Visiting Mosques Post 9/11

By Chris Meehan

For the 10th anniversary of theSept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, CRC News has prepared a series of stories about how the Christian Reformed Church and its members have responded – and what we have learned – in the last 10 years.

Together with members of a Calvin Theological Seminary world religion class, I sat on the carpeted floor of a conference room in a newly-built mosque in Grand Rapids, Mich., and listened as our teacher and others asked questions of the imam and the president of the congregation of mostly Sunni Muslims.

Moments before coming into the conference room, we had sat in a corner of the spacious sanctuary or cloister of the mosque and listened as about 300 men and some 100 women (who were tucked away out of sight in a corner) recited Friday prayers.

I had watched with interest as the members of the mosque stood shoulder to shoulder on specific squares of carpet to bow, prostrate themselves and kneel. They did this more or less in unison, their voices rising in praise.

Now, I listened as the professor asked the president of the mosque if Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the United States were at odds with one another as they were in other parts of the world such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The professor pointed out that Iraq had been the scene of a bloody civil war in 2003 between these two factions of Islam.

The mosque president smiled, seeming ready to answer, when the imam broke in, telling us he would answer that question.

Dressed in a long white robe and wearing a white turban, his hard face, black beard, and dark eyes seemed to exude calm as well as strength and purpose. "Muslims do not fight against one another," he said simply. "To think so is a lie."

Images of suicide bombers slipping into mosques in the Middle East or of trucks filled with explosives running into crowds of pilgrims on their way to a Shia or Sunni shrine popped into my mind.

Our teacher nodded, not convinced, but didn’t press the point. The imam, the leader of the mosque, had spoken. For him, there was nothing left to discuss other than a few incidentals of what we had seen in worship that day.

Soon, we were ushered out and given a tour of the washrooms. It was fascinating to learn about the habits of cleanliness and purification that Muslims practice. Before praying, they must wash their hands and feet. There are other practices as well.

The visit to the large, ornate mosque in Grand Rapids stirred up the memory of a different mosque, this one much more simply furnished, which I had visited many times a few years before. One experience especially came back to me.

It was the end of Ramadan and Muslims were breaking their fast in their place of prayer. As they did, I sat on the floor with the imam of the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Islamic Center.  Dressed in white robes, he was young and very friendly, describing for me how he had memorized the entire Qur’an as a youth through mentors, diligence, practice and prayer to Allah.

I could not imagine such a large undertaking  and considered the deep commitment and study it must have taken.

As we talked, we munched cookies and sipped juice. Other members of the center sat in groups nearby, talking, many pleased that they no longer had to fast during the day.

The imam spoke about Islam and how much it meant to him, particularly in the ways that the Qur’an helped to guide his spiritual life and relationship with Allah. He said he wished people would be willing to take a look at Islam as a whole, and especially the wide range of Muslims that there are in the world.

He said Islam, like Christianity, has many offshoots, from the more mystical Sufi Muslims to the more ardent, in many cases, Sunni Muslims in Saudi Arabia. He asked that people be slow to judge Islam and willing to establish relationships that can lead to understanding.

When I asked him if a tenet of Islam is to dominate the world, he smiled and said: “I love Islam and wish others were Islamic, too. But it is a big world and, realistically, I don’t see it dominated by any one religion.”

Near the end, the young imam said to me, "In whatever you write, please don’t say we are all terrorists. Also, if you are able, can you convey to people that this is our faith and by praying to Allah we have deep pleasure and peace?"

I had spoken to many people who told me that there is more to Islam than pleasure and peace. Islam has its problematic teachings and often is adamant, to the point of violence, against its members becoming Christians. But I didn’t argue with the imam. I simply smiled and took another cookie as they passed around a plate of sweets, realizing that in that moment we were sharing a sacred time together.

Hard questions could wait for another time.

Chris Meehan is news and media manager for the Christian Reformed Church in North America.