There will be a new feature in the Christmas program at one Norwegian elementary school this year: the Quran. But it's only the latest example of the Muslim holy book showing up in a Christian environment.
The Stigerasen School in Skien, Norway, announced last week that this year's Christmas festivities would feature students reading not only the typical Bible verses but also two verses from the Quran.
The Quranic verses are about Jesus, but Muslims consider Jesus only a prophet, not the Son of God. And Christmas is not an Islamic holy day; Muslims typically do not celebrate it at all.
The Quran has pushed its way into other Christian settings around the world. In January, passages from the Quran were read from the lectern of St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, Scotland.
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The cathedral had invited local Muslims to join its service on the feast of Epiphany to promote understanding between Christianity and Islam.
A Muslim student read from the Quranic chapter that tells the story of Jesus' birth to the virgin Mary. The chapter contains the Islamic teaching that Jesus is not the Son of God and should not be worshipped, which led some Anglicans to criticize the cathedral for allowing the verses to be read.
In July 2016, a verse of the Quran was sung from the altar in the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome, Italy.
While the Catholics in attendance recited the Creed, a delegate of al-Azhar mosque in Cairo chanted an Islamic prayer for peace. It happened during a Mass in memory of Father Jacques Hamel, who was murdered by ISIS terrorists in his church in France.
Meanwhile, in the parish church of San Martino in Rebbio, Italy, a veiled Muslim woman read the Quranic verses that announce the birth of Christ during Mass on Christmas morning 2015. The priest, Fr. Giusto della Valle, intended it as a gesture of interreligious dialogue.
In fact, Pope Francis allowed the reading of Islamic prayers and Quran passages from the Vatican, the very seat of Roman Catholicism. It happened in June 2014 when Francis met with the late Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Vatican City at a gathering to pray for Middle East peace.
According to anti-Shariah activist Pamela Geller, this has all sadly become par for the course.
"This is a sign of the times in Europe," said Geller, author of "Stop the Islamization of America." "It's as if the Europeans know who their new masters and overlords are. The same spirit of appeasement and submission that animates such initiatives in Europe is alive and well here."
Indeed, 50 U.S. churches in 26 states invited Muslim clergy to come and read from the Quran in their sanctuaries on June 26, 2011. It was part of the "Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and Understanding" initiative, a project of Interfaith Alliance and Human Rights First. The project was an effort to counter "anti-Muslim bigotry" at a time when Quran burnings had been in the news. The Washington National Cathedral was one of the churches that took part in the initiative.
Leo Hohmann, a WND news editor and author of "Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration and the Resettlement Jihad," had harsh words for the Christians who have allowed the Muslim holy book to be read in their sacred spaces.
"Allowing the Quran to be read inside a church is the equivalent of the ancient Israelites setting up an image of a false god in the Holy of Holies," Hohmann declared. "It's blasphemous. Why? Because the Quran denies the deity of Christ, denies that God is a Father or that he had a Son, and also denies the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. What's left of Christianity that Islam and the Quran do not deny?"
Hohmann noted American public schools are not helping students learn the true nature of Islam. Rather, they are teaching children a sanitized, politically correct version of Islam that obscures its fundamental differences with Christianity, he said.
"They are being taught Islam believes in Jesus and worships the 'same god' as Christianity and Judaism," he said. “All lies. But how can we expect a nation that no longer knows or recognizes its own God to recognize a fake when it's put forth and celebrated by godless Marxists in our school systems and even in many of our churches?"
As Hohmann mentions in "Stealth Invasion,” the Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha, Nebraska, is perhaps the most striking interfaith effort in America today. It's composed of a group of Jews, a group of Christians and a group of Muslims who have located their houses of worship on the same campus "to promote dialogue, transcend differences, foster acceptance, and build bridges of respect and trust," according to the initiative’s mission statement.
Hohmann said members of the initiative lately have been spreading their message about the "same god" and "common ground" between the three faiths to churches and schools in the Omaha area.
On Oct. 24, the imam associated with the Tri-Faith Initiative, Mohammad Jamal Daoudi, spoke for 30 minutes in front of the altar at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Omaha, Hohmann said.
"During his address to the Omaha Catholics, the imam denied Christ, denied the crucifixion, denied the resurrection and denied the authenticity of the Bible – all with the blessing of the church's priest, Father Tom Bauwens."