Who died and made John Kerry an Islamic scholar?
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spent part of his Sunday in his stocking feet at an Indonesian mosque, at one point beating a huge drum used to call Muslims to prayer.
Kerry’s visit to the modern Istiqlal Mosque in central Jakarta, said to be the largest mosque in Southeast Asia with a capacity of 130,000, was designed to demonstrate his respect for Islam as he visited the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
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Having removed his shoes in keeping with Islamic custom, Kerry at one point was shown a gigantic, skin-covered drum which rests sideways on the mosque’s floor and stood several feet taller than his head.
After witnessing a demonstration by the Grand Imam, identified by the State Department as K.H. Ali Mustafa Yaqub, Kerry then used a club to beat the drum, which is used to call Muslims to prayer.
“It has been a special honour to visit this remarkable place of worship,” Kerry said in a handwritten note to memorialize his visit. “We are all bound to one God and the Abrahamic faiths tie ustogether in love for our fellow man and honour for the same God.”
Kerry said and did these things at a time when Muslim persecution and murder of Christians worldwide has eclipsed any previous period in history.
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