WASHINGTON — Prayer carpets for a Muslim Jumuah service have been spread out in a transept wing of the Washington National Cathedral Friday as religious leaders prepare to host the church’s first-ever Muslim-led prayers. The carpets have been arranged diagonally to face Mecca, as is required for prostrate Muslim prayers, and now lie under the grand Gothic arches of the National Cathedral, which has a traditional floor plan in the form of a cross. The “transept” area is the two side wings of the church and includes chapels off to the side of the main altar. The symbolism of Muslim prayers ringing out in America’s symbolic spiritual center – a cathedral of the Episcopal Church in the nation’s capital that has hosted presidential funerals, inaugural prayer services, and other nationally important spiritual services – is an attempt to heal the religious rifts that afflict the globe, organizers say. “This is a dramatic moment in the world and in Muslim-Christian relations,” said Ebrahim Rasool, the South African ambassador ...      Read more