Muslims And Catholics Come Together For Christmas Donations In London, Ontario

 

(Huff Post) – Catholics and Muslims were able to put their religious differences aside for the sake of Canada’s poor this week.

According to the London Free Press, members of the London, Ontario, Muslim mosque helped the Society of St. Vincent du Paul, a Catholic organization, gather enough food to feed more than 100 families during the Christmas season.

“I feel extremely pleased and grateful, looking around this room,” Moe Lacerte, the volunteer president of the St. Vincent de Paul conference, told the London Free Press as he looked over the overwhelming donations collected by the mosque.

“We’ve never had so much to give. We will have extra; we’ll be able to replenish our food bank here,” he added.

Lacerte told the Inquisitr that this was the first year he had reached out to the mosque when asking for annual donations.

“We all want the same things: peace and respect, and I see this as a beginning of working together,” he said of the collaboration.

Ali D. Chahbar, who helped organize the drive at the mosque, told the London Free Press, “To us, the spirit of Christmas is the spirit of brotherly love, and why wouldn’t we want to be a part of it?”

“We are not Christians and don’t celebrate Christmas but we are engulfed by the spiritand … any time there’s a jubilant harmonious feeling, whatever creed it is under, we thrive on it,” he added.

Chahbar told the Inquisitr that the mosque was able to collect 30 boxes of goods, most of them collected by students at the Islamic School.

“It was fantastic, amazing,” he told the news source. “Within the blink of an eye, they had boxes and boxes.”

Members of the Western University’s Muslim Student Association also helped out with donations.

“We filled a pickup truck, and my van is filled to the gunnels,” Lacerte said of all the donations. “It was unbelievable.”

This isn’t the first time different religions have worked together for greater good.

In 2007, Asia News reported that Christians and Muslims came together in the Philippines to spread peace in the region of Mindanao. Members of both religions volunteered their services during the holy days of each respective religion.