Oh my - the Catholic University of America is in the firing line (again) -
Perhaps if Catholic symbols in an institution with an overt commitment to Church Teaching are a source of discomfort going to another University might be the solution?
it is alleged that CUA does not provide space -- as other universities do -- for the many daily prayers Muslim students must make, forcing them instead to find temporarily empty classrooms where they are often surrounded by Catholic symbols which are incongruous to their religion. Furthermore, it appears that Muslims on campus may even be forced to do their meditation in the school's chapels or in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception – hardly places where students of a very different religion are likely to feel very comfortable.
Perhaps if Catholic symbols in an institution with an overt commitment to Church Teaching are a source of discomfort going to another University might be the solution?
And yet they are attracted to those Catholic institutions because the others are too secular. Bit of a bind, there.
ReplyDeleteThey use islam as a weapon to undermine Western institutions. This has nothing whatsoever to do with them feeling "uncomfortable" and everything to do with islamist conquest.
ReplyDeleteLetting Muslim students have a room for their prayers seems reasonable to me.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't about letting Muslims having a room for their prayers Muerk - it is really about Single Sex Dorms instead of Co-Ed dorms and the fact there are no condom vending machines on campus and that the student health center doesn't hand contraceptives like candy or council for abortion etc.
ReplyDeleteIts about an institution that takes its Catholic Identity seriously and therefore needs to be poked and prodded into 21st century liberalism by continual callings before the human rights court.
Whereas I as a live and let live type of guy - knowing that a gay bath house would cause me offense and distress avoid this discomfort by not going into such places
"Letting Muslim students have a room for their prayers seems reasonable to me."
ReplyDeleteOh, absolutely! That's the spirit of tolerance and co-operation which the islamic countries show towards building churches and hosting Christians, after all.
Tolerance is a two-way street, Muerk and some of us object to being doormats for a primitive, murderous ideology.
I thought doing the right thing in the face of opposition and hate was the Christian thing to do. It's not about how we are treated, it's about how we treat others.
ReplyDeleteI'm completely puzzled about the single-sex dorms issue, but I stand by what I said, I think setting aside a single room as a prayer room for Muslims out of an entire university is a reasonable accommodation
Why this needs to go to court is also puzzling to me.
Fr Z has a post up on this now
ReplyDeleteThe argument against the Catholic University is so totally loaded and one-sided that it angers me.
ReplyDeleteThere is no "good-faith" being advanced or evidenced in the Muslim position.
The more I look into this article the more I find cause for concern over the true intent.
No Muslim has raised a complaint, it is driven by an atheist Law Professor in another University that continually does this sort of thing.
He is a professional agitator and destroyer.
He *imagines* that Muslims must find it difficult to pray with religious symbols around them, and yet he imagines that learning with religious symbols around them is absolutely fine (except with his history of agitation, this will no doubt be next on the list.)
He uses language like Muslim students are "forced" to pray in a chapel.
Oh really? Are they rounded up and marched at gunpoint into the Chapel where they are forced to endure the loving gaze of Mary?
Are they actually prevented from forming their own unofficial association? Are they prevented from accessing all of the facilities of the University, such as the library, lectures, health services, etc?
Here's another perspective:
When I first read about the human rights complaint allegedly filed on behalf of Muslim students at Catholic, I made the mistake of assuming that Muslim students were behind it. Only after personally speaking with the complaint filer — George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf — did I understand what this story was really all about. In fact, not a single Muslim student at Catholic University has signed on to Professor Banzhaf’s complaint and he admitted to me that he lodged the complaint against Catholic with the D.C. Office of Human Rights as a concerned individual, not on behalf of any student or group of students.
In fact, Banzhaf sent a letter to the editor of the school’s newspaper soliciting complainants on September 22, yet readily admits that none have have signed on to his case against the school.
“The community here is very respectful of other religions and I feel free to openly practice it,” Wiaam Al Salmi, a Muslim student at Catholic U who recently started the Arab American Association on campus told the school’s student newspaper.
[Link]
Again, this man is a destroyer.
Aha, I see similar stories are coming out at Fr Z's blog. People that have been to the University are confirming that different faiths are treated with respect, that there is an Arab Association on campus which also covers support for Muslims, that different personal stories are emerging to defend these spurious accusations.
ReplyDeleteThe man is a destroyer.
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ReplyDelete