A Catholic university in Belgium included a Qur’an recitation during a Eucharistic celebration, igniting outrage over the growing effort to blur the boundaries between interfaith dialogue and Christian worship.
KU Leuven opened its academic year with a Mass at St. Peter’s Church led by Professor Jacques Haers, a Jesuit priest and pastor of the University Parish. During the service, a young man stood at the lectern and chanted Qur’an 26:69-70 in Arabic.
The passage recounts Abraham asking his father and his people, “What do you worship?”
See for yourself:
According to Christian commentator Peter Heck, writing for Not the Bee, the university has not publicly explained who selected the passage or why it was included. Islamic prayers were also reportedly incorporated into the previous year’s opening Mass as part of what the university calls “interreligious dialogue.”
Heck called the decision “utterly, insultingly insane.”
Dialogue Has a Boundary
Christians can choose to study what Muslims believe and engage them in honest conversation. Christian universities can have courses on Islamic history and competing theological claims. But a Eucharistic celebration is neither a classroom nor an interfaith conference.
“It is Christian worship,” Heck wrote.
Catholic teaching places the Eucharist at the center of the Church’s worship, commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Introducing Islamic religious expression into that sacred setting is especially alarming because Islam denies the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, His crucifixion and His resurrection.
“Those aren’t minor theological disagreements,” Heck wrote. “They obliterate the very heart of the Gospel.”
Order Jonathan Cahn’s New Book, “The Altar of Pergamon” on Amazon.com!
The apostle Paul warned believers in 1 Corinthians 10 that pagan sacrifices are offered to demons and declared that Christians cannot participate in both “the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” Heck clarified that this does not mean Muslims are demon-possessed. Rather, Scripture reveals that false worship carries a demonic dimension and must never be treated as spiritually harmless.
“If Christians really believe Jesus is who we say He is, then turning Christian worship into something that dishonors Him should provoke righteous anger — the kind of anger that sent Jesus overturning tables in the temple,” Heck wrote.
Christians can welcome Muslims into serious conversations conducted with truth and compassion. But dialogue must never become compromise, and the Lord’s table must never become a platform for worship that rejects the Lord Himself.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
