Source & Credit: The Middletown
By Zahir Mannan | February 24, 2010
Banning English from mosques clashes with Islamic understanding of cultural plurality
Dear Editor,
Will banishing English from American mosques nurture Muslim identity or diffuse cultural intolerability? Unlike those who believe speaking English in mosques as a violation of Islamic law, the Quran declares ethnic and cultural diversity to be a source of universal fraternity (49:14). I am an American-born Muslim who regularly attends mosque functions where members pray in Arabic but communicate in English, yet our integrity as Muslims remains intact.
Muhammad spoke in Arabic primarily because it was the language understood by the majority of his audience, but did he forbid other languages in a mosque? On the contrary, he not only had disciples who spoke Farsi, Semitic and Hebrew, among other tongues, but once allowed a Christian delegation to hold their own worship service in his mosque.
Shunning English from American mosques clashes with the fundamental Islamic understanding of cultural plurality. Alas, this is a trend found more commonly in biased communities.
Zahir Mannan
Biology/pre-med student at SCSU
Middletown
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