Muslim Friday Call To Prayer To Sound At Duke University, NC

Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has decided that all students Muslims and non-Muslims alike will get to listen to the Friday call to prayer. They'll get that pleasure commencing this Friday.

Members of the Duke Muslim Students Association will chant the call, known as adhan or azan, from the Duke Chapel bell tower each Friday at 1 p.m. The call to prayer will last about three minutes and be “moderately amplified,” officials said in a statement Tuesday.

“The adhan is the call to prayer that brings Muslims back to their purpose in life, which is to worship God, and serves as a reminder to serve our brothers and sisters in humanity,” said Imam Adeel Zeb, Muslim chaplain at Duke. “The collective Muslim community is truly grateful and excited about Duke’s intentionality toward religious and cultural diversity.”

This from Christy Lohr Sapp, the associate dean for religious life at the Duke Chapel.

“This opportunity represents a larger commitment to religious pluralism that is at the heart of Duke’s mission."  “It connects the university to national trends in religious accommodation.”

Wow. Just, wow.

I'm speechless.

"God Hates Billy's Cow"- Westboro Baptist Church Protests Billy Graham

According to the vile Westboro Baptist Church wackos, everyone is going to hell: gays, the military, and now even evangelist Billy Graham is headed for the fires of hell. And apparently he'll be joining his wife Ruth who already happens to be there.

The Westboro creeps are the ones who are always out there picketing funerals, from gays to soldiers, and have threatened celebrities and public figures from Whitney Houston to Joe Paterno to Apple's Steve Jobs. They don't always show up, but the threats are there.

The Kansas-based group seems to be deviating from its "God hates fags" message with the attack on Billy Graham, who supported the North Carolina ban on gay marriage.

"Watching the moral decline of our country causes me great concern. I believe the home and marriage is the foundation of our society and must be protected."

Now they claim God hates Billy's (mechanical) cow. WBC followers were out in front of Billy Graham's library in Charlotte because they believe he is a "lying whore false prophet..." and that he should be preaching "that it's not okay to be a fag, it's not okay to divorce and remarry, it's not okay to fornicate, it's not okay to kill your babies."

They also that Graham uses his "substantial resources and influence to not only be silent on issues of importance, but to actually put forth the notion that hell isn't real."

I guess Billy Graham's idea of God's love runs counter to that of the WB Church-goers:

"The central message of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association today is the same message Mr. Graham has faithfully preached for more than 70 years. It's a message of God's love for all people and the hope that only comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ."

They also condemn the library for its moneymaking endeavours.

"It's not about preaching the gospel of Christ. It's about how much money you can connive the gullible people who come through there into spending," the group asks. "How much will they spend at the snack bar? How many children can you lead to Satan through Bessie the talking cow? How many books can you sell? For shame!"

They plan on protesting at other Bill Graham venues including his home.

These people need to get a life.

Someone does make a valid point in one of the comments on the article: if we didn't give them publicity, maybe they'd all just go away.