to the english mosque...

Some of my new friends wanted to take me to the Friday services at a mosque here that preaches in English.

It was interested, although I would say that it was not really that different than attending Catholic mass, which I did faithfully at least once a week for the first 21 years of my life, sometimes more, since I also spent the 1st-8th grade attending Catholic school.

Be good to thy neighbor was the basic message, lots of prostrating and praying, many passages in Arabic, similar to the old Catholic mass with a lot in Latin which not many understood but it lent an air of mystery as well as authenticity. I’ve heard the same from some of my non-Arab Muslim friends here. They can pronounce the Arabic from the Holy Qur'an, and can even say many passages by heart in Arabic, but they really do not know what the Arabic words actually mean. Lot's of praise to God though and repetitions of how unworthy we are in his presence.

Different of course was that women were completely not seen by us men in the mosque. They were upstairs, in the back, in a separate room, hidden away.