Curious Observation at Mosque
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 2:38AM 
Having had a number of Muslim friends around, I have finally made my journey to the Mosque in Taipei which I had been longing to visit. The journey was motivated not only by my great curiosity to Islam but also my growing desire to learn more about it. Unfortunately, I had only been exposed to the manipulated images of Muslim people on the media until I was lucky to have met people who were raised as Muslims in real life and thus enabled me to read different profiles and perspectives. Although most of them do not spontaneously talk about their beliefs but then again, my little knowledge of Islamic beliefs and curiosity have always driven forward our conversation to this sensitive topic most people would prefer to avoid.
Picture: Taipei Mosque (台北清真寺)
I have always been profoundly interested in topics regarding Religion, Gender Relation and Social Studies. I noticed I have, in a way, cultivated a habit of leading conversations to particular topics I am interested in discussing without awareness. I always find myself enjoy listening to different perspectives although when it comes to topics such as religion, the atmosphere grows boiling and intense: each speaker speaks excitedly of their opinion or argument and sometimes without awareness, we speak so loudly in order to talk over other people so they can hear the point we are trying to make and perhaps get convinced. Eventually the discussion reaches the point where an inflating balloon loses its air and becomes flat; everyone has made their own argument but no agreement has been reached. Well, as the matter of fact, no consensus needs to be made.
Last Friday, as I had planned, I woke up early in the morning and took a fresh shower. I was happy to have the weather at the degree of 31 Celsius. However, I did not get to the Mosque as early as I had intended since I eventually found the place after nearly 20 minutes walk in haste from MRT station. I arrived there sweating like a hog; however, before entering the sacred temple, I must re-dress myself by covering my upper body with a long-sleeved jacket I prepared as well as my hair with a veil I had borrowed from my Muslim friend. After I was disguised in my new attire, I could feel the jacket and the veil sticking to my skin because of my nonstop sweat; furthermore, a drop of my perspiration was slowly flowing down from my neck to my buttocks which made my underwear wetter.
While everyone was at lunch and more people were slowly coming in one after another. I was surprised that men and women were allowed to eat together on the same table if they have to pray separately. Meanwhile, I heard the long call for prayers to gather. Men and women gradually headed to bathrooms to wash their faces, arms and feet. I asked a woman in the bathroom if I was allowed to stay upstairs with other women during the worship and what I should do if I would like to participate in praying. She told me since I was not yet a believer; I could simply sit by the stairs and make my mere observation, I accepted the generosity in appreciation. I stayed upstairs until the whole sermon had finished which was followed by a praying. I watched and followed what every other female Muslims were doing for the praying on the mats since I was far from being familiar to its procedures. I would say that I only physically “prayed” with them by watching and learning as a friend of mine remarked that I did not actually “pray” because I did not have a conversation with God, which I agreed.
When I was about to leave, I could barely take the heat any longer; I had to rid of my disguise. However, I thought it was blasphemously disrespectful if I were to come off the jacket and the veil once I stepped out of the Mosque and had my body revealed around other Muslims in public. I thought I would wait until I was about 50 meters away from the temple yet I saw men who just came out of the pious temple in groups standing or sitting at the sidewalks smoking cigarettes and chatting. I almost felt like my sensitivity was mocked by such an irony I immediately encountered outside; I took off my veil and jacket, I instantly received cold glares.
After my journey to the Mosque, I was asked if I felt comfortable to be in that Mosque just as Churches generate different atmosphere; people need to find their own churches in which they can feel very relaxed. Since I did not spiritually join them but only to be physically a part of the worship, I was unable to experience the kind of spiritual compatibility many believers seek for. More importantly, I think I have learned more than what media has to offer on TV about Islam after having been there myself. But at the same time, I believe I still need to do my homework by studying the pamphlets about the introduction of Islam provided by the Mosque I attended last Friday to get a clearer picture of Islam and its doctrines. By that time, I will be ready to make my second journey to the Mosque and hopefully with a whole different viewpoint.
Picture: I was lucky to have a Muslim friend of mine, Haider from Kurdistan, Iraq there with me for my first visit to the Mosque.
Reader Comments (5)
Hi Peggy,
Just wanted to say that it's refreshing to know that there are people like yourself who are willing to accept people of different religions and races.
I have a lot of Muslim friends too, and at times, it really depresses me when I see their portrayal in the media.
Anyway, thanks again for this post, as it was nice to read the thoughts of someone so open-minded.
And although it's two days early, Happy Birthday!
Take care.
Taiwan must obey to the islamic law now?
I'm so sad to see that you must wear a veil on your hair in YOUR country, because of some muslims force you to do that. Moreover, you want to be muslim because you see frequently muslim people? Now you know why so many people don't want to have muslim near their family. It is like people buying IPad because his friends buy it, but they don't really know why they have bought it. I hope that Taiwan will not be a muslim country, it belongs to China.
Hi Peggy,
Appreciate the read and couldn't stop the visual from coming in reading some of the discomfort :-D.
Hi Cody. I don't think Peggy is doing this to become Muslim or just because she has friends who are Muslim. To me, I got the impression she was interested in experiencing aspects of other cultures, in this case spiritual aspects. She's being less like stone and more like water, taking the shape of the culture to observe how it flows, rather than forcing a rigid existing shape and refusing to grow from the encounter.
Peggy,
Your videos are awesome, finally it's my turn to share my knowledge with you :)
I have studied many religions and if you really want to learn the true about any religion, historical and academical researches is a wise way to learn. It might be a strange phenomena, but worshipers don't seem to know the true historical facts about their religions and prophets. And yes, this go for every religions, that is why we have religious scholars. An assembly for worship is where the worshipers go to worship, that is not where religious scholars go to learn the religion.
Questioning is the way to learn about any religions. And if the answers you received are all about love, peace, and happiness, well you are not learning the true yet. Every single religion I've studied are bloody. Even the ones you may heard call themselves peaceful, blood is always an active ingredient, people are killing and getting killed. Historical documents are available to back up this fact.
Questions about the prophet of a religion?
-From whom did the prophet get the stuff? Which alien (being not from earth)?
-How did the followers know when the prophet is receiving communications ? What were the sign?
-Did the prophet know how to read and write? if not, whom wrote the literature the worshipers are using?
-were all the text noted while the prophet was speaking with the alien form or are they writing later after using guess and memory recollections?
-What was the prophet sexual and marital history?
-Did prophet sleep and have sex with little innocent children? If yes, how old?
-Did the prophet killed and/or order a lots of massacre? or was the prophet a peaceful person?
Questions about any religion:
-How, who, why, when and where this religion begin?
-How did the founders of the religion funded (money) their religious movement?
-Did "some" of the followers received fighting training? Learn to kill? Kung fu?
-Did they massacre (killed) any innocent people, travelers, merchants and take their possessions?
-What did the religion do to become powerful in numbers and territories? Was it colonization?
-How do the religion treat others with different religious views living inside their territories and ones living outside their territories?
-Do the religion force and required some people to pay or give them money for any reason like for protection?
-Are women and men treat equally?
-Is your life in danger if you ask intelligent questions?
-Can you be or stay yourself if choose to follow the religion?
-If you was a follower can you stop follow the religion? can you criticize and speak your mind?
You can learn a lot about religion when asking the right questions. Learn about foreign religion can be very interesting. But please, please remember, there is a difference between learning about a religion and becoming involve with in a religion. Going to their place of worship even when invited is called involving. Like my daddy always say," don't get in unless you can get out".
Feed your curiosity wisely my friend. Good luck
ni hao
i personally thank you peggy for taking some effort to know what is the truth if every one of us is ready to take a little stride people keep saying religion is the reason of blood shed & violence these things r caused by aggression in human nature there is no use in just blaming islam we always want a reason to fight kill & hate each other so brother please dont fill the cyberspace with hate stuff we can find lot of this in the real world