Muslims performed the weekly Friday prayer at the Washington National Cathedral. The event was aimed at bridging Muslims and Christians worldwide together and promoting a better understanding and acceptance between communities of both faiths.

The call for Jumu'ah was both a reminder for D.C. area Muslims to put aside their daily business for an hour, but it was also a major step toward uniting American-Muslims and Christians in an effort to combat religious extremism and stereotypes

The sound of the church bell was replaced with the Athan (the Islamic call for prayers), Christian hymns with Islamic prayer in the chapel and the church priest with a Muslim imam.

The beginning of the prayer service was interrupted by a female protestor shouting about "Christian principles," but South African Ambassador to the U.S. His Excellence Ebrahim Rasool said the outburst was only one example of extremism shown in the lead-up to the prayer service — and there's been many other instances around the world of extremism from both Christians and Muslims.

In related news, last week, Jean-Pierre Legrand, leader of the National Front in Roubaix, France, offered to "entrust the keys of a disused church to Muslims" who suddenly found themselves without a place for performing their prayers after a municipal decree issued early November shut down a mosque in the city.

With MWN/WP