Church hosting Muslim convention getting hate mail
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Church-hosting-Muslim-convention-claims-threats-4096821.php
Updated 1:44 p.m., Thursday, December 6, 2012
All Saint's Church in Pasadena held a news conference to publicize what it called the "hateful" emails it has received since the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Religion & Democracy published an article on its website last week criticizing the church's plans to host the event for the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
The liberal-leaning church has received about 50 emails since Friday, many of them including a "hateful, vitriolic, demonization of Islam," the Rev. Susan Russell, church spokeswoman, told the AP. One email compared Muslims with Nazis and called them "body snatchers," while others accused church leaders of being naive pawns in MPAC's bid to spread radical Islam.
MPAC asked All Saint's to host its 12th annual convention on Dec. 15 to foster interfaith understanding, and the church will stand by its decision to do so, said Russell.
"This is very telling of the underbelly of Islamaphobia in this country," she said. "It gives us an amazing teachable moment to demonstrate what it looks like when people of faith refuse to be polarized by our differences."
The church and MPAC have shown the FBI and the LAPD the emails, but none has risen to the level of a threat, said Edina Lekovic, MPAC's director of policy and programming. MPAC expects between 500 and 700 people at the convention.
The article that appears to have prompted the emails was posted Friday on the website for The Institute on Religion & Democracy, which describes itself as a faith-based alliance of Christians who monitor and report on issues affecting the faith and provide a voice for Christian orthodoxy.
The group did not ask readers to write the church or organize any sort of response, said Mark Tooley, the group's president.
The church's stance that the emails were directed at all Muslims isn't accurate, he said, because they were written in response to an article that raised questions about MPAC's history specifically and the wisdom of associating with the organization.
"They're implying that criticism of them is a criticism of all Muslims and that's not the case. It's unfair generally," he said.
All Saints has a long history of social activism that has drawn national attention.
In 2004, the church's former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, delivered an anti-war sermon just days before the presidential election that led to an investigation of its tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service. Leaders of the stone church north of Los Angeles also spoke out against the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, opposed the Vietnam War and most recently supported gay marriage and championed female clergy.
