Imam to lead invocation at Jacksonville City Council

[Tacachale]

An interesting sidenote to today's city council meeting, from the FTU:

Imam to lead invocation at Jacksonville City Council

Submitted by Steve Patterson


One more thing to watch for at today's City Council meeting: An imam will deliver the opening invocation.

The prayer by Joe Bradford, spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida, is a public step toward inclusiveness in a place where last year a Muslim was asked to "pray to your God" during a confirmation hearing for a seat on an unpaid city advisory board.

The councilman who asked that last year, Don Redman, said he only wanted to show he was comfortable hearing prayers of people from other faiths.

Having a Muslim lead an overwhelmingly Christian body in prayer sort of makes that point, too.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/403455/steve-patterson/2011-06-28/imam-lead-invocation-jacksonville-city-council

[wsansewjs]

It really doesn't bother me at all since I am agnostic, but it is just a prayer for like 5 minutes, then move on. If someone is really making a big deal about it because he or she doesn't like it, they don't have to attend or just ignore it.

-Josh

[Captain Zissou]

I don't think this will go without incident.  I would love for it to go swimmingly, but this is Jax. 

[Tacachale]

I would imagine that he'll stick closer to not invoking a specific deity than certain Christian leaders have in the past.