{"id":650,"date":"2011-05-06T11:08:29","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T15:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/?p=650"},"modified":"2011-05-06T11:08:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-06T15:08:29","slug":"fun-friday-if-muslims-christians-pray-together-can-santa-or-god-tell-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/05\/fun-friday-if-muslims-christians-pray-together-can-santa-or-god-tell-the-difference.html","title":{"rendered":"Fun Friday: If Muslims &amp; Christians Pray Together, Can Santa &#8211; or God &#8211; Tell the Difference?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Check out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailyshow.com\/watch\/thu-may-5-2011\/big-mohammed-s-house?xrs=share_copy\">this field report about interfaith cooperation from last night&#8217;s Daily Show With Jon Stewart<\/a>, in which correspondent-comedian John Oliver\u00a0plays the role of a\u00a0conservative Christian confused by\u00a0a Virginia church allowing Muslims to pray in its multi-purpose room. (Seems like old news to me,\u00a0but\u00a0I guess Canada&#8217;s<a href=\"http:\/\/video.google.com\/videoplay?docid=4689644836814333621#\"> &#8220;Little Mosque on the Prairie&#8221;<\/a> hasn&#8217;t aired in most American markets yet.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s the problem: What if the Muslim God overhears the prayers from the Christians. Is there not a danger that those prayers will get&#8230; It&#8217;s like Santa Claus. He can only come down one chimney, and he needs to know if they&#8217;ve been good, or if they&#8217;ve been Muslim,&#8221; Oliver asks the Rev. Dr. Dennis Perry,\u00a0a Methodist pastor,\u00a0and\u00a0 and Naeem Balg, of the Islamic Circle of North America.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of Christian-Muslim relations, today <a href=\"http:\/\/ncronline.org\/blogs\/ncr-today\/day-sal%C3%A1mu-%E2%80%98al%C3%A1ikum\">marks the 10-year anniversary of now-Blessed John Paul II becoming the first pope to visit a mosque.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On a more serious note, some of you may\u00a0similarly chuckle &#8212; in a \u00a0&#8220;preach it, but is only the choir listening?&#8221;\u00a0way &#8212; at the <a href=\"http:\/\/content.usatoday.com\/communities\/Religion\/post\/2011\/05\/gay-god-marriage-steve-simon-speech\/1?csp=34&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Religion-TopStories+%28News+-+Religion+-+Top+Stories%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader\">God &#8220;wants gays around&#8221; speech by Minn. State Rep. Steve Simon<\/a>, as lawmakers debated a gay marriage ban there. Then again, check out the comments section of that link.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to\u00a0<strong>subscribe to Belief Beat\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to\u00a0<strong>follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Check out this field report about interfaith cooperation from last night&#8217;s Daily Show With Jon Stewart, in which correspondent-comedian John Oliver\u00a0plays the role of a\u00a0conservative Christian confused by\u00a0a Virginia church allowing Muslims to pray in its multi-purpose room. (Seems like old news to me,\u00a0but\u00a0I guess Canada&#8217;s &#8220;Little Mosque on the Prairie&#8221; hasn&#8217;t aired in most&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1,2],"tags":[14,155,154,11,8,157,156,152,153],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-news","category-politics","tag-christianity","tag-daily-show-with-jon-stewart","tag-gay-marriage","tag-islam","tag-islamophobia","tag-john-oliver","tag-jon-stewart","tag-little-mosque-on-the-praire","tag-rep-steve-simon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fun Friday: If Muslims &amp; Christians Pray Together, Can Santa - or God - Tell the Difference? - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/05\/fun-friday-if-muslims-christians-pray-together-can-santa-or-god-tell-the-difference.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fun Friday: If Muslims &amp; Christians Pray Together, Can Santa - or God - Tell the Difference? - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Check out this field report about interfaith cooperation from last night&#8217;s Daily Show With Jon Stewart, in which correspondent-comedian John Oliver\u00a0plays the role of a\u00a0conservative Christian confused by\u00a0a Virginia church allowing Muslims to pray in its multi-purpose room. 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