Can a Muslim attend a Catholic baptism and remain true to her or his beliefs?

The Roman Catholic Church claims that sprinkling water on a baby or an adult while saying, "I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" does amazing things. It takes away the sin we are born with, original sin, and any other sins and grafts us on to Jesus making us his servants. It puts Jesus and God inside us to live in us and inspire us. The Church says that baptism heals the inclination towards sin that original sin causes. Baptism is a sacrament. It pictures cleansing from sin and the effects of sin and actually does what it pictures.
 
Can a Muslim attend a Catholic baptism?
 
No. It is betrayal of Islam.
 
The betrayal is worse if the Muslim organises or plans or encourages the ceremony or becomes a godparent.
 
"Verily, those who disbelieve (in the religion of Islam and in Quran and the Prophet) from among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and Al-Mushrikoon will abide in the Fire of Hell. They are the worst of creatures." (Surat Al-Bayyina, Chapter 98, Verse 6)

"Then the sects differed (i.e. the Christians about Jesus), so woe unto the disbelievers (those who gave false witness by saying that Jesus is the son of Allah) from the meeting of a great Day (that is the judgement day."
(Surat Maryam, Chapter 19, Verse 37)
 
"Neither those who disbelieve among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) nor Al-Mushrikoon (the disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah, idolaters, polytheists, pagans, etc.) like that there should be sent down unto you any good from your Lord. But Allah chooses for His Mercy whom He wills. And Allah is the Owner of Great Bounty" (Surat Al-Baqara, Chapter 2, Verse 105).

"O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His apostles. Say not "Trinity" : desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah. Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs." 4:171
 
Christians deny the strict oneness of God. The God of Islam is one person. The God of the Christians is three. Thus to Islam they are polytheists and idolaters.
 
The Muslim sees the Christians as being in serious error. If the Muslim loves Allah he will want people to believe what Allah wants them to believe - particularly the more important things. Thus the Muslim is being complicit in Christian error by attending. The Muslim is supporting the religion by default even if not by conscious intent.
 
Quran 5.51:
"O you who believe, take not the Jews and Christians for your friends and protectors, they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them for friendship is of them. Verily Allah guides not a people unjust."
 
In other words, the Muslim who befriends Jews and Christians is as bad as them. Imagine what it would be like to befriend them not just as neighbours but in attending their places of worship. The Jews and Christians were never friends to each other and Christians did not attend Jewish worship. So why are we told they are friends? Friends means they are partners in crime rather than real friends. They are to be avoided for their goal is to promote false religion. That is what unites them.
 
Some say that going is merely observing and learning how others worship without implying approval of it. Attendance is saying that the Christian beliefs are acceptable enough. It is saying they need not be politely challenged. Staying away but politely letting the parents know why is politely challenging them to think about Islam. To attend the ceremony is declaring the Christian beliefs okay and not challenging them.
 
It may be answered that "There is a difference between participating and attending. Attending is just being there to see the event. Participating is doing something that shows one agrees with the event. Attending and participating are not the same. To attend would mean you go just to see the ceremony and not to approve it. You would be going as a guest." But a guest is a person who participates by attending. Attending is participation. If an immoral play was being made, you cannot say, "I was not a participant in the evil. I was only in the audience." But you played a role in the play taking place in the sense that if there was no audience there would be no immorality on stage.
 
A Muslim may say, "I have invited the Christians to meet me half way. If I attend the christening, I will only do it if they agree to come to Mosque with me. They want me to learn about Christianity from the service - the service has at teaching role and a worship role. So they should learn something of Islam as well." If that Muslim then goes to the christening many think that he is attending and is not participating. He is participating but not as much as a Muslim who does not say that is participating.
 
Do you attend the ceremony for the participants only? Doing that is, "I attend as a friend but not as a supporter of their religion or their beliefs that mean so much to them."
 
It is worse to encourage the ceremony in any way if the baptism is of a baby rather than an adult. The parents and the Church are trying to force religious obligations on the baby.
 
Attending the ceremony would imply that baptism is not making any serious errors in doctrine or seriously violating the rights of the baptised.
 
The Muslim is not encouraged to attend a Christian funeral but is merely permitted to do so provided the person is a very close friend or a relative.
 
The Muslim has to please Allah even if it means upsetting herself or himself and other people. Would Allah say, "I love the Christians therefore do not hurt their feelings and attend the christening?" That is really putting the Christians before him so he cannot ask that.
 The Prophet Muhammad taught "Whoever imitates a people he is one of them."
 
By his action, the Muslim would not be inviting the baptised to Islam.
 
The notion that the ceremony is just putting water on a baby so it's not a big deal is appalling. It translates as, "God does not work through baptism therefore it does not matter if a baby is put through it or not. It is no big deal." And it is insulting and intolerant to Roman Catholic teaching which says baptism is a big deal. And it gives the baby obligations under church law so that is a big thing.
 
Does attending the baptism imply, "I witness this baptism." Yes - the Church claims to be an organised society so witnesses are needed to see a child being made a member by baptism.
 
For Muslims, we are all born Muslim until we start following a different religion. A Muslim would be contradicting that by giving his blessing to a baptism by attending the ceremony as a guest.
 
The Muslim cannot go to a christening to make the Christians happy for that means he is intending to make the Christians happy and not to do what they want him to do with sincerity. He is really deceiving them and himself and not worrying much about what God wants.
 
Christians, Catholics especially, do not have much respect for the fact that people of other faiths have made vows to those faiths to be true to them. For example, the priest who comes to the wards and has Protestants being blessed with his magic Padre Pio mitten. Attending the christening is taking a risk of receiving or encouraging such disrespect.
 
The Church sometimes allows the baptism of Muslim children against the will of the parents.
 
See Canon Law, Can. 868 ยง2. An infant of Catholic parents or even of non-Catholic parents is baptized licitly in danger of death even against the will of the parents.
 
Can. 871 If aborted fetuses are alive, they are to be baptized insofar as possible.
 
If the fetuses are born from Muslim women, then clearly membership of Catholicism is forced on them.
 
Muslims hold that if you leave Islam and become baptised you will be punished forever in Hell. The Catholic policy is a clear affront to Islam for it is forcing conversion on Muslim babies.
 
The Catholic Church claims that salvation and the right to enjoy Heaven are wholly gifts from God and that this is shown by baptism of babies. They get Heaven just because God wants to give them this gift. "The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant baptism." (CCC # 1250). This teaching seems sweet but is actually insulting. It is not a gift to the baby unless he or she is taken for baptism by others who make the decisions for it. It excludes most of the babies who have ever been born. It is supposed to show that the gift of being happy in a relationship with God is given regardless of age. How can we be happy about that when the gift is conditional upon being baptised? That is far worse than age being a consideration!
 
It is degrading for anybody who is not Catholic to participate or encourage in any way a Catholic baptism when the faith has such contempt for the parent's rights and the parent's religion.
 
The Muslim cannot attend a Catholic Mass. The Mass uses bread and wine as images of God while the Koran forbids such images. There will also be holy statues and pictures at the Mass. The Muslim is forbidden to draw the body or to be a vivisectionist.
 
The Mass contradicts the doctrine of the Koran that Jesus was a mere man. The Mass says that Jesus was God in human flesh and that he turns bread into his body at Mass.
 
The Mass contradicts the fundamental doctrine of Islam that God is one person and not three persons. The Mass worships God as if he were three persons and in the sight of the Koran that is the sin of polytheism.
 
The Mass claims that Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross to make up for our sins against God and even that it makes that sacrifice present. This blasphemes Islam which says that God simply forgives. A God who lets you off the hook because somebody else honoured him in your place is not forgiving you.
 
The Mass claims that Jesus died on the cross. The Koran says Jesus was too close to God for God to betray him by letting him die like that.
 
The Mass urges us to worship God in the form of bread and wine. The Church itself says it is idolatry to worship that what cannot see or hear you or bless you and that it insults God and degrades yourself. If the Koran is right and God does not become bread and wine then the Mass is outrageous idolatry. An idol of God would be far worse than an idol of some pagan god. It makes the idolatry ingrained and hard to eradicate and makes it seem more rational. It would show far more culpability.
 
None of this will stop Christians encouraging Muslims to attend their services. This is about hypocritical expediency and social harmony and not about genuine respect for Islam and its requirements.
 



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