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JUDEO
CHRISTIAN
ISLAMIC
?
Judeo Christian. We have become so used to
the phrase that the words practically fuse together. But national Muslim
groups are pushing for a change to "Judeo-Christian-Islamic"
or "Abrahamic" to stress the common roots of the three faiths,
as well as the growing Muslim population in this country.
To many Americans, the shift in language, and
psychology, may seem unlikely. But a few generations ago, referring to
our cultural heritage as "Judeo-Christian" rather than just
"Christian" would have been viewed as sacrilege in many
quarters.
The new terminology - favored by the American
Muslim Alliance, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim
American Society and the American Muslim Council - never may catch on,
but the underlying psychology inevitably will. Ecumenical groups across
the nation are discovering that Islam, with its strong emphasis on
charity, is a natural fit with other religious groups that are seeking
common ground and understanding...
The attacks awakened Americans to the fact that
there is a very large and growing religion in their midst. The Muslim
population of the United States is estimated as high as 7 million,
already surpassing the number of Jews as well as some mainline
Protestant denominations. And the great bulk of them are upstanding
citizens. More and more Americans of all faiths are coming to that
realization through their daily interactions with Muslims. At some
point, Muslims will shed their outsider status, just as Jews and
Catholics did before them...
It is too soon to know whether Americans will
grow accustomed to saying "Judeo Christian
Islamic" or "Abrahamic." But we might. After all, many
people once doubted that we ever would get used to calling Cassius Clay
"Muhammad Ali" or Lew Alcindor "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."
courtesy: Dallas Morning News, 5/27/03
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