for Muslims in the US?

Question

are mosques in the US the same as those in the Middle East? is everything similar in terms of worship (women must be coverd up, etc)? do non-arabs women also cover up? Feel free to cover stuff I've missed. I am doing mosques for my English subculture paper and this is for my outline.

Answer 1

Why limit yourself to muslims in the usa only? I can anwer that one too.

Same principles in mosques all over the world. Now, they might not look the same (i'm referring to the architecture now) - but mosque is a mosque.

Yes, all women must be covered (that's called wearing hejab).

Also, here is something you might add. Men and women pray in seperate rooms within the mosque, so they can't distract each other by physical attraction.

see these links too, might find something for your paper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque

http://lexicorient.com/e.o/mosque.htm

http://www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/mosque/default.htm

Hope this helps and good luck with your paper :)

Answer 2

Mosques in Middle East use Arabic to deliver the Islamic sermon on Fridays, whereas most mosques here use English. Rest is pretty much the same. All Muslim women must cover up when praying.

Answer 3

Yes, the prayers and rituals offered are all the same. But the sermons, for obvious reason, given in English.

In American mosques:
1. Five times prayers are done quite similarly.
2. If women attend, they cover up themselves and pray separately from men.
3. Unlike mosques in Muslim countries, call to prayer is not given out loud.
4. On Fridays, the sermons are mainly given in English, but it depends on locality. If the mosque is somewhere where South Asian Muslims are majority, the sermons might be in Urdu.

Answer 4

Assalamu 'Alaikum (Peace be upon you)

Basically, the mosque physically look similar to each other, either you are in US, Middle East, or Asia. I've been traveling quite a bit around the world, and didnt see any major difference in mosque i visited. Basically every mosque has to face the direction of Al Ka'bah in Makkah, second, it has to be kept in clean condition,because it would be the place to praise Allah almighty in daily shalats. Mosque is the place to seek knowledge and make ourself closer to Allah, therefore every masjid has to be a center of ISlamic Knowledge. The adab (etiquete) for everyone who visits Mosque basically is the same, you have to cover the awrat (is a term used within Islam which denotes the parts of the body that are not meant to be exposed in public), and for women, that would mean to cover their body and their hairs properly.

But in my country (Indonesia), Not all women cover up their hair. they only cover up everytime they want to take a pray, but the proper dress still a must if you visit a mosque. Based on my observation for Muslimah (muslim Women) in US, almost all of them dress properly and cover up everytime they visit Mosque.

Hope can answer some of your question bro!

Wassalamu'alaykum

Answer 5

im not muslim but i dont see many coveing up after 911. i know this was only radical muslims that done 911 but they tend to hide mosques here. at least where in live at in virginia. they are out of site. for fear of people burning them down. we do have one that looks like a traditional middle east mosques hidden behind some hotels here but mostly they hide them. ive seen a muslim worship center on the back side of a universty here. people in america are afraid muslims are gonna blow everyone up like they do in the middle east