Pastors are not the only religious leaders who wonder if attending church is simply a matter of routine.
In a sermon titled “How to be religious today,” Muslim speaker Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu asked the 100-plus members at the Islamic Community Center of Lancaster how they could leave last Friday’s call to prayer as confident Muslims who are “proud in our skins and proud in our identity and aware of our obligations to Allah.”
It is, he said, a matter of choice, but a choice fraught with challenges.
“When you think of it,” he said, “we live our lives in intervals — from one Friday to the other Friday … from one job to another, from one kid to another kid, and when you think about it, it all boils down to from one breath to the next breath.”
In all of those stations in life, he said, Muslims face choices, one of which is to believe in a creator.
“This is a challenge not only for us as Muslims, but for followers of any faith tradition.”
