Letter of Friendship & Solidarity to Brazos Valley Muslim Community

Subject: Letter of Friendship & Solidarity to Brazos Valley Muslim Community
From: Interfaith Clergy of Bryan-College Station, Texas
Date: 11 Jul 2016

To Our Muslim Sisters & Brothers of the Islamic Community of B-CS (ICBCS) Mosque:

Shalom and peace be with you in the name of our God who makes us one. We write to you on behalf of Bryan-College Station’s local clergy with this message of lament, support, and hope.

We received the news that violence befell the ICBCS Mosque on the evening of July 6th, not long after you had gathered there for Eid al-Fitr prayers to celebrate the conclusion of the Holy Month of Ramadan fast. We heard about gun shots fired at the mosque, ripping through a window into your sacred space. Like the shattered glass that littered the floor of your faith home that night, our hearts are broken in pieces at the knowledge of this act of cowardice. However, our solidarity with and love for you cannot be so easily broken. In fact, no act of hatred can ever do that.

Judaism teaches us that “the stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34). The Jewish tradition calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves, reminding us that just as we were once the stranger, we must always stand against hate and promote love.

In Christianity, Jesus teaches us that “all the law and the prophets” hang on these two commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-40). Additionally, Jesus gives Christians a foundational mandate for our faith, that we “love one another. Just as I have loved you,” Christ instructs, “you also should love one another” (John 13:34).

In that same spirit, we recognize that Islam teaches through the Quran: “Indeed, Allah (God) orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded” (16:90).

Through our bond of holiness that urges us to be mindful of the marginalized, to treat one another with love, and to stand for justice and against oppression, we are indeed reminded of our accountability to each other as neighbors in the B-CS community, all of whom are equally precious in the eyes of God, and thus required to be so in the eyes of one another.

Therefore, we lament that the faith home of our Muslim neighbors was treated with violent disrespect. We are saddened if you were made to feel estranged in our community by your mosque being attacked.

Furthermore, as your interfaith neighbors, we support and stand with you in the free practice of your faith. As testament to our holy bond as neighbors in this community, we proclaim that an assault on your sacred space is an assault on our sacred space; for we stand together in witness to a God of freedom and justice for all.

Finally, we hope that our B-CS community will commit with us to ongoing acts of interfaith dialogue, tolerance and understanding across our religious differences, and peacemaking that will ultimately make the Brazos Valley neighborhood that we share a safe place for everyone, regardless of who we are, where we come from, or the religion that we practice.

In Friendship & Solidarity,

Rev. Dr. Dan De Leon, Pastor
Friends Congregational Church, College Station, TX

Rabbi Matt Rosenberg, Executive Director
Texas A&M Hillel, College Station, TX

Rev. Aaron Stockwell, Developmental Minister
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Brazos Valley, College Station, TX

Pastor Kimmie Daily-Hawkins
Christ Holy Missionary Baptist Church, College Station, TX

The Reverend Mindy Roll
Lutheran (ELCA) Campus Ministry/Treehouse, Texas A&M and Blinn College

The Rev. Mary Lenn Dixon
Deacon, Episcopal Churches of Bryan-College Station, TX

The Rev. J. Dean Lawrence
Rector, St Francis Episcopal Church, College Station, TX

The Rev. James T. Said
Associate Rector, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, College Station, TX

Rev. Marie Mickey, Associate Pastor
First Presbyterian Church, Bryan, TX

The Rev. Nandra Perry, Pastoral Leader
St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Hearne, TX

Rev. Katherine Hester Doehring, Campus Minister
United Campus Ministry (PCUSA & UCC), College Station, TX

Ted V. Foote, Jr., Senior Pastor
First Presbyterian Church, Bryan, TX

The Rev. Lisa Neilson, College Missioner
Episcopal Student Center, Texas A&M and Blinn College

Rev. Karl J. Tewold, Pastor
Faith United Church of Christ, Bryan, Texas

Rev. Cherry Moore, Chaplain
Bryan, TX

The Rev. Daryl T. Hay
Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, Bryan, TX

Rev. Jim Abbott, Interim Pastor
Peace Lutheran Church, College Station, TX

Rev. Jonathan Murray
Pastor, Covenant Presbyterian Church