Muslim worship in a Christian church?

I had an enquiry yesterday, from a third party, as to whether some local Muslims could use the Methodist church for their festivities at the end of Ramadan next year. A large space was needed (the equivalent of two chairs per person) for prayer and many other venues were too small.

What was the right thing to do? On the one hand I am all in favour of lowering the barriers between different religions and cultures. In today's distrustful climate we need to promote respect and tolerance for people of any faith, or of none. On the other hand I was uncomfortable about Muslim worship taking place in the same physical space that weekly Christian worship takes place. When the enquirer pointed out that we all worship the same God, my response was to make a few dissembling noises and then say that although I believe there is only one God, the nature of that God according to Islam is not the same as the Christian view of God's nature.

In the end I said no, but have since been wondering what kind of signal that sends out. I'm planning on raising this issue at the next stewards meeting. I'm curious how they feel about it, and whether they would expect me to have responded differently.

It was only this morning that I realised I never considered the four guides I wrote about yesterday. It is easy enough to find Biblical passages warning against 'other gods', though there is also the strand of teaching which encourages hospitality to strangers. Traditionally churches have been used exclusively for Christian worship. My personal experience in this area is practically nil. I have not gone out of my way to avoid contact with Muslims but neither have I set out to build relationships with them. But none of this came to mind when I was faced with making a quick decision. Reason was my main guide.