Together with the Fellowship of Reconciliation and partner fellowships of many traditions, we declare a simple commitment: the house of worship of every faith stands under the protection of ours.
Synagogues, churches, mosques, temples, and gurdwaras have all, in recent years, seen their doors become targets. Each attack is aimed not only at the congregation inside but at the very idea that a people may gather unarmed before God. Against that idea’s enemies we stand together — not despite our theological differences, which are real, but through them, as communities that know what sanctuary means.
For our part, we note that this commitment lies inside the Sunnah, not at its edge. The Prophet ﷺ received the Christians of Najran in his own mosque and guaranteed their churches by covenant; the Qur’an names monasteries and churches, alongside mosques, among the places where God’s name is much remembered — and defends them all in the same verse. When we keep watch at a neighbor’s sanctuary, we are not being generous. We are being obedient.
We call on local congregations to form mutual-protection compacts; on law enforcement to treat threats against houses of worship with the seriousness they deserve; and on all people of conscience to fill, visibly and often, the pews and prayer rows of any congregation that has been made afraid.