Last week Duke University was going to begin sounding the Muslim call to prayer each Friday before a few prominent Christians (Franklin Graham) spoke out against it. Duke’s goal seemed to be to make their campus more welcoming to the diverse students who go there. The same chapel sounds bells on Sunday to announce the beginning of church. Graham responded that this call to prayer comes at a time when Christianity is being excluded from the public square. Even if that is so, Duke is private and is very welcoming of Christians, so Graham’s argument does not seem relevant.
Further, I think it is great for Americans, and Christians, to model a welcoming attitude to people of other faiths. We ought to be better then the extremists who are executing those they disagree with. Not just better to the point that we don’t execute people, but better because we welcome the other. Instead of fear and silence, why not sound a call to prayer for three minutes each week to show Muslims we welcome them into our pluralistic culture? As one person in the video below said, this could even set an example that Muslim students can take back to their home country and perhaps work to change some attitudes towards minority religions in those countries.
In other words, if we want Christians as minority to be treated better in other countries, the best way to do this is not Graham’s way but Duke’s way.
What do you think?
David Hershey 
Dave, strong read on your thoughts of acceptance. I like your thoughts on welcoming other religions into our lives but have to respectfully disagree when doing so in our churches. Duke is a private institution, a Methodist college. Allowing cultic worship in any Christian domicile reflects the same ideology we see in the New Testament churches and the very reasoning of the many Epistles that were written. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Thanks for the comment. I know Duke has Christian roots, but I was looking at it more as a private university. I see what you’re saying, though at the same time, I could see a church allowing Muslims to use their building to worship and doing so as an act of loving neighbor. In that I see Islam more along the lines of a large world religion like Judaism then “cultic worship” in NT times. Thanks for giving me more to think about though.