I (Zak) looked at a bunch of surveys online and discovered that Islam is the second fastest growing religion in America (behind “unaffiliated” or those who practice no religion). I figured if this was the case, there stood an increasing chance that sooner or later I would begin to encounter Muslims on a regular basis and it would be nice to already have a little bit of an understanding about their religious beliefs and practices. So, in an effort to view myself and my Christian worship practices from a visitor’s perspective, I set out to make myself a visitor at a mosque. Needless to say, I definitely view my own church’s practices (and handling of visitors!) differently now!
After I had decided to attend a Muslim service, I googled "Mosques in Portland, OR" and got 107,000 hits (in 0.22 seconds!). From there I found a list of 56 Islamic Mosques in Portland and Vancouver, and at the top of this list was the "Islamic Center of Portland" or "Masjed As-Saber". But here is where I encountered my first problem as a visitor wanting to attend their worship service – I couldn’t understand anything on their website! Nothing was in English! All the tabs were in Arabic, their November schedule used Islamic terms to identify days, dates, and times, and all the events on their calendar had Islamic names! For the life of me I couldn't find when to worship at the mosque! No meeting times that I could find. No days of the week for worship times that I could find. No way to let new-comers who only speak English know what/where/when to show up at their mosque. So after a couple of frustrating hours I quit and went to work on something else!
The next day I went back to their website and after poking around for a while on their event calendar discovered that if I clicked on an event (with an Islamic name), a description of that event would appear in English. It was in this way that I discovered their weekly Friday prayers (“Jum'a Prayer”) that they held at their mosque every Friday from 1:30pm to 2:30pm. I didn't know what to wear to Jum’a Prayer on Friday, so I looked for pictures of people on their website. I noticed that while they wore whatever they liked, they were all wearing a little hat. Did I need one of those? I also noticed that all the men had beards, so I was thankful that I already had met that quota!
When Friday came I drove out to the mosque, but I actually found the crowds long before I found the building! The streets leading up to its location where packed, as was the parking lot of Masjed As-Saber. Dark skinned men with beards speaking Arabic were pouring out of the mosque and milling around in the parking lot and adjacent streets while cars tried to get by. All I saw were men – women were not required to be there for Jum’a Prayer, but if they were, they were in another part of the building.
Seeing the crowds, I was suddenly struck by what I was about to do. Up until that point I thought this would be novel and a great adventure. Now I realized just how awkward and alone I was about to feel. I looked and sounded and acted and believed nothing like they did. It finally sunk in how uncomfortable this experience might be, and my nervousness caused me to say a little prayer before I stepped out of my car into the cold, gray, wet day and hundreds of Muslims. As I crossed the parking lot and began wading through all the foreign-speaking people on my way to the front door, a young white guy with a long beard (Jason was his name) noticed me almost at the same time that I noticed him and he came straight over to me and said hello. He probably noticed me because I was the only other white guy there! Jason was very welcoming, he shook my hand, and introduced himself. Jason was also able to guess that I had never been to the mosque before and that I was there specifically for Jum'a Prayer.
Most likely he was able to figure these things out about me because I was the only one walking towards the mosque while everyone else was walking away from it. Apparently I had just missed the service, and the crowd was everyone leaving! He explained to me that Islam is very closely tied to the movement of the sun across the sky, and so because of Daylight Savings Time, their Jum’a Prayer actually started at 12:30 instead of 1:30! Why didn’t the website tell me this? Why didn’t their online calendar of events adjust for DST as their services did? This was certainly not very conducive to first-time visitors like myself! So, I asked him if it was still OK for me to go inside the mosque and wander around and he said ‘yes.’ Then I asked him if he wanted to show me around, but he couldn't because he was leaving, so he introduced me to Benjamin, a friendly older fat man with a short white beard, a hat, and a thick middle-eastern accent.
Benjamin agreed to show me around, so he led me through the crowd, introducing me to people along the way. I shook the hands of quite a few people whose names I couldn't understand or even pronounce! When we finally made it to the front door I was directed to the cubbies where people place their shoes, so we took our shoes off and went into the mosque. First Benjamin showed me the prayer room where the Jum'a Prayer on Fridays and the 5 daily prayers every day of the week take place. The room itself was big – about as big as an auditorium in a church building would be. There was a very large green marble arch up front with bookshelves full of books surrounding it on either side. Under the arch was a large throne-like chair facing out into the room where I was told the Imam sits during Jum'a Prayer and speaks for about 40 minutes. The Imam is the senior Muslim at the mosque, much like a priest or senior pastor would be at a church building. The entire mosque (including the prayer room) is oriented towards Mecca (17.5°NE), so everyone praying towards the front of the room also prays towards Mecca. The room had green carpet with hundreds of 2x3 foot squares in which people would stand, bow, sit, and kneel. As I watched, men praying would do so side by side with no open squares between them – each square had to be filled before the next row of squares behind them could start to fill. In this way, every man’s feet and shoulders were touching the feet and shoulders of the men next to him.
Benjamin then introduced me to a younger guy (probably mid-30s) named Khalid. Khalid had much better English than Benjamin and was invited to come with us as Benjamin showed me into a side room that served as the mosque's library. There were bookshelves and elaborately decorated books on all four walls of this room. They pulled 3 chairs over into the center of the room and Khalid, Benjamin, and I talked for about 40 minutes. They asked if I was married, if I had kids, where I went go to school, how much I knew about Islam, where I grew up, what brought me to Masjed As-Saber that day, if I was from around there, and how much experience I had with Muslims. I have to admit that I felt a little intimidated; sitting in a room by myself with the door closed with these two strangers as they asked me about my life. Obviously it was harmless chit-chat, really no different than what I do when I go up and start talking with a visitor in my congregation, but intimidating nevertheless. I’ll have to remember this feeling when I start asking my visitors all sorts of personal questions!
But, Benjamin and Khalid also told me that no question I asked was too silly, so I could ask whatever I wanted about the Islamic faith or their particular mosque. Khalid did most of the talking with Benjamin telling him things in Islamic every now and then. So, we talked about Muhammad, Jesus, the prophets, the Qur'an, why they say "Peace be upon him" every time they mention Allah and any of the prophets. We talked about Mecca, Masjed As-Saber, head coverings, women, washings, taking shoes off, service projects, and their community outreach programs. We talked about becoming Muslim, Imams, educational expectations for Muslims, and reading and writing Arabic. Then they gave me a copy of the Qur'an and some fliers about Islam.
Benjamin and Khalid were very friendly and willing to answer all of my questions, but it was obvious that they were trying to sell Islam to me and get me to come back in the future (sounds very much like what I do with my visitors!). They focused on similarities between Christianity and Islam, Christ and Muhammad, and the Bible and the Qur'an. They each put my first and last name and my phone number in their phones, and then they also forwarded that information to Jason (the white guy I met first). When they first asked me for my personal information it felt really intrusive, and then it dawned on me that that’s really the same thing we do with our visitors when we ask them to fill in cards with their names and phone numbers! Finally, during our conversation the mosque's Imam walked in, so Benjamin and Khalid introduced me to him and we shook hands, then the three of them talked together in Arabic right in front of me while I waited. It made me feel like they were talking about me!
Our conversation was finally interrupted by the call to prayer (“Adhan”) 15 minutes before 2:30 over the mosque’s loudspeakers. Khalid explained to me that Muslims have 5 daily prayers, and that this was the afternoon (“'Asr”) prayer – the 3rd of the day. The Adhan was being sung or chanted in Arabic, so I asked Khalid to interpret it for me. When it was finished, I asked if I could go and observe the prayer and they said ‘sure.’ On our way from the library to the prayer room Benjamin showed me the shower room where everyone washes before prayers. Muslims wash their hands, elbows, hair, face, and feet since those are the parts of the body that touch the floor in the prayer room. If the men can stay "clean" during the day, they don’t have to wash before each of the 5 prayers.
Back at the prayer room, men slowly filed in and stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the squares in the carpet. Benjamin and Khalid went and participated in the prayer while I sat in the back and watched. As men walked in and went to a square they would individually do an opening prayer including some bowing and chanting. Then they waited for the Imam to come into the room to lead 'Asr prayer. Eventually the Imam came in and stood in the front also facing towards Mecca. He didn't face the crowd or sit in the chair, but faced forward in the front of the room. Then he would call out an Islamic word and the whole crowd would assume a position (stand, bend-over, sit, kneel, etc.). Every time he called out a different word, everyone would change positions. There was complete silence except for his single word called out once a minute or so. The 'Asr prayer lasted about 15 minutes and then some of the men left, some milled around, some grabbed a book off of a shelf and began to read. When Benjamin and Khalid returned to me, I thanked them for their time (I had been there for about an hour and 15 minutes!), we said our goodbyes, and I left. By the time I had gotten to my car where I left my phone, Khalid has already sent me a text thanking me for coming and to give me his phone number.
My experience at Masjed As-Saber was certainly different and uncomfortable, but I’m very glad that I did it. Not only did I learn more about Muslim beliefs and practices, but I also learned what it feels like to be a clueless outsider walking into a brand-new worship situation. I remember milling things over in my mind on the way home that afternoon. I’m not close to any Muslims who could influence me or invite me to his/her mosque, so I really had to show up to their services completely on my own. Is that true of my faith? My church? Furthermore, I had to intentionally keep trying to figure out how/when/where to attend their mosque, and even when I did finally figure it out and actually went, I was still wrong (1 hour late because of DST)! If I were searching for a place to worship, I would have given up on Masjed As-Saber a long time ago – they did not make it easy for me! Is this true of my church’s website? Is it clear, up to date, and easy to understand? When I got to the mosque, I didn't understand a single word the Imam was saying or the positions the members were assuming during their prayer times, which made their service extremely exclusive and unwelcoming to visitors. I was one of only two white guys there; everyone else was of middle-eastern descent and fluently spoke Arabic, so I immediately stood out. Is that how my church’s worship is? Do we use words outsiders don’t understand? Do we all look and act exactly the same way as other Christians, yet completely differently from everyone else in our communities?
There are some great lessons that we can apply from this experience to our Christian churches. First of all, it is vitally important to make it easy for people to find us, come to us, and understand us. There are already 100s of reasons why non-believers don’t want to attend our worship services, so the last thing we want to do is add our own reasons to that list. This means clear websites with days, times, dress-codes, locations, a description of what to expect at worship, and points of contact to ask questions are all important. We should strive to answer people’s questions on the website before they even have to ask them.
Secondly, during the worship service it is important to make visitors feel welcome by talking with them, showing them around the building, and introducing them to similar people (if it’s a young, single female attending college, introduce her to other young, single females attending college in the congregation). It’s also a good idea to give them permission to ask any question, give them a Bible and other handouts, and sit with them during services (if they’d like) to explain things to them. Assume nothing and explain every aspect of the worship service. It seems normal to us to use religious terminology, to bow our heads and pray to an invisible God, to wear a ties and dresses, to sit down for some songs and stand up for others, to pass around a tray and eat some crackers and drink some juice (that we call someone’s body and blood, no less!), and be able to instantly flip through our Bibles to the exact book, chapter, and verse that the speaker is talking about. But it also seemed normal for the Muslims I observed to take their shoes off at the front door, go to the shower room and wash themselves before prayers, and then bow, sit, and kneel at specific times during a silent prayer service with a leader announcing single words in a foreign language. I had no idea what they were saying and doing, so others probably feel the same way about our Christian services.
I would recommend to anyone who is concerned about making their visitors feel welcome, comfortable, knowledgeable, and involved in their worship service to visit another religion’s worship service. The first-hand experience of seeing a service through the eyes of a new-comer is far greater than simply being told about it. Additionally, it shows our genuine love for non-believers when we willingly experience their unease so we can make things better for them. I consider this to be a wonderful example of real service in worship.
