Religion Essay

For this assignment, I wanted to go somewhere that I was unfamiliar with but a location that was still relatively close to me. I decided to go to the mosque that is on the ASU campus. It is called the Islamic Community Center of Tempe. I chose this place because I think it is important to gain a better understanding of religions other than my own. I think that all religions should be respected and that everyone should try to understand each other’s faiths. I have been inside churches and synagogues, but never a mosque. I was always curious about what a mosque is like on the inside, so I took this assignment as an opportunity to learn more about mosques and Islam. Islam is a religion with over a billion followers in multiple countries

Religion is universal. Although people may have different ideologies and practices, everyone believes in something, whether they deem it their religion or not. In this way, religion is a powerful connection between all of humanity; thus, it is important to understand the people behind religion and how their unique characteristics correlates with and influences religion—whether that be their social class, ethnicity, gender, or politics. However, ethnicity and gender, along with the closely linked topics of sexuality and politics, are the most significant concepts to understand religion in our modern world.

Pakistan, May 2007 around 8:00 pm, I existed the local madrasa (religious school), completing the 5th daily prayer and recitation of the Quran, and proceeded to head home wearing my light blue Kameez, White Salwar, and a Kufi on my head to offer a sign of humility before God. The reason I remember that warm windy night is because that day the mullah taught me that we humans are sent to earth by almighty god so he can test our loyalty to him. Those who follow his true path will ascend to the heavens upon death, and those who disobey him and his prophets will suffer in hell for eternity. I was 8 back then and life was good. Despite the Taliban decapitating captured soldiers and letting them rot in the intersections to

After the silent prayer time, I’m thinking it’s time to dismiss, not! We had to pray again to bless the bread & wine. It was time for communion. After communion, and 2 hours of torture, I almost felt myself running to my car. I had never felt that kind of torture before in church. Don’t judge me. I went with an open mind, expecting something different but not that different. The other event I attend was a Friday Mid-day Muslim Prayer Service with one of my students at the Islamic Center of Macon GA. My student advised me on how to dress. In other words, make sure the top of my outfit was long sleeves and the bottom was long enough to cover all of my legs. I thought I was ok, until I got there; they gave me a scarf to cover my head. Oh, I forgot to mention, I had to take off my shoes and leave them before I entered into the place of prayer. I guess you can call it a sanctuary. One thing I found odd was the men and women do not pray in the same place together. Since I was a guest of my student and actually a participant of the prayer time, the wudo, which is a ritual of purification, was not necessary. My student prepared me for the experience very well. She said, “Ms Finney, when you enter the mosque, just go in with the mindset that you are there to talk to Allah himself.” That’s where she lost me, I’m down with Jesus, but I didn’t tell her that. The women’s prayer session was very warm and the ladies

The rules and regulations of Neivanism are carved onto a glacier on the outside of the first settlement. If the ice begins to melt, the rules are just re carved.The Neivanists follow a certain set of rues based on good human nature. The main three rules of their religion are, 1) Not to kill another human being 2) Hladgunnr is the only true god 3) Never take more then you need, and if you have more then enough you give it to someone less fortunate. If a person follows these three rules they will be considered a good person.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance.” Prior to taking my Exploring Religion class at Nazareth College, I will admit that I was pretty religiously ignorant, even in the religion that I identify with! It was not that I did not want to learn about religions, I just was never very motivated to do my own research, and because these topics are so touchy in schools, we never went in depth, in high school. I am beyond thankful that a religious studies class is a requirement at Nazareth because after taking it, I feel that it is very important to be educated on religion as it is so controversial in our society, today.

The first reason you will probably be surprised will be by the place itself. Whilst many mosques seem grand and splendid from the outside, there is, in fact, very little to see inside a mosque. The prayer hall, where the public worship takes place five times a day, is actually very plain, because of the nature of Islam itself. You will find no statues, nor paintings, nor depictive stained glass. There is no altar, nor elaborate robes, nor candlesticks.

The exterior of the New Brunswick Islamic Center is incredibly misleading. The outside appears similar to a factory, yet, it’s the inside that suggests something holier. The inner appearance of the religious center is not very extravagant either, yet, it has a respectful atmosphere to it. Everyone acknowledges each other with a warm greeting, and everyone acts friendly. The building itself only was composed of a lobby and a musallah¸ or ritual hall. The women sat separated from the men, and everyone was required to remove their shoes. The age distribution was very spread out. Many young children accompanied their parents to prayer, while many older worshippers came alone. In fact, the lowest subset age-wise were college and high school aged students. The dress of the worshippers was perhaps the most varied. Some were in traditional garb, some were in basketball shorts and snapbacks, and some even fused traditional robes with baseball caps.

For this ritual project, I decided to observe the ritual of going to mosque and performing their prayers. The reason I decided to choose an Islamic practice for this project was in part because of the recent increase in Islamophobia both in the States and in Canada. I was also very interested to maybe observe some of the differences and similarities in Islamic practices compared to Christian practices as I have grown up in a very traditional Christian (Pentecostal) household and have never really had the opportunity to experience, first-hand, a religious ceremony foreign to my own. Additionally, when going to the mosque for this ritual, I had my best friend, Kimia, come with me as she grew up in a Muslim household and has attended mosque

I decided to do research on the local Mosques in San Francisco for my cultural humility project. The reason why I chose to choose to do my cultural humility project on local Mosques is because there is a lot of misconceptions on what it is, what do they do, and how do they help their communities and if mosques around the area communicate and collaborate with each other to reach their goals. I want to educate fellow members of our class and the people I meet in life on what is the purpose of a mosque, is it for all religions or a specific religion, and who runs and funds the mosques. After looking into the local mosques, I was astonished that they

Introduction and Arrival: I attended the Islam site visit at the River Oaks Islamic Center on Wednesday May 3rd. I chose to go to the Islam site because it was the first site visit I could attend because of the Lacrosse season. I was also excited to go to the Islam site visit because I know so little about Islam, apart from what the news says. I expected to see a lot of women with full scarves, long dresses and cloth slippers, accompanied by their husbands dressed in suits. I expected the mosque to be really large with intricate architecture on the outside. I also envisioned pews when we walked in, like a church. I thought we would walk in to a large room, with pews in the back and prayer rugs at the front. I also pictured an altar, but now

My first impression upon arriving at the mosque was that it was very drab and plain inside, as compared to how it looked on the outside. The religion I grew up in had beautifully decorated churches; while I wanted to ask why the mosque was so drab inside, I felt it would sound rude and unkind. Furthermore, I was disappointed to see the only chairs available to sit upon in the mosque were for pregnant, disabled, and elderly people. The religion I grew up in had nice, plump, padded pews for its members to sit upon. Again, I did not question why there were no pews as I felt it would be unkind.

I first saw a mihrab--an Islamic prayer niche--at the Metropolitan museum in NYC, and I was immediately entranced. I felt no deity, being without religious affiliation. Just calm, all around me, like I was standing in the middle of a galaxy looking at space. Foreign and incomprehensible, but beautiful just the same. The art, it felt like magic.

I attended as a religious service the Shabbat at East Midwood Jewish center on Friday, December 9th, at 7pm. From the outside, the synagogue looked like any other building. I noticed it was very large and wide from the outside. The only sign I got from the outside is the star of David along with Hebrew writing stating the name of the synagogue. There were many names Inside the synagogue, and I felt as if it doesn 't look much different from a church. There were chairs to sit in, and a dais at the front similar to a church. There was a platform, which is learned called a "bimah" at the near the center, from which the Torah is read, or lessons taught. I noticed on the wall is the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark of the convent, the Torah scrolls are kept, along with the other scrolls such as the books of Esther and Ruth. Above the Ark is the "ner tamid" an eternal light that is always lit. The room was very open, and even felt a bit empty. The synagogue I attended used movable partitions so that the room can be used for many purposes by people, and also so that large groups of worshippers can be accomodated at times such as the High Holy Days. I noticed there was no statuary like the Catholic Church has, meaning no saints. There was rather abstract artwork. Walking in, I received quite a few stares. This was off putting at first, but when you see someone new, you also stare. I didn 't feel as if they meant harm or even mean to be rude. I felt some of them were wondering who I

When I began attending my local mosque I was around seven years old. It was a fairly sized building, about the size of a house probably due to the fact that it was in the middle of a neighborhood. The place used to be a church but it was sold. When I first started attending, I remember the people there were mostly adults and the elderly. There weren’t too many kids like myself. I was fortunate to live close to the mosque that my parents would take me every day. My parents aren’t the most conservative people I’ve met, but we went there to hang out and also to pray. The prayer was the main primary reason and the “hanging out” part was something that developed over time. There are five main daily prayers that occur every day and the timings vary slightly depending upon the time in the year. My first encounter with this mosque was when I enrolled for their weekend school, which was for kids to learn how to read Arabic. The teachers taught us from the letters all the way to reading the Quran. The Quran consists of Arabic sentences and passages. The total number of pages in the Quran is close to six-hundred pages total. It took me one year to learn how to read Arabic, and it took me three years to read through the Quran once. It’s not very complicated once you get the feel for it, but it requires effort and dedication. We also were taught basic Islamic Studies. The topics were on how to pray, how to prepare for prayer, the basic pillars of our faith and it’s