Ban of Muslim prayer call at event defended

Leaders of a church are defending a decision to ban a Muslim call to worship, part of a program for a Veterans Day concert.

A video during the singing shows war scenes, then people from different faiths drawing together. Where Muslim worshippers are shown, there was silence rather than the call to prayer. The decision led Northwestern Michigan College to withdraw its sponsorship.

The Rev. David Walls of Traverse City’s First Congregational Church said leaders of his congregation feared causing offense to those at the concert. Doug Bishop, vice president of the church council, said: “We are clearly a Christian church, and we don’t apologize for that. We have the right to control our content.”

Walls “seems to be oblivious to the core values of the U.S. military,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations, who said he observed firsthand while serving in the U.S. Navy in 1994-98 how the military provided worship opportunities for “Jews, Christians, Muslims, even Wiccans.”

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