Friday, the Washington National Cathedral will host a prayer service for local Muslims. Predictably, members of the organized Islamophobia movement are using the occasion to disparage Cathedral representatives and the religion of Islam.
The opposition comes despite the fact that the National Cathedral “has long held high-profile interfaith events,” according to the The Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein,
“We stand incredulous at the astounding naïveté exhibited by the hosts of the National Cathedral extending the welcome mat to several Muslim organizations for the purpose of having a Friday prayer service this Friday at the very sacred place where we give funerals to our presidents and national heroes,” reads a November 12 email from the anti-Muslim grassroots organization ACT! for America, “No capitulation. No political correctness. No submitting to this insanity!”
In a brief radio monologue released today, anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney maligns the event as “appalling” and laments that the Cathedral “will be consecrated by Muslim Brotherhood operatives to their god, Allah.” Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy also issued a press release demanding tomorrow’s service be cancelled – describing it as a “highly symbolic demonstration of Islamic supremacism.”
The Cathedral’s website notes it’s regular Sunday morning service is still scheduled to begin at 8:00am. Additional services are scheduled throughout the day.