...Guide us in the straight path, the path of those whom Thou hast blessed, not of those against whom Thou art wrathful nor of those who are astray.
Offered as a prayer to “the Master of the Day of Doom,” ‘The Opening’ refers specifically in these its final two verses to the Christians and the Jews. In traditional Islamic teaching, Islam alone is 'the straight path'. In his classic commentary on the Qur'an, Ibn Kathir discusses the wrong paths:
“The two paths He described here are both misguided,” and that those “two paths are the paths of the Christians and Jews, a fact that the believer should beware of so that he avoids them. The path of the believers is knowledge of the truth and abiding by it. In comparison, the Jews abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true knowledge. This is why ‘anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being described as ‘led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians.” (Ibn Kathir, Commentary on Koran 1:7, Vol 1, p 87.)
This is the mainstream Islamic view, held to by most Muslim jurists, though not all Muslims realize whom they are condemning when they pray ‘The Opening’. Regardless, it is clear that in the Islamic view, Jews and Christians alike are under Allah’s judgment and wrath, and this view is reinforced for the faithful Muslim seventeen times a day, thousands of times a year.
The travesty described below is precisely the result of ignorance concerning Islamic theology and practices.
"CAIR-AZ Chairman Leads Prayer on Arizona Senate Floor," from CAIR Arizona, February 7:
On Thursday, February 7th, 2013 - the Arizona State Senate's prayer invocation was led by Anas Hlayhel - the Chairman of the Arizona Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-AZ.)
Hlayhel, who also serves as the part time imam of the Islamic Center of the Northeast Valley led the lawmakers and all those in attendance through the reading of al-Fatiha (the opening chapter of the Holy Quran) in addition to an additional prayer thereafter...
By the way, no American local, state or federal governing body, nor any organization of any kind (especially not any Christian church or group), should have any contact whatsoever with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) or any of its representatives, as CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case -- so named by the Justice Department. Furthermore, CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR's cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements.
