Norma Eckard
Religious Quest 1325-02
March 13, 2015 Visit to Mosque
I went to the Mosque service with my husband. When arriving in the Mosque, the separation of women from men is quite startling. Even though I knew this going in to actually see how separated the women and men are was quite surprising. In normal circumstances this would have made me uncomfortable but I wasn’t for some reason. It might have been due to the numerous Muslims who welcomed us prior to the service beginning. When people are open and cordial like that, it definitely made me a little less apprehensive. Our guide was extremely helpful and was really considerate and knowledgeable. This also made me feel a little more at home while attending and I don’t regret having to do it at all. Another thing that surprised me was that people slowly filtered in, almost like no one likes to be on time. I understand that many probably work and have other lives and it does seem like a burden to have to attend prayer so many times a day. I guess I always thought Muslims were more disciplined in doing things an exact way and this totally opened my eyes to the fact that it is not really this way. So when the service began there was only a few people but the time the prayer started it was packed. The biggest surprise and the thing that made me feel more at home is the Imam who crafted his service to the visitors. He showed that he was down to earth by joking about the wires as being bombs. The absolute best part was that he took time to sit down and answer questions, no matter their relevance. He spoke with authority and spoke very openly about the Muslim faith. To me the Imam was the highlight of the service. Now that the good parts have been said, what made
