A day after making national headlines for allowing Muslims to broadcast a call to prayer declaring Allah to be the only God, Duke University reversed course and said they will not allow the broadcast to take place.
The University said their plan met with “unintended backlash.”
“The idea was conceived with the best of intentions and the greatest of intentions to create unity,” Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, told WNCN. “It turned out to have the opposite effect and it was actually creating divisiveness that was neither intended nor valuable.”
The University will allow members of the Muslim community to gather outside the chapel before moving to its regular location in the chapel basement.
Many Christian leaders spoke out against Duke’s proposed action, including Rev. Franklin Graham.
“First of all, this chapel was given by donors, Methodists, from across this state and other areas, so that there would be a Christian chapel on the campus so that the students would have a place to worship the God of the Bible,” Graham said. “What I have the problem is using the chapel that was built to be a house of worship — to worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God — that they’re using this now so that they can put loud speakers and use it as a minaret.”
Duke, a private school founded by Methodists and Quakers, has a divinity school connected to the United Methodist Church.
