Muslim for a Day: Unique Service Honours our Troops

January 2, 2007

Author: Rob Faulkner

Source: The Hamilton Spectator

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1167691810926&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815

The sacrifice of Canadian soldiers mixed with an Islamic festival of sacrifice this past weekend in what's likely Canada's first Muslim remembrance service for this country's troops killed in Afghanistan.

About 50 people, Muslim and Christian, secular and not, were "Muslim for a day" at a service held Sunday morning in the liberal Eternal Spring United Church on Rymal Road East.

Keynote speaker retired Major- General Lewis MacKenzie said ignorance has eased since he served in Gaza with the United Nations force in 1963.

Back then, he says, ignorant soldiers laughed about Muslims praying for Allah to fix a flat tire, when they were actually observing the tenets of their faith at the roadside.

"That's opposed to what we see here," said MacKenzie, who drove from Ottawa for the event.

While he thinks Canada is doing the right thing in Afghanistan, the Muslim Canadian Congress has urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to bring his troops home in light of casualties.