Marty Goes to the Mosque

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My tour of Dhaka was yesterday, Friday - the Muslim holy day - and one of my requests of Rena, my wonderful guide (more on Rena in my next blog) was to attend a service at a Mosque. Rena, like 85% of Bangladesh people is Muslim and I was very pleased to tell him of how I have so many wonderful Muslim friends in Santa Barbara, about our Interfaith Initiative and how pleased I am to be helping my Muslim friends obtain aproval to build a Mosque one mile from my home. Rena and I agreed that it is the manifestation of our religions and how we treat and care for one another that is really important. We agreed that most of the people in both of our religions are very good people and within each of our religions there are some people who do bad and do it because of their distorted view of their holy book. We agreed that within each of our books (Koran and Bible) one can find verses that suggest that doing bad things are accepable.

I was obviously a novelty among many Muslims - not only because I look different and am very tall among these people - but also because I was very ackward and did not know what to do. I very much came to be respectful of these people and their religion - but wasn't sure how to do that - other than to show up and be friendly.

As people looked at me, I would smile and nod my head. They smiled and nodded back. Some I took their pictures and showed them the picture that resulted. Some I reached out to shake their hands and smile.

One of the small children kept motioning me to get up or get down.

I did not see the women - but was told that they were in a seperate room.

As we left the Mosque there were a large number of beggars lined up and begging.

During the service there was a special collection taken up for hurricane Sidr victims.

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Comments

[Lynn Cederquist]

flash back
Marty, I had a 'flash back' on your experience. Remember the program on TV when the experience was to 'Step into Anothers Shoes' and the Christian visited other religions and his feelings of not knowing what to do, only that he wanted to understand the other religions, well your experience brought this to my mind. I was surprised that you were able to take all the wonderful photographs inside of the Mosque. The Mosque they are building a few blocks from your house is proceeding. The have erected lumber to show the ski line, which by the way block the mountains. I was interested in the fact that outside the Mosque there were lines of beggars. Is this the usual coarse of behavior? or was this because of the special holy day? I can imagine begging outside a religious site brings in more money, because hearts are more open and giving at that moment. Did the men in the Mosque inter into conversation with you after the service? In our churches there is community socialization after church. Did this occur? and did the women mingle with the men afterwards? Reminds me of the clostered nuns who hide from the congregration. Were you the only man without a scull cap? How long was the service? Oh, so much to learn. Fascinating experience you are having, Lynn

[Daudi Kaliisa]

That must have been a very enriching experience.
Looking at those photos and reading about your commnet about where the women were during the prayer time reminded me of the first day I entered the mosque in Uganda. My sister (the youngest in our family) is married to a moslem guy who is a sweet and intelligent fellow. We ghad to go to the mosque for the wedding and I was at a loss just like you when I got in. We all arrived in a big carravan but by the time I finished taking off my shoes I looked back to see my sisters, aunties and cousins who had come with me in the car but they had been directed to another place and I did not see them again until after all the ceremonies in the mosque were over. Great photos.

[Niranjan]

Hi!
Great gping Marty! I am visiting your travel blog regularly. Regards, Niranjan