Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

In a letter sent on Christmas Day to the Pope’s ambassador in Spain, the Spanish Islamic Board requested that The Catholic Cordoba cathedral, which was originally built as a mosque when the Moors ruled Spain starting in the 8th century, be opened for prayer to all religions as a model of tolerance and a way to foster inter-faith dialogue and “to seek to restore the “spirit of Al Andalus, when Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in relative harmony.”

“We invite you to create a new example, to send a message of hope to the world,” says the letter, which was published yesterday on the Spanish Muslim website Webislam. “Do not fear. Together we can show the violent, the intolerant, the anti-semites, the Islam-phobes and also those who believe that only Islam has a right to remain in the world, that prayer is the strongest weapon imaginable.”

In a separate news story, There are already plans in the works to build a mammoth mosque in the city which is being conceived as a kind of ‘European mecca’ which will be funded by Saudi Arabia and will become the second largest in the world. The former mosque in Cordoba was originally built in the 8th century and was once the second largest in the world and was known as the jewel of the Muslim caliphs. The mosque was expanded by successive rulers until the 13th-century Christian re-conquest, when it became a cathedral.

I’m all for tolerance and fostering inter-faith dialog initiated by the Spanish Islamic Board, and see no better way of demonstrating their sincerity and commitment to this initiative, than to open their mega-mosque to all faiths, who can then pray side by side.