would the best way to find out be to go to a mosque?
and if you lived in a town with a mosque, how comfortable would you feel in approaching that place with a view to seeing what muslims get up to and what things their preachers are preaching?
how welcome do you think you would be made... if you merely wanted to satisfy your curiosity, and had no desire to become involved in any way?
2006-12-22 01:59:29 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
let me make myself clear..i have read a great deal already including those for and against, including koran, hadiths, bukhari etc etc.
what i am interested in is hearing what the religious leaders are saying.
either extremists are a tiny minority with no standing among the mass of believers..
.
or the radicals are merely a vociferous noisy group, which hold exactly the same beliefs as all the others...but those others are merely holding their tongues and disguising the true beliefs and intentions, untill they feel more secure.
i intend to satisfy my curiosity on the matter and find out!
2006-12-22 05:14:44 · update #1
As with Christianity, there are many flavours of Islam. The main two are Sunni and Shia, but even these have subdivisions. Islam has no centralised authority, so it's not surprising that there are contradictory views.
2006-12-22 02:16:59 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
That would greatly depend on which mosque you go to. One of the better ways is to pick up a couple of books about Islam from the bookstore before you even go to the mosque. When you do go, have a list of questions either written or in your mind that you can ask, and the Muslims there should be able to direct you to the Imam who (I'm sure) would be glad to sit down with you to talk about how Islam is actually practiced in the real world. You should be made very welcome, the traditional culture of Arabia that has a great deal of influence on Islam is very hospitable. Also, if there are any questions that you are asked about converting to the faith, tell the guy that you are really not there to convert at this time, you are wishing to learn as much as you can about how Muslims live their daily lives.
2006-12-22 10:07:23 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Don't be scared Catweazle, muslims are people, if you go to a mosque you will be welcomed. Give it a go, come back to us, and tell us what happened.
Alternatively, rather than trying to base your knowledge on what other people tell you, if you are this interested, why don't you read the Qur'an yourself?
edit:
Dee- that must have been a horrible experience and I'm sorry that happened to you. Some people can be very inconsiderate and it would be foolish of me to defend the actions of other people who go to the mosque too. Don't be put off by this Catweazle, wherever you go, you will meet rude people, no matter what their faith. If you go with a respectful intention to understand certain issues, the imam, if a true muslim, will be happy to help. Ask around, find out if the mosque is known for being extreme, before you enter.
EDIT
You've just discredited your whole question with your last comment. How will speaking to imams inform you of how I, an avergage muslim, feel? Believe me, I am not keeping quiet as I have nothing to fear. I am telling you now that violence and the current 'jihad' is unacceptable and illegal. Clearly, that is not enough for you. You seem to want to CREATE a problem. Put it this way, should people wanting to learn about Christianity be wary of churches just incase the priest is a pedophile? NO. Because we don't discriminate an entire faith because of the actions of few. Give it a rest Catweazle, i'm bored with you now, as there's simply no substance behind your ramblings.
2006-12-22 10:04:48 · answer #3 · answered by pseudoname 3 · 3⤊ 2⤋
i went to a mosque once and was told off just because when i sat down my toes where pointing towards the east....
i was with some Muslim friends and was blatantly not Muslim and was singled out because of it.
the next time i went to a mosque was for a friends funeral. It was horrible, i could have been burying a dog. The sermon's were all in Urdu and the people from the mosque just took over and treated us like outsiders. it was so impersonal. I even had to bow and do all the Muslim rituals.
Basically, i'm fed up with standing on my toes all the time worrying about offending muslims in these places. If you don't intend on becoming a muslim you will not be welcomed in these places.
2006-12-22 10:42:59 · answer #4 · answered by Abdul 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It couldn't hurt to go. It all depends on the style and denomination of the mosque. I'd stay away from ones with many salafis as they are more extreme, but you should be able to find normal moderate Muslims there as well.
I'd also try books by Khaled Abou El Fadl as he has been addressing current trends of extremism in Islam and how one can use the Quran to stop them.
2006-12-22 10:05:50 · answer #5 · answered by paulooly 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
before i became muslim i went to a mosque, and i didnt have the intention of becoming muslim i just wanted to know more about the religion.
Muslim people can be very welcomming. They certainly were to me. if you approach it in a respectful well mannered way there is no reason why you would get any negativity.
Make sure it is a sunni mosque.
2006-12-22 10:06:56 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
why does everyone think Allah is a different God to the one Jews and Christian worship? this idea has come out of ignorance!! we worship the same God as Jews and Christians...we believe in Jesus and Moses and Abraham and all of the prophets... they are mentioned in the Qu'ran..Allah just means 'the One God' in Arabic!!
Worlds Biggest St. Helens Fan: ok im guessing you 'respect' God, but how can you respect God if you can compare him to a human? (Jesus)
99.9% of Muslims are ashamed of what happened on 9/11. They put us to shame and they arent true muslims.
2006-12-22 12:20:08 · answer #7 · answered by Shervin Azita J 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Worshippers of "allah" are all wrong, the only true saviour is Jesus Christ, Buddha is a good man, as he believes in a non violent approach to life just like Jesus.
2006-12-22 11:20:22 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
im a moslem and i visit churches and feel welcome. and if u were visiting my mosque i'd welcome u too.
best way to find out about a mosque is to visit it. tell the priest that u r there only to find out more on how moslems worship. m sure if they r kind pple that they claim to be (if they claim they r moslems, they must be open hearted and welcoming, as advised by the Prophet), they will welcome you.
all the best!
2006-12-22 10:09:34 · answer #9 · answered by tabla girl 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Me and Tony went to one once actually, and they taunted us, thinking we could not understand there language. So when Tony replied, they were quite shocked.
My curiosity and his were quite quenched, thank you.
And no, it was not conferting to be googled at. It was more conferting when we got the hell out of there.
2006-12-22 10:02:25 · answer #10 · answered by Illegals Are S*** 3 · 1⤊ 3⤋