US media is reporting on what is described as the first Muslim prayer servuice inside the Washington National Cathedral. According to a report in the Washington Post:
Washington National Cathedral
This Friday, the Washington National Cathedral will be filled with the sounds of Muslim prayers.
Muslims and people of other religious traditions have participated in Christian or Interfaith services at the Cathedral in the past. However, the November 14 event marks the first time American Muslims have been invited to lead their own traditional Jummah prayer inside the same sacred space that has hosted presidential funerals and other national religious services.
South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool helped to organize the event and will deliver the khutbah, or sermon, the Washington Post reports.
‘It is an enormous testament of solidarity,’ Rasool told the Huffington Post. ‘Of Christians toward Muslims who face the prospect of their religion being hijacked and towards Christians who face threats to their continued existence in place like the Middle East.’
The idea for the service emerged from a conversation between Rasool and the Cathedral’s director of liturgy, Rev. Canon Gina Gilland Campbell. The two friends met while planning a memorial service for the late Nelson Mandela.
All of the above organizations are known to be part of the US Muslim Brotherhood.
The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, operated as the Washington National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in Washington, DC. The cathedral is the seat of both the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, and the Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde.
