Mosque

I wake up some mornings and have to remind myself why I became a Muslim. I took my Shahadah twelve years ago, and back then I was full of faith. Over the years, my faith has diminished. I still believe wholeheartedly in the Quran and the Prohethood of Muhammad, yet any connection I may have felt toward the Muslim community at large is gone. I have attended mosques, put myself in the company of other Muslims and only have disgust as a result. I was hoping this Ramadan it would be different, that I would emerge at the end of the holy month with a clean heart and a renewal of my faith. Alas, only a few days into the month and I am disillusioned. I attended an iftar at my local mosque, needing the fellowship, and experience of Ramadan for my young children. I overlooked the billowing white curtain dividing the men and women in the community room. I overlooked the wooden barrier in the prayer hall that partitioned the small women's section from the men's.

A neat article on new mosque architecture. I particularly like this idea, which was sadly not actually built:

Back in Europe, a group of young Dutch architects led by Ergün Erkoçu wanted their concept for the Polder Mosque to achieve a similar level of cool. Riffing on the Dutch idea of seeking consensus, their design features not minarets but windmills. Inside, they planned space for a hammam (or bathhouse) and a row of shops. The mosque was never meant to exist but to generate discussion. Mission accomplished: elders have sniffed that it isn't traditional enough and Dutch-born Muslims eager to see the mosque's role expand beyond prayer have applauded it. [link mine]

I especially applaud the idea of a hammaam, I haven't been in a bathhouse since Japan and oh boy, do I miss it.

Promoted to the front page

I will use some humor to get this started...

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Once upon a time, there was an ancient blind mystic who was very learned. He was schooled in the wisdom of many religious and spiritual traditions; he identified with no religion, for he was of all religions. He knew many languages and could recite from memory the Qur'an, the Gospels, the Torah, the poetry of Rumi, selections from the Bhagavad Gita, and many other religious texts. Every day, he sat in the city square, and as people passed by, he greeted them according to their particular religious affiliation. He did not need to see them, for he could ascertain someone's religion by using his other four senses. One day he was sitting in the square and four men came by:

A Catholic priest walked by, and the blind man felt his priestly robes. "The peace of the Lord be always with you," he said.

Today, for the first time since my early childhood, I went to a Mosque. Masjid.

I guess that's not completely accurate. I was raised in the Nation of Islam, and often attended the Sunday lectures at Muhammad's Mosque #25 quite regularly with my family. But I never went into a Mosque subscribing to mainstream Islam.

And this visit was particularly momentous. I would be going to the Fazl Mosque, London's first. The Imam was very nice and fed our class well. The Imam answered the many questions well.

Afterward, I expressed my personal thanks greeting with an Asalaam Alaikum. In which he asked, "So you are Muslim." I was wearing my hijab, so I was a bit taken aback. But, then again, I suppose missing the two calls of prayer during the course of our class trip could cause doubt. So, I told him that I had taken Shahada a few weeks ago, and was raised in the Nation.

Founding conference attracts diverse gathering resolved to create physical spaces for progressive Muslims

Bronxville, NY/Los Angeles, CA: The progressive Muslim movement in the United States took a significant step forward as a diverse collection of activists, organizers, and academics gathered at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, May 15-17, for the first conference of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV, website: www.mpvusa.org). Coming together in fellowship, they joined in communal devotion, shared the various personal, intellectual, and spiritual journeys that brought them there, discussed how to formulate their positions on political, social, and cultural issues and how to interact with other progressives and other Muslims. They also elected an Executive Board to lead them for the next two years.

Its been a couple of weeks since I last reviewed the Friday prayer in my city. There's a good reason for that: I simply wasn't able to go. So, instead of making stuff up, I did not write about it. But, today I did go and my intentions were less than pure, at least in the Sufi sense. You see, I skipped classes yesterday; in fact I skipped breakfast, morning coffe, lunch, work and coherent speech. And, despite my exhaustion, I thought it would be good form to show up today since S. is old school and kind of expects people to show up. Seriously, so would I.

This is a dilemma that many progressive Muslims face, how to be critical while maintaining a tangible association with Muslims in their given geographic area despite their opinion being unpopular or deemed controversial/promoting "fitnah."

As for the khutba reviews, though they are insightful, a single mosque and its selection of speakers is not representative of the countless mosques known in America or those that sprout out like tumble weed (the store front mosque).

Maybe someone should tell this good neighbor that Muslims agree one should not kill and eat pigs, but rather race them at county fairs. I mean, duh! 

Houston suburb angry over mosque plan

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p>Some residents object to plan; neighbor threatens to hold pig races The Associated PressUpdated: 3:24 p.m. ET Dec 7, 2006

KATY, Texas - A plan to build a mosque in this Houston suburb has triggered a neighborhood dispute, with community members warning the place will become a terrorist hotbed and one man threatening to hold pig races on Fridays just to offend the Muslims.

This morning, I decided to test a new Friday routine. Since the guest preacher from Egypt doesn't deliver his sermons in English, I figured there was little point in listening to him. While I can understand the words in Arabic, sermons in my native language delivered by native speakers have a far greater rhetorical impact on me. The subjects of sermons, too, are just as important. Preachers who have experience in the kind of lives we lead can use metaphors that strike us like lightening and instill in us an immediate understanding. I remember fondly some of the sermons in my home city by a Blackamerican preacher who had converted in the 1950's, Imam Mansour. Because of his colorful metaphors, I would see rows of heads nodding with grins, because we all had been there and knew the exact nuances of what he was telling us. I don't experience that in this city, but for one memorable episode when a Blackamerican imam form a different city stood on the pulpit and spoke plainly, telling us in a fairly good fashion that he knew "what the game is, and I'll tell you, you young Muslims, the gig is up!" Only a few heads nodded in knowing agreement, while perhaps the majority immigrant audience was struggling to understand what a "gig" was (and no, its not short for Gigabyte in this case).

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p> Rites and rights

Margot Badran traces the mosque movement from Mecca to Main Street

Reprinted from al-Ahram

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p> Women are flocking to mosques around the world. Now, during Ramadan, they are packing mosques nightly in many countries for tarawwih or the recitation of the Qur'an. It has not always been easy, or indeed possible, for women to participate in communal worship.