Tell Americans

Day 7 May 28 – 1.46 AM – Tell Americans…

I began my day at 8:30 when I went to the World Fish Center and meet with the Director of Hatcheries. We spent the day moving cat fish fry from an approx. 1000ft^3 tank into a larger concrete tank. The usual way to do this would be to lower the water lever to about 8 inches then catch them all with a net, out them in buckets, and carry them to the new tank. Instead they siphoned the water from the raised tank (on bricks) to the lower buckets. They believed this would put less trauma on the fry. They used a bucket with holes inside of another bucket. The inner bucket had a net to keep the fry inside, so the water would overflow but the fry would stay inside.
Because I cannot get the internet to work in my room I went to a study room in the World Fish Center. As I was on the web a man came in by the name of Mustafa. He was a translator and English teacher. We talk about everything from Iraq to Islam. He gave me a very interesting and through explanation of mosque procedure and customs.
Mustafa told me that the procedure for praying is as follows.
A caller climbs the tower of the mosque and uses a speaker system to call all Muslims to prayer. This occurs five times a day before dawn, noon, around 2:30, at sunset, and late at night. Before the Muslims enter the mosque they must be very clean.
Mustafa stressed that before you go into the presence of god (pray) you must be as clean and pure as you can. This is because god is perfectly clean and beautiful so people in his presence you must also be clean. The procedure for cleaning your body includes washing yours hands three times and cleaning under your finger nails. Then you wash from your hands up to your elbows three times. Cleaning your face, inside the ear, and behind the ear three times each is the next step. Splashing water on your hair is next. Shoes are not worn in the mosque at any time and feet must also be washed three times. After the legs are washed three times, perfume should be applied. Males who enter the mosque must wash their genitals with clean water. Women who are menstruating can not enter a mosque or take part in any religious activities because they are considered unclean. Once this process in complete you are clean enough to enter the mosque and the presence of god.
Inside the Mosque there is no representation of Allah or any of the prophets. I thought this was amazing that Jesus and Moses are Muslim prophets; this means the Christian representation of Jesus is an affront to Islam. The reason images or representation of God and prophets are forbidden is because artists would never be able to get the picture perfect.
The only thing inside the mosque of importance is the Priest (I cannot remember what they are called in Islam) and a marker pointing the direction Mecca. All prayer is physically directed toward the holy shrine of Mecca. This is the source of the saying “Mt. Everest is the Mecca of mountain climbing. Mecca is the most important, most powerful place in all of Islam. All Muslims are supposed to take a pilgrimage, a hadge (spelling?), to Mecca at one time in their lives’.
The process of actually praying is very important but would take pages to explain, so I will save it for one of my 5 required essays.


Excerpt or conversation (as well as I can remember it)
How do you feel about the U.S. military?
I know some people from the Pentagon through my work as a translator and am friendly towards them. But, how would you feel if strangers came into your home with guns, to your city, and told you what to do? They say they are here to protect us, but from what?

How do Muslims feel about Atheists?
Allah tells us through the prophet Mohammed, Allah’s peace be upon him, that we should not deal with atheists and ask them not to interact with us.

Would Muslims get along better with Christians or Atheists?
Christians

What does Salam mean?
It is what you say when you see somebody, it tells them you are a friend and you come in peace. It is a religious term, saying Salam is like saying “friend, may the peace of Allah be upon you.


“Terrorists are killers, they are not Muslims. You cannot be a Muslim and believe in terror and attacking innocent people. All Muslims hate terrorist; Islam promotes peace, hard work, brotherhood. Tell your family this, tell America this; we are peaceful people. All we want is to praise Allah and live in peace. Goodbye, Salam ” -Mustafa