muslum tradition has it that they came from the child conceved by abraham and put out by him when sarah became pregnant. they would say we all worship the same God. i find a lot of opinion and no real fact. might i suggest the book a history of God by karen armstrong so one might form an opinion based on something other then bigotry (which im sorry to say is really making an ugly appearence here.

Sigh. Those accusing fellow Catholics of bigotry should educate themselves on the approach Islam has to people of other religions and people of no religion. Start with a search on what it means to be a dhimmi, today and in any number of countries. Dhimmitude is institutionalized bigotry. It's varied application under Sharia law translates into levels of misery for millions upon millions of people today, including fellow Christians.

No, there was nothing like dhimmi status officially taught by the Catholic Church, not today and not ever.

Keep trying, but comparisons as to what Catholicism and what Islam teach are sadly far more divergent than one might hope. Comparisons between Jesus Christ and Mohammed are even more clarifying.

It is possible- maybe imperative- to love Muslims and criticize points of gross error in Islam. The love of Christ and love for souls urges me on to love Muslims, pray for the conversion of Islam, defend those oppressed in Islamic-dominated lands, and resist encroaching attempts to implement Sharia law in Europe and beyond.

This post started out with a more limited scope- I acknowledge that. But Christians who don't seem to understand or even attempt to learn the extent of human suffering caused directly by the teachigs of Islam worry me. How are we to help the suffering when we don't know or want to acknowledge who they are? Is that love?

deleted by author on account of troll

Yes, Richard, from OCP. I should have known.
I Cor 10-17
Though many, we are one bread, one body, for we all partake of the one Bread and one Chalice.

Richard! From OCP?????

Wow, what a bent out of shape thread!!!

The CMAA provides a massive service to the English Speaking church, and beyond, in its faithfulness and promotion of our musical patrimony. Whether some "Church" authorities take it seriously or not is irrelevant, but I would submit that many important authorities on our Roman Liturgy do (ie. Mons. Andrew Wadsworth).

The Syriac Christian roots of Islamic chant are documented and the discussion of the evolution of these two traditions (Muslim chant and Gregorian Chant) is not without merit (well so says I). To question whether such a discussion diminishes the credibility of CMAA or MSF is funny. MSF is a public forum where an exchange of ideas may take place and hopefully not one where ad hominem attacks should be embraced. CMAA has, of course, nothing to do with the content on its forum where people may say all kinds of silly things... I know I have.

SM, if it is that you have been counting the number of posts you have read for either your own edification or the pure ridicule of some of those you have read, then you could message the individual you have a problem with or simply practice some virtue and spare us this unfortunate angst that started bad and has taken some wrong turns. The devil surely rejoices in our poor behaviour.

Not that most of us need reminding, but the CMAA is a safe haven of resources and contacts for those who are interested or are pursuing Sacred Music in the place of the Roman Catholic Liturgy. For myself, this is a good place to go on the internet, where some questions are answered, resources are shared and ideas are expanded. Eutopia it is not, but please folks let's not sully the place with disrespectful comments.

DonRoy,
Ishmail was the illegitimate son of Abraham.
Yes Islam calls Abraham: father but do they worship the Triune God?

Well... no they don't. They don't believe in such a God so they cannot worship the same
God.
Perhaps we can say that Muslims desire to worship the true God in their ignorance of what God is.

The pious practices of a Muslim are worthy of reflection, but again we must be careful about how we view such practices as positive or negative. I enjoyed Jeffery's article in this light and found it sobering to think of how a nation could embrace a religion.
I cannot praise Islam because it is so opposed to the Truth. From the very beginning this was so and ignorance of the history of Islam's spread through North Africa and the Middle-East is a dangerous thing for us sheltered North Americans. Go ask some
Chaldean Christians or any Syriac, Melkite, Coptic, or Maronite Christians about Isalm and what is left of the once ancient Christian lands and people that were converted by St Paul...

I do not advocate any sort of bigotry. We need to have knowledge and understanding of different peoples and pray for their conversion often.

Let me take this opportunity to encourage Juan to read the forum etiquette guidelines, if he hasn't done so yet.

The first point states: "We will not tolerate any abusive, insulting, hostile, or threatening posts about anything or anyone."

I have blocked the user calling himself "Juan" and "SacredMusic" and removed his comments from this thread.

His comments all seemed to be complaints, starting with his first appearance on the forum in August. He wrote in when someone dissed his singer friend's video. He tried to impress forum readers by telling us that the lady had sung for the Kennedys and other rich [and scandalous] Catholics. It didn't work.

Just in the past few hours he erased those first comments, hiding his previous statements from view. I can understand that. His musician friend doesn't deserve to be tainted by association with "Juan"'s impolite messages on this thread.

Add to don roy's list: Unitarianism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Binitarianism, Modalism. There are also differences in understanding and interpretation of the Trinity in Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and various Protestant divisions.

For what it is worth, I have even heard some say that Islam is a Christian heresy. The Eastern Roman Empire was rife with anti-trinitarian heresies at the time of Mohammed. I guess it is possible he was influenced by them.

I recently wandered onto a forum for amateur guitar players (not on purpose), and couldn't stop myself from reading a prolonged discussion about what key a particular song was in. ("Hotel California," I think). It was fascinating to see a bunch of people discuss the point, because so many of them didn't have any idea what they were talking about, or otherwise we're talking as if the "Key" of a piece of music is a wholly subjective topic ("It really FEELS minor, you know..." "I read somewhere that D minor is the saddest of all keys...").

I don't know why I was thinking about that all of the sudden. Hm.

Adam:

You must remember! Minor means sad and Major means happy. No if and or buts!

I was just thinking about how there are really two different interpretations for the phrase "have no idea what [one is] talking about."

One the one hand, a person (or group of people) could be discussing things about which they have no knowledge. For example, a group of people who don't understand basic music theory arguing over the key of a particular piece of music, as if the key itself is a matter open for interpretation, and not a simple fact.

Another interpretation of the phrase could apply to the situation wherein a person (or group of people) are talking, but are unsure or unaware of the what the content or context of the discussion actually is.

I don't know what I was thinking about that all of the sudden.