European Catholic & Anglican Churches Celebrating Ramadan & Iftar
France: Catholic church to host Ramadan iftar during Easter octave
BY ROBERT SPENCER
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/04/france-catholic-church-to-host-ramadan-iftar-during-easter-octave;
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Isn’t this wonderful? Now: when is the Easter celebration at the local mosque? What’s that? Never? These expressions of generosity and outreach always and in every case only go in one direction, and are never reciprocated. Now, why is that?
“Lille: during the Easter octave, we will celebrate iftar at the St-Pierre-St-Paul church,” translated from “Lille : durant l’octave pascale, on fêtera l’iftar à l’église St-Pierre-St-Paul,” by Gabrielle Cluzel, BVoltaire, March 27, 2023:
The Easter octave, that is to say the eight days following Easter, is not new. It was the Emperor Constantine, in the 4th century, who introduced it into the Catholic liturgy: it is a question, in the daily mass, of “reviving the event of Easter Sunday.” By songs and texts taken from Easter, we mean to “remember that the Resurrection extends beyond the Easter feast,” we can read on the site of the Catholic Church in France. During this period, “the newly baptized on Easter night wear their white garments.”
This year, the Thursday of the Octave of Easter will be a little special in the Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church in Lille, the priest welcoming there for the second consecutive year… “the iftar under the stars.” This breaking of the Ramadan fast (according to the definition given by the Larousse of iftar) is part of the “nomadic scene for the time of a moon” imagined by the association (duly supported and subsidized by public funds) Attacafa (culture, in Arabic) which, since 1984, has made a point of “creolizing the cultural places of the region and the metropolis [of Lille] to fight against all forms of ethnocentrism.” Hats off to the artist. Celebrate the breaking of the Ramadan fast in a church, you had to dare. The soothing presentation, as coated in sugar as the pastries associated with the event in the collective imagination, obviously aims to extinguish the prejudices of the most refractory: “This festival offers you, through a desacralized program, to take share in this time of sharing, celebration and tolerance, because this is also the meaning of this particular month.”
For the modest sum of 10 € (full price), and with a reservation, you can start the evening of April 13 by listening to the concert of Turkish singers and musicians Gülay Hacer Toruk and Fawaz Baker. Then, from 8:41 p.m., according to the Allevents and Lille Actu site, “the members of the association “Turkish women from the North” will prepare the meal!
On the side of the diocese, there is a tendency to minimize the event and to keep its distance: according to the communication manager contacted by Boulevard Voltaire, this welcome should only be seen as an “initiative of the parish and not of the diocese” to “live in friendship with our Muslim brothers. And no meal, in any case on the spot. The priest has lent his church ‘only’ for the concert, as he does for secular concerts insofar as respect for this consecrated place, not for the banquet. A priori the banquet will take place outside the church,” says one to Boulevard Voltaire. The sites announcing the iftar, however, suggest the opposite, giving no other meeting place after the concert.
Perhaps the parish priest of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul and the Attacafa association found their inspiration not far from there, on the other side of the border, in Molenbeek? In June 2016, according to the Saphir News website, a giant fast-breaking meal (iftar) was organized at the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church. 600 people responded “to share a meal prepared mainly by volunteers from mosques and Muslim associations in the town”: “A fraternal gesture, which [was] nothing more than a sign of the good relations […] established over time between Christians and Muslims.” Relations somewhat cooled, we will agree, over the attacks of March 22 in Brussels and the many edifying reports on this city that followed.
Perhaps, who knows, the Lille initiative also aims to restore the image of Wazemmes – a popular district of Lille where the Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church is located. The reputation of this district was somewhat tarnished in 2016 by a vitriolic open letter from a CNRS researcher, Philippe Froguel – a former leftist sympathizer yet – to Martine Aubry: according to this diabetes specialist, the middle classes and students had fled the neighborhood because the living conditions there had become very difficult, in particular due to “community regression.” He had given as an illustration “the ordeal” experienced by the women in his laboratory, objects of “contemptuous demonstrations by Islamists of all stripes.”
Will this (repeated) gesture of friendship disarm “Islamists of all stripes,” whose presence, seven years later, cannot be doubted, whether residual (if one is optimistic) or exponential (if we are not)…or to be taken by them as a huge symbolic victory?
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UK: Anglican cathedral to host Ramadan iftar during Easter season
BY ROBERT SPENCER
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/04/uk-anglican-cathedral-to-host-ramadan-iftar-during-easter-season;
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Once again, do these Christians really think that this will change what the Qur’an teaches about Christ and Christianity?
Qur’an 98:4-6: “Nor were the people of the book divided until after the clear proof came to them. And they are not ordered to do anything else but serve Allah, keeping religion pure for him, as hanifs, and to establish prayer and
to give alms. That is true religion. Indeed, the unbelievers among the people of the book and the idolaters will remain in the fire of Gehenna. They are the most vile of created beings.”Qur’an 5:14: “And with those who say: Indeed, we are Christians, we made a covenant, but they forgot a part of what they were reminded about. Therefore we have stirred up enmity and hatred among them until the day of resurrection, when Allah will inform them of their handiwork.”
Qur’an 5:17: “They indeed have disbelieved who say, Indeed, Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. Say, Who then can do anything against Allah, if he had willed to destroy the Messiah son of Mary, and his mother and everyone on earth? To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them. He creates what he wills. And Allah is able to do all things.”
Qur’an 4:157: “And because of their saying, We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the messenger of Allah, they did not kill him nor crucify him, but it seemed so to them, and indeed, those who disagree about this are in doubt about it, they have no knowledge of it except pursuit of a supposition, they did not kill him for certain.
Qur’an 4:171: “O people of the book, do not exaggerate in your religion or say anything about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and his word that he conveyed to Mary, and a spirit from him. So believe in Allah and his messengers, and do not say Three, Stop, it is better for you. Allah is only one God. It is far removed from his transcendent majesty that he should have a son. Everything that is in the heavens and everything that is on the earth is his. And Allah is sufficient as defender.”
Qur’an 5:116: “And when Allah said, O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to mankind, Take me and my mother as two gods besides Allah? He said, Be glorified. It was not for me to say what I had no right to say. If I said it, then you know it. You know what is in my mind, and I do not know what is in your mind. Indeed, you, only you, are the knower of hidden things.”
Qur’an 19:35: “It is not fitting for Allah that he should take to himself a son. Glory be to him, when he decrees a thing, he says to it only, Be, and it is.”
Qur’an 9:30-31: “And the Jews say, Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say, The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the statements of those who disbelieved before. May Allah curse them. How perverse they are. They have taken as lords besides Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah, the son of Mary, when they were called to worship only one God. There is no God except him. May he be glorified from all that they ascribe as partners.”
Qur’an 9:29: “Fight against those do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
“Living Bankside Grand Iftar 2023,” Southwark Cathedral, n.d.:
SPECIAL EVENT
- VENUE
Southwark Cathedral
- TIME
7:00 PM…
The Dean of Southwark and Southwark Cathedral are delighted to be hosting the seventh Grand Iftar with Living Bankside.
This year’s theme and focus is on young people (our future) and their role in society. Accordingly the event has been organised by and will be delivered by young people from across London. A number of young people’s organisations will be represented at the Iftar.
Living Bankside in partnership with Southwark Cathedral and the Association of Muslim Lawyers has gained a reputation in its efforts towards promoting community cohesion and collaboration with all age groups, ethnicities and faiths, including those of no particular faith. This has created an inclusive platform for building positive relationships between people from diverse backgrounds.
The Iftar will bring all communities together to celebrate Ramadan, to promote resilience and to share the common values of Hope, Peace and Unity. At the core of our values and mission (Living Bankside, Southwark Cathedral and the Association of Muslim Lawyers) is compassion. We invite you on this occasion and in the future to join us in whichever way you can to spread compassion. The evening will include performances and speeches, followed by the opening of the fast….
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UK: Anglican cathedral hosts iftar event to spread ‘the spirit of Ramadan’
BY ROBERT SPENCER
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
This spirit?
“Ramadan is not a month of laziness but rather a month of activity, of effort, and of hard work, and as it also was in the life of the Prophet, a month of jihad, conquest, and victory.” — Palestinian Authority Supreme Sharia Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash
“Ramadan is a month of holy war and death for Allah. It is a month for fighting the enemies of Allah and God’s messenger, the Jews and their American facilitators.” — Qaedat al-Jihad
“Ramadan is the pious month of ‘Jihad-o-Qital’ (Jihad and killing). Those who attain martyrdom while waging Jihad, doors of heaven remain open.” — Maulana Bashir Ahmad Khaki
“People attend Iftar event at Manchester Cathedral,” Iran Press, March 30, 2023:
Open Iftar events are the flagship initiative of Ramadan Tent Project, an award-winning charity that brings communities together and spreads the spirit of Ramadan through various initiatives.
Since 2013, Open Iftar has connected over 500,000 people across the country at some of Britain’s most iconic cultural spaces, from the Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Stadium, and Trafalgar Square, to regional events at Baltic Museum, Bradford’s Centenary Square, Coventry Cathedral and many more.
Open Iftar bridges communities; it is a space in which our commonalities are highlighted, our differences celebrated and human connection is forged….