A Visit to A Mosque In America
Driving along the highway, all eyes are drawn as a magnet to the unique building with its golden dome and unusual architecture. The Islamic Center is located at the base of a residential street in a small neighborhood. The center houses an Islamic school, a community center, an international school and the Mosque, which is the place of worship for Muslims.
There are many misconceptions regarding Islam and Muslims. In reality most Muslims are non-Arabs and most live outside the Middle East. There are five million Muslims in the United States. There are an estimated 10,000-15,000 Muslims in the area.
Passing through the wrought iron gate, my eyes rivet to the cluster of flags to the right, one to reflect each of the 49-predominately Muslim countries. The United States flag is not among these as America is predominately Christian with Muslim being the third largest religion. Because America is our country and we are American Muslims, the American flag flows freely in the wind in a spot all its own.
Next my gaze is drawn upward to the golden dome and crescent moon covering the Mosque. Many non-Muslims are of the belief that Muslims pray or worship a "moon god". We do not. We believe in the same God as Christians and Jews. We believe in the oneness of God', the Creator of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. The crescent moon reflects our practice of adhering to the lunar calendar, or God's calendar, rather than the Georgian calendar, or man's calendar. This is why many Mosques will have a crescent moon topping the domes.
Each of the buildings is individual yet connected by covered walkways known by all who enter here as bridges'. The Islamic Center community building holds cl...
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.... For a Muslim, Friday is the holy day and special services are held in early to mid-afternoon. The Mosque is open seven days a week and available for each of the daily prayers.
Reflecting as I exit the wrought iron gate into the neighboring street, I see Muslims and Christian children playing together. I see a sign inviting everyone to an upcoming feast being held at the Community Center. I come to realize the many similarities between the Muslim and Christian faiths.
The Islamic Center offers a great opportunity for non-Muslims who are curious about the faith and would like to know and understand more. The Islamic Center is open to the public for tours. At this time over 40,000 people have toured this facility. Set aside a couple of hours of your time to experience this unique community and enrich your cultural awareness. Schedule a tour for yourself.
In the article “Modern-Day Witch Hunts”, Jamie Dailey focuses the attention on problems that Muslim Americans commonly face on a day-to-day basis. He first paints a picture by comparing the violent acts performed on Muslims to the Salem Witch trial in 1692. The Salem Witch trials resulted in 19 deaths of innocent individuals, because they were accused of witchcraft. Dailey goes on to explain in America, the type of persecution Muslims endure has many forms. A more recent controversy towards this religion involves the building of the Ground Zero Mosque in central New York. The name of this building is very misleading, especially to the eyes of an American. Even though this structure is actually built a few blocks away from where the former World Trade Center stood, problems have still risen from the public. Americans often mistake Muslims as the group of people who had performed acts of terrorism on American soil, when it was actually an Islamic group known as Al Qaeda. Mosques all across the United States started being vandalized by people protesting against their religion. This article shows how irrational fear can corrupt the thoughts of people.
Through these events, islamic themes are displayed by Salih, but they are shown in many different ways. In this miraculous representation of a Sudanese town, two individuals bring together and resemble the Islamic religion in two opposing ways. By describing
Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas Publishers, 2009. Print. Necipoglu, Gulru. Muqarnas, Vol 25: Frontiers of Islamic Art and Architecture.
“Culture belongs to the imagination; to judge it rationally is to misunderstand its function” (Wilson 79). In “The Butterfly Mosque” by G. Willow Wilson, she acknowledges culture and explains why cultures can differ so greatly. She emphasizes why its highly inconclusive to try to find a meaning behind ones culture. As a young American Muslim women she is faced with cross cultural ironies as she tries to find her identity and where she fits in. Her conversion to Islam brings into light her internalized prejudice and the different perspectives of Westerners towards the Middle East and vice versa. In her memoir, she depicts both positive and negative aspects of both cultures and, her struggle to find a common ground between the two.
Islam has a deep history, beginning with ideas originating before Muhammad and spanning to the present day. Before Islam, the Bedouin people’s faith contained a belief in supreme beings alongside animism. They also put a large emphasis on ancestor worship (Swartz 15). Some groups...
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
Islamic teachings that are followed by Muslims around the globe do not have same context and applicability like other religions of the world. Islam not only tells about the way of worshiping the Lord and behaving like a good human being but it also give a complete code of life. It includes political, military, social, financial, legal and governance systems. Non-Muslims normally con...
The Middle East – a region of One Thousand and One Nights, but also a place of the religion of Islam, which has spread into many European countries over the past few decades. The United Kingdom is one of the countries, where the religion of Islam plays a major role. According to the census in 2011, 4.8 per cent of people living in The UK reported to be Muslims and what is more, nearly half of them were born there. The largest increase of this religion was in the age groups under 25. These figures reveal, that the religion of Islam is the second most widespread religion in the United Kingdom, right next
Many non-muslims after 9/11 have judged and criticized Muslims for their ethnic, religion, and the Islamic terrorist groups in America. (4) Surprisingly, most Muslim Americans in our population are completely against Isis. Together as a country, we must create more unity and peace within Muslim communities in the United States. Building Mosques for Muslims is a great way to bring communities together! A Mosque is a Muslim place of worship like a church. (1) The first Mosque structure built in America, was in North Dakota, 1929.”The number of Mosques built in the United States has risen up to seventy-four percent since 2000 and there are over two-thousand Mosques built today. (1) “Mosques help Muslims integrate in U.S. society, and in fact have a very productive role in bridging the differences between Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States.” Mosques encourage social and political speech. (5) “Many American Muslim leaders and non-Muslim organizations have spoke out against terrorism and extremist violence.” Working together to prevent terrorism plays an important factor in uniting Muslims and non-Muslims. American will continue to help increase unity with Muslims and non-Muslims across our
While the events of September 11, 2001, cast the Islam religion in an unfavorable light, this has not dampened the enthusiasm of the Muslim members, nor has it stopped the Islam religion from growing. Obviously, with over one billion members worldwide, Islam is one of the largest religions in the world today.
A mosque is generally a very symbolic place for a Muslim, being a humble way for Muslims to recreate pure divine presence on earth. The primary purpose of the mosque is to serve as a place where Muslims can come together for prayer. Nevertheless, mosques are known around the world nowadays for their Islamic architecture but most importantly for its general vitality to the Muslim Ummah (community).
Committing to religious beliefs is one of the strongest factors influencing the preservations of a Muslim identity. A mosque has a huge role in society and it has to maintain this. Generally, a mosque is somewhere where people can come to pray and contemplate. It is a place away from all the hustle from our day to day busy lives.
At the first glance, Islam and Christianity appear to have nothing in common, however; as you go beyond the surface, they appear to have many similarities such as their beliefs of God, their beliefs of life after death, their holy scriptures, and their prayers. These religions, although two entirely different beliefs, share a similar origin. Like many other religions, they both claim to be the one and only true way to God. In order to truly see and understand their similarities, one must date back to the rise and birth of Christianity and Islam. Throughout the course of this essay, I will compare the many facets that show the alikeness between these two growing religions.
This masjid is one of the largest mosques in the world and the second mosque built in history.Built by prophet Muhammad S.A.W,It is often called the prophet’s mosque.It was the final resting place of the prophet so muslims consider it the second most sacred place in
There was lots of interesting stuff to see both outside and the inside. The build was very much like the house. I guess it makes sense, since it is here in US, and the weather is pretty cold. Usually in a mosque there towers rising form the mosque. They were round and long and covered with the pointed room. It is where adhan is called; adhan is a islamic call to prayer. And the building has the dome rooftop. The mosque I went to was very plain looking. From the front it looked like a house. It was kind of long, and it had lawn around it, with beautiful trees and flowers planted. From the inside, the building is very plan. As soon as you enter the building there was a shoe rack, where everyone took of their shoes. And then there was a prayer hall, where the warship takes place five times a day. The prayer hall is also called musalla. The prayer hall was pretty plain; there was literally no furniture in the room. There were some chairs for the elderly people, and a book shelf filled with Quran and other islamic religious books. The prayer hall walls were plain as well, except some part where the walls ware decorated with the writings from Quran in Arabic. Other than that, there was no paintings, statues, or altar that caches your attention except one little part of the wall. That one little part of the wall was Mihrab. Mihrab is a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque, which indicates the direction of the