Whether you’re religious or not, Christmas provides many of us with the opportunity to reflect on the state of the world and make generous gestures to our neighbors and loved ones. So perhaps it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that a Long Island, New York church and mosque banded together to deliver a message of peace and love a few weeks ago.
On December 25th, Westbury United Methodist Church and the Islamic Center of Long Island spent the day celebrating what their faiths have in common (and if you’ve read the Bible and Qu’ran, you know it’s quite a bit).
“When we join our Christian brothers and sisters for Christmas, this is a message of love and peace which we should all believe in the universal message,” said Dr. Isma Chaudry of the Islamic Center told CBS New York.
And 2019 wasn’t the first year they’ve shown interfaith cooperation at Christmas. The church and mosque have been cooperating to serve the meal for 5 years now.
Aside from finding commonalities, the two organizations wanted to create an event that epitomized tolerance.
“With so much hate going on and lack of tolerance for people who are different from me or you, it’s so important that we see families getting together who are of different traditions,” said church volunteer Rose Walker.
But they didn’t just get together for a chat, they served their community as an interfaith group, dishing out a warm Christmas meal to those who needed one.
“I think it’s really important that we give back to the community,” said Dr. Uzma Syed of the Islamic Center. “We’re all in this together and why not do whatever we can so the people less fortunate can have a warm meal, can get a toy for their children, get some clothes to put on their back and to really be joyous and celebrate today.”
Both faiths teach worshippers to honor thy neighbor.
“Love thy neighbor as thyself, that is what the Lord has called to all the faiths,” said Rev. Dr. Elon Sylvester of the Westbury United Methodist Church.
Imran Pasha of the Islamic Center reiterated the sentiment:
“My faith also teaches me you take care of your neighbor.”
According to CBS New York, the event started 15 years ago at the church in an attempt to provide a holiday meal to those who were in need.
Originally, they delivered holiday turkeys to homes. But eventually, they realized that not all homes had a kitchen or oven in which to prepare them. So they decided to serve the meal themselves – and now they do it with some help.
What made 2019’s event unique was the addition of health screenings to the holiday meal for over 100. This is a service that many in the community cannot afford.
“We can give them an additional service of getting medically checked out since we have so many physicians in our community,” said Mukheet Ahmed.
Representatives from both organizations stressed that religion should not be seen as a border but as a way for us all to acknowledge each other’s humanity.
Be sure to scroll down below to see scenes from 2019’s event.
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