Multi-faith prayers thrive in US politics

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Bowing and mouthing prayers, Saleh Williams prostrates himself on a white sheet beside his colleagues. For these Muslims, Friday worship takes place not in a mosque, but a meeting room in the Capitol -- at the heart of US democracy.

This gathering, for the Friday worship known as jummah, is the only Muslim event in the Capitol. But it is just one of many prayer and religious study groups of various faiths held by Congress members, their staffers and other employees, inside the federal buildings where the nation's laws are made.

Senate Chaplain Barry Black holds separate "prayer breakfasts" and Bible study groups in the upper house for senators, their spouses, and for less senior staffers or employees.

"You can get, on a very good week, 50...