Bishops Committees Voice Concern for Anti-Muslim Prejudice

Denounce Derision, Misinformation, Bigotry
Intolerance has no place in nation founded on religious freedom
Back ‘Beyond Park 51’ Statement by Interfaith Group

WASHINGTON—Catholic Bishops dealing with interfaith, domestic and international concerns voiced concern for anti-Muslim prejudice surrounding the threat of Koran burnings in Florida.

“All acts of intolerance aimed at a religious community should find no place in our world, let alone in our nation which is founded on the principle of religious freedom,” said
Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta, Chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs; Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; and Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace.

They issued their remarks September 9 (http://www.usccb.org/seia/response-muslim-prejudice.shtml).

In their remarks they also endorsed a September 7 statement titled “Beyond Park 51,” issued in Washington by an interfaith group that included Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop-emeritus of Washington, and Father James Massa, director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and interreligious Affairs.