1) On arrival for Friday congregational prayers, enter the
mosque through the male entrance or through the female
entrance for women. Men and women are accommodated
seperately (you will understand why later on), and in most
mosques the womens' section is upstairs and the men
downstairs.
2) You won't find any officials at the doors asking you to
produce a membership card or ask you to what school of
thought you belong, what is your sexual orientation, race or
any intrusive questions like that. In fact you won't even be
asked if you are muslim.
3) Place your shoes in the provided shoe racks, walk into the
carpeted mosque and find a spot to sit on the carpet (there
are a limited number of chairs for the elderly). Sit quietly and
wait for the lecture to begin.As the mosque begins to fill, any
random person will come sit next to you and shake your
hand in greeting.
4) Although there is a dedicated Imaam for each mosque, you
are not sure who may be delivering the lecture on any
particular day. The Imaam and mosque committee invite
guest speakers occasionally from various persuasions to give
the Friday talk. Recently Professor Ilan Papi, a Jewish
intellectual visited South Africa and gave a talk at a number
of mosques.
5) When the English lecture is done, the resident Imaam will
give a short 5 minute lecture in Arabic.
6) When the Arabic lecture is done, the Bilaal will announce
the call for prayer. Stand up and fill the mosque from the
front in rows. Everytime there is a gap in front of you, move
forward to occupy that space.
7) Everytime you move forward or a gap opens up next to you,
you are not sure who will end up next to you. Here is where
any idea of racism is immediately eliminated.Stand closely
together with the person on either side of you with shoulders
touching.You end up standing next to a white, black,
coloured, indian, sunni, shia, gay, Chinese, Somalian,
non-muslim person attending out of interest etc. You cannot
choose who you want to stand next to. A local African can
end up standing next to a Somalian so no room for
xenophobia.
8) Follow the Imaam in prayer and just copy the movements of
the people next to and in front of you.
9) The rows are roughly less than a metre apart, so when you
come up from prostrating on the ground, be careful that
you do not bump your head against the person in front of
you. So you now understand why we cannot have women
and men praying in the same area.
10) When the prayer is done, shake hands with the person on
either side, go find your shoes without pushing and shoving,
and exit the mosque calmly.
Now for Mr Hargey's revolutionary open mosque....here are the phrases he uses to describe it....
a) Gender Equal.....non-issue in the closed mosque.
b) Interracial......non-issue in the closed mosque.
c) Non-alligned i.e. Sunni and Shia can attend the same
mosque....non-issue in the closed mosque. As explained in
step (2), you are not questioned at the door.
d) Gay people will be welcome......non-issue in the closed
mosque. Again you are not questioned about your sexual
orientation at the door.
e) Non-muslims will be welcome.....non-issue in the closed
mosque.
f) Islam preached will be enlightened, erudite and egalitarian??
wat se goed??? I had to look up the meaning of those
words...
Erudite: having or showing great knowledge or learning
Egalitarian: believing in or based on the principle that all
people are equal and deserve equal rights and
opportunities.
Again a non-issue in the closed mosque.
So please remind me again what is so revolutionary about this so called only open mosque?
Mr Hargey is making false statements to create the impression that Capetown mosques are exclusive, backwards and intolerant. The question is, why start a new institution on the bases of false statements?
I again invite all non-muslims to attend any Capetown mosque for a Friday congregation and then come back and report on your experience.
Shukran(thank you) Mr Hargey for providing me with an opportunity to enlighten our non-muslim brothers and sisters about our closed mosques in Capetown.
Assalaamu-Aluykum (Peace be upon you)