An eye opener to Islam

I went with my son on a school trip to the 'Woking Mosque'. I wanted to share a bit of the experience and the conclusions I reached. There was even some humour during the visit!


1st Impression
This was the building itself. It is only a small Mosque. I thought it was a very attractive building with simple yet beautiful decoration both internally and externally. Colours used were green, white and gold. It possessed none of the intimidating and sometimes grotesque decoration and architecture of many churches.
We were greeted by a small smiling man, dressed in a plain light green full length shirt and slip on shoes, who was an Imam (Priest) serving at the mosque and the larger place of worship on the same site. He was very friendly and welcoming.
We had to take our shoes off before we could enter the Mosque as this was the respectful thing to do, and showed their commitment to cleanliness and respect for this as a holy place.


Things I Learnt
The Mosque has a long local history, with it being built by a 'Christian' in 1889. It was the first Mosque built in Britain. Woking is what i'd call a medium sized town outside of London, but 1,000 Muslim's come to the Mosque for the service on a friday. This astounded me as I could bet that with all the local churches put together they wouldnt have an attendance anywhere near that number any day of the week.
We found out that Muslim's believe they too are the children of Adam and Eve and that the temple at Mecca was originally built by Adam, but then it was destroyed in the Great Flood, and eventually rebuilt again by Abraham. In fact it was very clear that Muslim's believe in many of the same prophets as the Jews and Christians, including Adam, Noah, Abraham and they even have a grave in Mecca ascribed to Jesus Christ.
Allah means god. It is the Arabic work for god. So in practise if an Arabic Christian was talking about god he would use Allah. Allah being a title not a specific name to a certain god. Although many use it to refer to the Islamic concept of God. (do have a look at this link as its really interesting) The Imam also spoke of the great respect Muslim's have for their holy writings and that they use it in its original Arabic text. Children go to the Mosque for lessons on learning Arabic and the teachings of the Qur'an. So for most Muslims in Britain that means they can understand 3 languages, Arabic, English and their mother tongue, which begs the comment from me, how can we westerners claim to be the educated ones!!
A good Muslim prays 5 times a day towards Mecca and goes through a ritual of washing themselves, including face, arms to the elbow and feet, before they pray. They pray in the direction of Mecca which was more south east than east. (as i had previously thought)

What conclusions did I reach ?
I believe this sort of visit is an essential for all westerners and so-called Christians. It helps us to understand these ones within our community. Often people show descrimination just because something is different. This experience highlighted to me just how much we do have in common, rather than concentrating on the differences. A contrary image to that given to us by the media of Islam being made up of extremists.
It reminded me that Islam and Judaism (and by extension Christians) come from the same physical family line. Both go back as far as Abraham with Islam being of the family of Ishmael and the Jews being of the family of Issac. (two sons of Abraham) So the two have a brother/sister relationship, which I guess is why they argue so much. It reaffirmed what I had already understood, which is that both Muslims and Jews/Christians accept many of the same prophets. Muslims also believe that the bible is a holy writing and should be treated respectfully.
An outstanding point was how hospitable the Imam was to us. If people wanted to wander about that was not a problem, the Imam often said 'please be comfortable'. He had an excellent manner with the children who felt free to ask him anything. (see my bit on humour) Apparently they have visits such as this to the Mosque on an almost daily basis. I can openly say there is no reason why anybody would be offended or intimidated by this place or those working within it.

I feel I have learnt from this visit just how dedicated Muslims are to their beliefs, a level of devotion that much of the western world has forgotten over the years. And perhaps because the western world has forgotten how to be genuinly devoted to their own beliefs that is why we find it hard to understand or show empathy to those that do.

Humour was there any :D
Surprisingly enough yes there was.
One little boy put his hand up and asked the Imam, " why are all Muslims brown?" To which the Imam burst out laughing!! (before explaining there are Muslims from all races)
The other funny was the school bus that we rode on. It rattled and bounced along. In fact i'm glad we didnt have to go too far to get to our destination as the journey made parts of me wobble that I didnt know existed, and I might even consider wearing a bra another time!