the 99 Names of Allah at Westminster Cathedral

I saw the news in the Catholic Herald last week that there were plans to have a concert in which the singing of the 99 'beautiful' Names of Allah would take place in Westminster Cathedral. In the Cathedral itself! I thought that possibly the Cardinal would intervene with this-but it seems not.

The 99 Names are very problematical for Christians.

Even those names we could accept for God may have a different meaning or connotation when speaking of Allah. How anyone can stand on concecrated ground and sing of God being 'humiliator', 'the subduer', 'The abaser' and the 'giver of dishonour' is beyond me.
But then we have the added problem of names such as the 'Almighty Self-Sufficient'. Now that sounds fine in Christian theology, accept that we see the self-sufficency of God in His Holy Trinity and that's blasphemy to Muslims.

I don't have the time or inclination to unpick the whole thing here-but I would be very surprised if Muslims wanted this list of prayers used as a mere concert anyway.

Then I read Mulier Fortis this morning and find that Tibeten gongs are to be used with the Names! Yikes! How on earth will the Muslim community respond to that?

There are bowl shaped gongs as well as the more obvious shaped ones and they are usually used as mantras and for spirit healing shenanagans. Can anyone see this being accepted as good news by Muslims?

Most importantly while this mixture of pagan and Islamic music and 'worship' that isn;t worship is actually happening INSIDE the Cathedral where will they put My Lord?

Will the Tabernacle be empty?

Will God be forced out of His own home to make way for this?

There is a protest against this brewing. I am quite saddened to see two letters in this morning's Catholic Herald that show such a lack of understanding of the seriousness of this situation and a very real confusion over the difference between the revealed God of Christianity and that of the Allah of Islam.

One writer uses the words 'God-the Father' to show Him as the same God of the Old and New Testament AND of Islam! So he blasphemes Islam in his attempt to make it the same as Christianity. *Sigh*

Confusion reigns.