GEORGETOWN, A CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, HOLDS PANEL ON RELIGION & THE CORONAVIRUS, FOCUSES ON RAMADAN, IGNORES EASTER
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research
purposes:
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. The millions it is alleged to have taken 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. But that would be in a sane world. In ours, Catholic hierarchs will probably direct other Catholic colleges and universities to follow Georgetown’s lead.“Catholic university’s religion panel on COVID ignores Easter, focuses on Ramadan,” by Jeremiah Poff, The College Fix, April 8, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):A Georgetown University panel event hosted by its religion center on Monday about the religious response to the coronavirus pandemic did not delve into how billions of Christians across the globe will not be able to celebrate Easter together.The “COVID-19 Crisis: Taking Stock of Religious Responses” panel was held at the start of Holy Week, which culminates with Easter this Sunday. As the globe is in something of a lockdown, most churches have cancelled in-person Holy Week services and plan for online ones instead.Georgetown University, a private Catholic institution in Washington D.C., has cancelled all of its in-person religious services. It plans to livestream its various Easter Week observances on its Facebook page, according to the university website.At the panel, neither the virus’ impact on the campus and the globe’s Christians, nor the topic of the Jewish Passover, was raised. 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 presentation was hosted by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. The panelists called on the religious to consider the most vulnerable in society and how the coronavirus crisis hurts them more than traditional households….Monday’s panel featured Berkley Center Senior Fellow Katherine Marshall as moderator, Imam Mohamed Magid, independent consultant on humanitarian emergencies David Robinson, and Olivia Wilkinson, director of research at the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities.Wilkinson, whose online bio states that her research focus is on secular and religious influences in humanitarian action, said in her initial comments that “people with vulnerabilities are disproportionately affected” by crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.While she mentioned poor and sick individuals as just some of those “with vulnerabilities,” Wilkinson pivoted 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 cited food baskets in the lead up to Ramadan as a service that is being affected by the global crisis….Imam Magid began his comments by saying that the world needed a “theology of crisis,” in which religious leaders can bring faith to the faithful in a time of crisis….
