Church Threatened For Hosting Muslim Event
A Pasadena Episcopal church has been receiving "hateful" messages from other Christians as a result of the church's decision to host the Muslim Public Affairs Council's annual convention, according to church leaders.
This convention will be the group's 12th annual meeting, but the first it will hold at a church.
All Saints Church on Euclid Avenue has received more than 25 hate emails and threats since Friday, according to Rev. Susan Russell, senior associate for communications at All Saints.
She said one email compared Islam to Nazism and called Muslims "Body Snatchers."
Another quote read, "You are Consorting with the Enemy that is Killing Christians Worldwide."
Yet another message, sent from South Carolina, said: "The problem is that by providing cover and legitimacy to an organization dedicated to overthrowing the Constitution, and substituting Sharia law therefore, you endanger my country and my grandsons' future."
All Saints Church in Pasadena is famously liberal, and church officials said they are used to criticism.
But All Saints rector J. Ed Bacon said in his Sunday sermon that the messages prompted by the MPAC convention were "some of the most vile, mean-spirited emails I've ever read in my life, talking about All Saints participating in terrorism," according to Russell.
The emails and threats first began after the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative Christian group, published a criticism on Friday of the convention on its website, saying: "Yet again, the Islamists are taking advantage of naive Christians with a desire to show off their tolerance."
MPAC President Salam al-Marayati said he contacted All Saints about the convention in order "to provide an alternative model of positive Muslim-Christian relations" and "to tell Muslims to stop speaking to themselves and start speaking to the broader American public."
Al-Maryati told the Huffington Post he is working with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and local police to ensure that the convention, which is expected to have about 1,000 participants, remains a safe event.
At a news conference at the church Thursday morning, Russell said the purpose of agreeing to host the MPAC convention was to demonstrate the "values of love and justice and compassion."
Al-Marayati said his group considers the church as "a safe place for conversations" without "the fear of surveillance" or prejudice.
Other religious leaders attended the conference, including a rabbi, and stood behind the speakers in solidarity.
Al-Marayati described them as "the faces of America," and a contrast to "hate-mongers" who oppose interfaith and reconciliation efforts.
