An attack on a mosque in Queens, NY

The New York Daily News and other media outlets are reporting this morning on a series of fire bombings in the borough of Queens.  Fire bombs were hurled at four buildings: two private homes, a small shop, and a mosque.  Obviously, all of these atrocities are to be condemned in the harshest terms, but an attack on a house of worship is especially outrageous.  As believers in God, and in the freedom that helps to enable men and women to seek Him with a sincere heart and to strive to discern and do His will, we Catholics should be the first to condemn this attack, or any attack, on our Muslim brothers and sisters (and, indeed, our brothers and sisters of any faith) and to call for those responsible for it to be hunted down, prosectuted, and justly punished. One cannot help but be concerned that this particular crime was, at least in part, motivated by a desire to intimidate Muslim worshippers.  We should therefore condemn it no less swiftly and no less harshly than we condemn violent attacks by Islamist radicals on Christians and Jews and their houses of worship.  Just as good Muslims sought to protect Coptic Christians against violence at the hands of extremists (who, alas, were numerous) in Egypt, good Christians should seek to protect our Muslim fellow citizens. This is a time when we who are Catholic would do well to recall what we are taught about Islam by our Church in the great document Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council:

The Church regards with esteem also the Muslims. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Muslims, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.

Amen.