A New Look on Islam

Anonymous Today, after classes, we went to a mosque. After traveling on a couple U-Bahns (on of which the group got separated in which was quite and experience) we arrived at Platz der Luftbrucke. This is a part of Berlin where the Americans had an air-base and large portion of the neighborhood. Of course, now it is no longer an air-base, but a memoiral stands today to symbolize the time when planes came into this part of the city, controled by the "west" and surrouned by the "east", to drop off food and supplies. It seems as if everything in Berlin has a past, a reason, and a meaning.

We got on a bus and traveled to the mosque. There were not many people there, but we waited for a tour guide. When the tour guide arrived, he spoke German. Professor Christensen asked if he could give the tour in English, as we have so many different levels of speakers. He told her that he had bad English, but he would try. Well, as it turns out, his English was fine. (When I say my German is bad, I mean giving a tour in German is something I could not do. When people in Germany say their English is bad, it means that they might mess a word up here and there!!!!)

Upon entering the mosque, you must remove your shoes so that the carpet does not get dirty. The guide informed us later that this was because praying to Mecca was one of the five pillars of Islam, and it was disrespectful to dirty to carpet you pray on. After removing our shoes, we went up some small spiral stairs. When we got to the main part of the mosque, it was beautiful. The mosque was built it 2003-2004. The colors were symbolic of the earth, the carpet was green, the arched dome ceilings were white and blue. There was a staircase where a speech is given on Friday, the day they meet in the mosque. The tour guide described the staircase as "where the light turns to wisdom." He also talked about similarities between Islam and Christianity. One for example was that both faiths include the same profets and many similar stories. Although there is nothing that we refer to as the "five pillars of Christianity," the five pillars of Islam reflect things that Christianity and Judaism also values in its faith for example giving to the poor, praying, and fasting. He pointed out that Allah is a word for God, and that Christians in Islamic parts of the world sometimes refer to the Christian God as Allah. At one point, he refered to religions as different programs, for example Microsoft Windows. They are all different ways to achieve the same goal. It was a very new and interesting way of looking at religion that I have never before seen.

The tour guide said that he was half German and half Arabic. He does inter-faith work for a living. He talked about his job of going into German schools and dealing with issues that Muslim students face. For example, teachers, who are mostly from different faith backgrounds than Islam, tend to not understand their Islamic students. This can lead to teachers treating Islamic students differently than other students and issues of this nature. His job is to go into these situations and try to explain the ideas and practices of Islam to the teacher. However, he also needs to explain to the students why they do certain things in Islam that other religions don't do and make the teacher and student both realize that maybe there isn't as big a difference between them as they once thought.

He said he enjoys his work. I believe him. The tours he gives at the mosque are free. The work that he does with schools is more than just a job or a career. It is about getting people to better understand each other. I got the feeling that for him, this was the best payment of all. He ended up by saying, "We are all going to end up in the same ground anyway!" This statement is so true for me. No matter what we believe, we might as well try to understand and know each other better, because we will all end up in the same place in the end anyway.