| | | Canada: Mosque celebrates Eid al-Fitr in new mosque that just opened in former Catholic church
Apr 3, 2025 12:00 pm
By Robert Spencer
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The Catholic Church loves this sort of thing, as the Catholic hierarchs think that if they sell a church that they don’t need anymore to Muslims, it remains in the family of people who worship God. And that’s heartwarming and all that, but from the Islamic point of view, taking over a church or other house of worship is a public expression of the victory and superiority of Islam over other religions. This has played out in the destruction of numerous Hindu temples, churches, and synagogues, and the replacement with mosques, or else in the appropriation of the existing structure as a mosque (as in the case of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Damascus, etc.). Oblivious to history and Islamic theology, however, the Catholics keep selling churches to Muslims, thinking that in doing so, they’re helping build bridges and cement friendships between the two “faith communities.” Anyone who tried to tell them that this was not the case was demonized as an “Islamophobe” and thrown out years ago.
At least in this instance, the church they sold looks as if it is a determinedly ugly, brutalist Sixties-era monstrosity, and so it’s no massive loss.
“New mosque officially opens in former Catholic Church as Eid celebrations begin,” by William Ping, CBC News, March 30, 2025 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
For Muslims in Newfoundland and Labrador, Sunday represented both the end of Ramadan and a new beginning for the community.
When the community met for morning prayers in honour of Eid al-Fitr, they gathered in a new mosque located in the former Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church on Torbay Road in St. John’s.
With around 6,000 in attendance for a pair of prayer sessions, Muslim Association of Newfoundland and Labrador President Haseen Khan says the event is a big day for his community for several reasons.
“People are very happy, people are excited, people have sense of ownership, they have sense of joy that now they have a place where they can all pray as one group, as one community,” said Khan.
After buying the church in December, the Association worked hard to renovate in time to have it open for Eid, one of the holiest times in the Muslim calendar.
“This is a big celebration for Muslims. This marks the completion of one month of fasting, one month of training. Training for God consciousness, training for self-discipline, self-restraint, caring and sharing and it is one of the five pillars of Islam,” Khan said…. |
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