Priest causes havoc and kicks Muslims out
October 26, 2008 by ImanK
I came to know of an incident that happened in Greece a few days ago that is quite disturbing but at the same time ironically humourous!
Apparently, TV and internet news, Enet.gr have reported there was a priest in Athens, who after seeing a Libyan Muslim lady wearing the hijab at a baptism caused havoc and threatened to stop the baptism if she didn’t leave the church! He basically kicked her out.
Turns out, her and her husband flew to Greece only to attend the baptism of his friend’s daughter, but what a trip that turned out to be. (I believe the Libyan man’s mother is a Greek revert to Islam).
Some have said that the priest was out of line and his decision is not backed by the church’s policies but that still has not been clarified publicly.
The Chairman of the Muslim Association of Greece, Naim Elghandour, has responded appropriately with his letter asking the church (or government) to clarify this matter exactly as he said in his statement,
Εμείς ως Μουσουλμανική Ένωση θα θέλαμε να μας διευκρινίσετε τι ακριβώς ισχύει στη χώρα μας πάνω στο ζήτημα αυτό, και αν ο πρεσβύτερος κάνει λάθος θα θέλαμε να το διευκρινίσουμε επίσης καθώς τέτοιες κινήσεις αμαυρώνουν το πρόσωπο της Εκκλησίας όχι στους Μουσουλμάνους αλλά και στους Χριστιανούς. Υπάρχει τέτοια εγκύκλιος και πως ελέγχεται το πλήθος που παρίσταται στα μυστήρια αν είναι βαπτισμένο ή όχι; Απαγορεύεται σε μία γυναίκα με μαντήλι και σεμνή περιβολή να μπαίνει στην εκκλησία ενώ επιτρέπεται η ημίγυμνη περιβολή που τείνει να αποτελέσει την πλειοψηφία στους γάμους και τις βαπτίσεις;
I guess the ironic part of all of this mess is that not only were there other Muslims at the baptism as well but Enet.gr reported that the priest said that not only Muslims were excluded from worship services but also heretic Christians, “όχι μόνον οι αβάπτιστοι, αλλά ακόμα και κάποιος αιρετικός χριστιανός δεν μπορεί να παρακολουθεί τις λατρευτικές ακολουθίες.”
Hmm, I wonder what he would do when all those Greek athiests attend his services! Or what about those Greek Christians who wore hijab in the church out of modesty? In fact, what about the Greek nuns or even Mother Mary who wore hijab?
Do people use their intellect?
This was a very difficult matter because nobody had faced this before,not even the priests, as they stated in tv stations. Apparently this priest was shocked to see the hijab, that he forgot about Christianity.
This was a good chance to see the reflexes of the Greek society, and once again I am proud to say that they supported the woman in hijab strongly, and they were very curious why the priest did that.
One anchor woman at news asked Naim: Well, what she did? Only standing and the priest sent her out? Because they could not understand it. The priests said that noone has the authority to send out of the church a person who comes in his free will, but the church law says that a person of another religion cannot participate in praying with the orthodox christians, meaning that a buddhist cannot baptize an orthodox child, or a muslim cannot be best man to an orhtodox wedding, but everybody can be inside the church with respect and modesty watching the social event.
A friend from Egypt said that in greek christian marriages in Egypt, most women wear hijab, but he also saw women with nicab!
So the couple from Libya was unpleasantly surprized since this could never happent elsewhere.
I think from now on this will not happen again, although the Greek Church has not replied offically yet, but sending their representatives unofficially to the tv stations confirming that the priest was exaggerating, and in his place they would never cause such a problem, confirms that the Church wants to close this matter without more fuss about it.
Yes, the Libyan man is also a Greek Muslim like us, and I will suggest him to visit our website to know all of us, en sha Allah!
Let me set the scene….
It’s a summer afternoom in Melbourne January 2001 and a Greek wedding is taking place at the Malvern Greek Orthodox Church. The bridegroom asks his younger brother to be in the bridal party. The young man gently declines (as he has recently embraced islam). The bridegroom pleads to his younger brother and asks him to reconsider and to do him this favour. The brother of the bridegroom asks his elder brother if there are any religious requirements, ‘no’ was his reply ‘just stand there do nothing’.
Well what do you think happened when the priest was shoving his hand in the face of the bridal party during the ceremony so they could slober it with kisses? After a game of tug of war with the priests hand in my face, he realised that something was out of the ordinary. You are Christian aren’t you he asks the bridegroom’s younger brother. Well what do you think happend when he heard the reply?
In the middle of the wedding ceremony with a nice loud voice, ‘you don’t belong in this church, if i had known I would not have let you in’. Well my fists were clenched and I was ready to drop this fellow to the ground, he realised that I meant business and so he continued with the ceremony as if nothing happened. When I eagerly watched the vieo recording of the ceremony (which I was planning to send a copy to Church authorities), I had found that the production company had edited that bit out, rather professionally I might add.
These priests are hardcore mushriks, and mushriks have always hated the true believers in tawheed. This has always been the case with history of Islam whether in Arabia, with the Crusaders or the cow worshippers of India.
Thanks Anna for all that information. Seems like the incident caused some trouble! But there is always good that comes out of the bad.
Br. Abu Abdullah, that’s quite an incident there!
It was absolutely hilarious now that I look back, a bit like a Seinfeld episode