Muslim woman, rabbis to pray at inaugural service

AP ^ | 1/14/2009 | RACHEL ZOLL

[markomalley]

At past inaugurations, ceremonial prayers uttered on behalf of the incoming president drew about as much attention as the flags on the podium.

Not this year.

Barack Obama's choice of clergy is under scrutiny like no other president-elect before him, alternately outraging Americans on the left and the right as he navigates the minefield of U.S. religion.

"I can't recall any prayers drawing so much attention," said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center who specializes in religion in public life.

Gay advocates assailed Obama, while many conservative Christians were heartened, when he invited the Rev. Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist who opposes gay marriage, to deliver the inaugural invocation on Tuesday.

The tables turned when Obama asked V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, to lead prayers at Sunday's kickoff for the inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial. Gay rights groups rejoiced, while some conservative Christians wrung their hands.

The Inauguration Committee has only released one clergy name so far for the Jan. 21 National Prayer Service that caps the inauguration. The Rev. Sharon Watkins, the first woman president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a Protestant group, will deliver the sermon.

(snip)

A prayer will be offered at the National Cathedral by Ingrid Mattson, the first woman president of the Islamic Society of North America, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. The Islamic Society, based in Indiana, is the nation's largest Muslim group.

Three rabbis, representing the three major branches of American Judaism, will also say a prayer at the service, according to officials familiar with the plans. The Jewish clergy are Reform Rabbi David Saperstein, Conservative Rabbi Jerome Epstein and Orthodox Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, sources said.

[markomalley]

What about those oppressed Hindus, Buddhists, and Wiccans??

[Carl LaFong]

0bama’s an anti- Scientologist !!

[mnehring]

No Rastafarians, Pastafarians, or Luciferians?

[Dallas59]

She gonna be checked for dynamite?

[mlizzy]

"This inaugural is a coming-out party for the Democrats in terms of their religious voice," said Stephen Prothero, a religion professor at Boston University. "Democrats found their religious voice in the last election and I think there's interest in seeing how that voice is going to sound."

+++

Like the wailing of babies.

[ConorMacNessa]

Zoroastrians demand equal time!

Lamh Foistenach Abu!

[sageb1]

ISNA and MPAC Seek to Silence Steven Emerson at Congressional Hearing [incl. Ingrid Mattson]

[Mila]

"The Islamic Society, based in Indiana, is the nation's largest Muslim group."

Indiana? I would never have imagined that Indiana would be the home of a major Islamic group. You learn something new everyday.

[Loyalist]

What about the animists of Obama’s Luo tribe? Surely they can offer a burnt sacrifice or two on the Capitol steps.

To say nothing about the British Israelites, the Odinists, Cao Dai, Santeria, the Cargo Cults and whoever’s left of the Shakers.

[Sammy67]

Head of Muslim group with admitted Hamas ties to offer prayer at Obama inauguration

http://www.jihadwatch.org/

[Sammy67]

MB Comes to the Inaugural (Muslim Brotherhood)

http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/708/MB-Comes-to-the-Inaugural.aspx

[NYer]

Every religious group is invited except the Catholics :-)

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[markomalley]

Every religious group is invited except the Catholics :-)

Yup...ain't it wonderful!!!

[BAW]

According to Adherents.comm, Americans self-identify (in 2000) as:

Christianity 76.5%
Nonreligious/Secular 13.2%
Judaism 1.3%
Islam .5%
Buddhism .5%
Agnostic .5%
Atheist .4%
Hinduism .4%

Source:

http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions

[the invisib1e hand]

Don't worry. Catholics everywhere will be praying. The Pope himself will be praying.

The Holy Father pronounced his blessing on my beloved America while Obama's reprobate pastor's curse of her was still ringing in our ears. He silenced it at once.

[Miss Marple]

They have a huge mosque out west of Indianapolis, in the town of Plainfield. I have periodically complained about it, as it is near both a major interstate and an airport.

Indiana is not equipped to deal with this. Twenty years ago the only Muslims here were a few at universities. Now they are everywhere and whining about their rights.

[Mila]

Thank you for this information, as disquieting as it is. I fear that except in rare cases, i.e. your complaining about the mosque, Americans are just too complacent and uninformed. I realize that I am among that number. I fear that as a nation we’ll wake up one morning and find that we have been taken over and we’ll wonder how it happened.

[Desdemona]

Good thing they didn’t invite me to pray at this...circus. My prayer would be (and will be) “Almighty and everliving God, deliver us from this administration.”

[piasa]

The Code Pink wiccans had their day trying to perform a cleansing ritual in the White House.

[piasa]

1989 : (PLAINFIELD, IN : MUSLIM ARAB YOUTH ASSOCIATION aka MAYA IS INCORPORATED — see HOOSIER JIHAD/ HOOSIER JIHADIS) Meanwhile, public records show that Kandil is also one of nine founding directors of a controversial organization called the Muslim Arab Youth Association.
MAYA established in the 1970’s and incorporated in Plainfield, Ind., in 1989, held a series of conferences at which prominent members of the Palestinian organization Hamas and others associated with Islamic terrorism were featured speakers, including al-Qaradawi.
In the 2002 book ``American Jihad,’’ author and Islamic terrorism expert Steven Emerson wrote that MAYA conferences ``have regularly attracted a parade of top Islamic militants.’’
Emerson also excerpted the preface to MAYA’s constitution: ``In the heart of America, in the depths of corruption and ruin and moral deprivation, an elite of Muslim youth is holding fast to the teachings of Allah.’’
And according to Emerson, a companion MAYA publication states that ``Western civilization is based upon the separation of religions from life (whereas) Islamic civilization is based upon fundamentals opposed to those of Western civilization’’ and warns Muslim women to be ``conscious of the evils of Western civilization.’’
Abdullah bin Laden, a nephew of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, was also a founding director of MAYA. Bin Laden headed the U.S. office of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, a major Saudi-based charity investigated by the FBI for suspected financing of terrorism. Bin Laden abandoned WAMY’s office in Falls Church, Va., soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks masterminded by his uncle. ——— Under suspicion: Hub mosque leader tied to radical groups
Boston Herald | Wednesday, October 29, 2003 | SPECIAL REPORT/by Jonathan Wells, Jack Meyers, Maggie Mulvihill and Kevin Wisniewski
Posted on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 7:13:22 AM by ninonitti