Louis Farrakhan’s “Nation of Islam” Headquarters Formerly a Greek Orthodox Church Building

Today I learned that the “Nation of Islam” is headquartered in a former Greek Orthodox church building in Chicago.

I find it hard to believe the Greek Orthodox church hierarchy were foolish enough to allow their consecrated building to be sold for this purpose, even back in 1972. Orthodox canon law prohibits the use of church buildings for un-Christian purposes. I understand that the neighborhood had changed, so that the original Orthodox Christian congregation no longer lived in the area. Apparently, no one at that time had the resources, or perhaps the vision, to engage in outreach to rebuild the Orthodox congregation from the new residents of the neighborhood. Given the situation, it would have been better to demolish the building than to sell it for use as a mosque.

A brief article about “Mosque Maryam” is on Wikipedia.