About 3,000 Muslims gathered Friday for a first-ever prayer service in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol in what turned out to be a peaceful assembly despite the taunts of Christian evangelists on the surrounding sidewalks.
This is what I don't understand. Some Christians complain about losing their religious freedom and rightfully so. Their rights are under attack from secular progressives all the time. Christians will keep fighting to keep those rights, but some of the same people won't give the same consideration for other religions.
As a Christian, I know how Christians' religious rights are being chipped away. We can't pray or even talk about God in school. We can't post anything remotely religious on government property. Christmas, "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" are both under constant attack.
We should be able to sympathize with them and let them be as long as they are peacefully assembling. They have the same rights of religion, religious expression, and peaceful assembly as the rest of us do. The Bill of Rights was written for everyone not just Protestant Americans. If we want them to respect our ways, we must, also, respect theirs.
"What we've done today, you couldn't do in any Muslim country," said Imam Abdul Malik, 42, of Brooklyn, N.Y., the rally organizer who made a 40-minute address to the crowd. "If you prayed on the palace lawn there, they'd lock you up."
That is really what makes this country great. We have freedoms that other people can only fantasize about having. This what our Founding Fathers fought for with their lives. They escaped religious persecution in England so that they may praise and worship as they pleased here in America. Anyone from any religion should be able to come to the United States and not feel restricted with regards to their religious beliefs and expression. We, Christians, must remember where we come from, so we don't make the same mistakes good ole King George made.
