Christianity and Islam

On Sunday, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrahkan retired from public ministry, giving a speech to thousands at Ford Field in Detroit.

In his speech, he made an interesting comment:

The 73-year-old Farrakhan told the thousands at Detroit's Ford Field that Jesus Christ and the Prophet Muhammad would embrace each other with love if they were on the stage behind him.

As Christians, we believe Jesus is the Son of God, the third person of the Trinity and the Messiah, not another prophet. I'm all for interfaith dialogue, so long as the Catholic faith is not watered down, but how this can be reconciled between the two faiths is beyond me, but Pope Benedict XVI made news last fall trying to respectfully build bridges while acknowledging the major differences between Islam and Christianity/Catholicism.

The topic of Christian-Islam relations will get further discussion as part of the March 27 Theology on Tap in downtown Colorado Springs. Bishop Richard Hanifen, Rabbi Howard Hirsch and Arshad Yousufi from the Islamic Society will present "Briding the Gap Between Catholic, Jewish and Islamic Religions" 6:30 p.m. at The Warehouse Brewery (25 W Cimarron St). I plan to be there.