by violence
following the Pope's remarks.
The Rev. Robert Gibbons, the diocese's vicar general and the
pastor of St. Paul's, thought a message from Bedier would
also be beneficial to his congregation.
On Sunday, Bedier and a handful of other Muslims from CAIR
sat in the front row for Mass.
"Rather than keep my heart hardened I decided to open
it up a little bit," Gibbons said to his congregation.
"I felt you deserved to hear the word also."
After speaking to the group, Bedier presented Gibbons with
a $5,000 check to go toward repairing the churches.
"The act - the violence against churches - it's un-Islamic,"
Bedier said. "Don't associate our religion, a religion
of peace, with the acts of terrorism."
(Courtesy Mass. St. Petersburg Times, 9/25/06
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/25/Southpinellas/Two_faiths_share_one_.shtml)
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