Hartford Seminary Condemns Massacre at Mosque in Egypt

Hartford Seminary deplores the massacre at the Al-Rawda mosque in Egypt, and mourns the hundreds of victims of this terrible crime of hatred.

As the Executive Committee of our Board of Trustees has stated: "As an institution, Hartford Seminary is committed to celebrating our religious commonalities as we explore our diversity in an open and safe environment. So as individuals, we unite with one another in rejecting the very idea that religion ever should be used to excuse these evils.

The 'slaughtering of the innocent' is not a part of any of our faith convictions. The faith of those who perpetrate such evil is nihilism, as much a turning away from the God whom we worship as it is a turning away from humanity itself. We assert that love and peace are at the heart of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. These are the lessons taught by the Prince of Peace in the New Testament, the Mosaic challenge of becoming “a lover of peace and a pursuer of peace” in the Torah, and the will of Allah as expressed in the Qur'an.

In the fervent hope that all such violence will end one day, we come together in prayer for the victims and their families."