Holy Week panel on religion and COVID-19 discusses only … Islam!

A panel at the Roman Catholic university Georgetown on religion and the coronavirus focused exclusively of Islam, ignoring the pandemic's impacts on Christians and Jews, according to the College Fix.

The panel, called "COVID-19 Crisis: Taking Stock of Religious Responses," never raised the issues of the virus' impact on the campus and the world's Christians or the Jewish Passover.

"Instead the religion experts zeroed in on how the lockdown has complicated observing the upcoming month of Ramadan for the Islamic community, as well as how the COVID-19 response has hurt the marginalized in society, such as refugees," the College Fix said.

The panel was held at the Washington, D.C., university's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at the beginning of Holy Week, which concludes Easter Sunday.

Because of the pandemic, most churches and religious events have been canceled or moved online.

On the panel, the report said, were Berkley Center Senior Fellow Katherine Marshall, Imam Mohamed Magid, consultant David Robinson, and Olivia Wilkinson of the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities.

Wilkinson quickly moved the discussion to migrants and refugees.

"We're very well aware that systemic issues from the lack of funding and defunding of support for refugees and migrants, marginalization that refugees and migrants experience economically or otherwise, influence their vulnerability at any time. Now that we’re in a time of pandemic as well, these vulnerabilities are compounding," Wilkinson said.

She then brought up the issue of food baskets in the lead-up to Ramadan.

Magid, the report said, suggested holding webinars to train imams in how to serve their communities. He called for creative ways to mark Ramadan.

The College Fix said it emailed and called a spokesman for the center and Georgetown University officials asking why Christian and Jewish voices were not included in the conversation. The requests were not immediately returned.

Islam expert Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch said: "Few people realize how severely America’s universities and colleges have degenerated. Georgetown University is a national disgrace, employing numerous apologists for jihad and professional dissemblers about the teachings of Islam that incite believers to commit acts of jihad violence."

Spencer said the millions of dollars Georgetown is alleged to have received from Qatar "may be a partial explanation for its steep decline from academic institution to Islamic dawah and propaganda outfit."

"Not only should it not be regarded as an academic institution, but the Catholic Church, if it had not completely lost its way in this regard, should reevaluate its status as a Catholic university," he said.