Notes from America: Muslims and Christians – At war in life, at peace in death On a hot summer afternoon, Standing along with a few hundred Muslims at the Garden of Eden Islamic Cemetery located in a remote corner of a Christian cemetery in Burnsville, Minnesota, mourning the death of one of our friends, the reverences and the respect were not just given by Muslims, but also by the staff and workers at the Christian cemetery. Everyone was taken by the gravity of the situation. Cemetery workers dug the grave, carried the coffin, lowered it into the grave, and waited quietly away until the end of the…
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BelAhdan, Egyptian Americans Reaction to Film “The Virgin, The Copts and Me
Namir is a French filmmaker of Egyptian origin. One day he watches a videotape of the Virgin Mary’s apparition in Egypt with his mother who, like millions of other Copts, (Egypt’s Christians) sees the Virgin on the screen while he sees nothing. Skeptical about the videotape, Namir travels back to Egypt, to make a film about the bizarre occurrence of these apparitions. The largest film event in the Upper Midwest, and one of the largest and longest running film festivals in the country, the MSP International Film Festival annually presents some 200 feature length and short form narrative and documentary films from 60+ countries around the world to growing numbers…
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My home journey to the family grave!
Standing at Garden of Eden Islamic Cemetery, located in a remote corner of a Christian cemetery in Burnsville, Minnesota mourning the death of one our friends, I couldn’t help reflecting how Muslims in the United States, unlike European Muslims who usually live in isolated “ghettos”, are free to choose where they want to live, and actually do, however, when a Muslim dies in the U.S. there is only one choice: the Muslim “ghetto” cemetery located inside a remote section of an existing Christian cemetery. I never understood the religious proximity taboo between the Muslim and Christian dead, and no amount of interfaith dialogue could bring the dead ones together; it…
