Two Dishes But To One Table

American Mosque

What's it like to join a mosque as an American  convert?   The posting and a dozen comments are here.   
The half dozen mosques I visited in Turkey all struck me with a sense of holiness.  Their architecture was more moving, more soulful than churches.   It kind of shook any sense I still had that Christianity had anything on Islam.  One time I even attended the prayer service with a rebelious secular Turkish woman.  She insisted on going through the motions of prayer there in the main floor crowd with me.  People were giving bad looks (because she was supposed to be back in the woman's zone) but noone actually said anything to her. 

Walk of the gods

Some people claim that Jackson Hts, Queens is the most diverse neighborhood of the most diverse city of the the most diverse country in the world.   That is surely overstating things but I do know that a five minute walk from my house passes by a pantheon of non-Christian gods.  Last week while I was waiting for some paint to dry I took a quick walk around the neighborhood with my blurry little phonecamera.  The Christian houses of worship, none of them mainline Protestant, included a half-dozen evangelical churches, a pair of Catholic churches, a pair of Orthodox churches (one Serbian, one Greek).  No synagogues.   

And then there were the following:

1.  Here is a warehouse that has been converted into a Hindu temple.  It sits in the hardcore industrial area of 56th Street north of 37th Ave.

2.  A Saturday wedding was being held at this Hindu temple.  A big limousine pulled up and a bride made the ceremonial walk from curb to temple.  She was magnificent, covered in henna tattoos, dangling gold chains and pearls from her face, brow, and ears, taking itsy bitsy steps, looking extremely shy and precious.  I have no photo of the bride; it was too magical of a moment to sully with my idiotic camera phone.  This is a photo of the temple door, minutes before the limousine pulled up.   Note the prominent God Bless America.

3.  Here is a pretty active mosque in a basement below a convenience store.

4. Here is a storefront mosque on 37-48 61st street, across from the Woodside post office.

5.  If you imagine that Queens contains endless rows of boring aluminum sided houses, you are correct.  It’s therefore hard to describe the oddness of encountering this Buddhist temple (Thai).  It’s 4 stories tall, has a classic be-dragoned roof top, and the grounds have statuary and gardens.  The entire baroque ensemble sits amidst a quiet residential sidestreet, flanked by the Queens streets made famous by the opening credits of Archie Bunker and “All In the Family”.  Cars come by to gawk at the temple, idling down the block at 5 mph, rolling down their windows to take photos, like it’s a famous Christmas light display or something.  There is a small school on the grounds and a summer camp program, all in Thai language, for Thai children.  This temple is on 46th Ave near 76th Street.

All in all, pretty good for a short stroll.

Second Annual Mosque to Temple Peace Walk is Tomorrow in Brooklyn.

"We remember the time known as the Golden Age in Spain when our ancestors lived together peacefully. "   -- Statement by the organization Children of Abraham.

Yesterday was probably a personal best for me in traveling to teach.
Five lessons as follows-
9:00 In Washington Hts (190th Manhattan)
12:00 In Sunnyside Queens (43St on the 7 Train)
3:00 In Fort Greene (Brooklyn Campus of L.I.U.)
6:00 In Washington Hts
9:00 In Coney Island. 

In the catagory of personal trivia,
I think a four-borough-workday still eludes me.
I am collecting End-of-the-Line students too.  I think I have done 5 last stop students in the boroughs. 

In all the train riding yesterday I got through about half of Jarhead by Anthony Swofford, (USMC) his account of Desert Storm I.  Plenty of anecdotes are there, from the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. 
Here we have Swofford at boot camp being told his duties as Catholic lay reader  by his Drill Instructor:
"You, fuckface, you are the Catholic lay reader.  On Sundays, you march this shit bucket of Catholics over to the church.  Except it's not a church but a big goddamn theater.  You do your damn praying and singing.  And then you march back.  If it's taps, and the officer of the day walks on deck, and one of your drill instructors says 'Pray, recruits,' you better start praying, pray like a motherfucker, like you do it every night, like it's as natural as sucking on your mommy's nipple.  And any other time your drill instructors decide it's time for the Catholics to pray, you better shit me a prayer, do you understand, fuckface? "

Reporting From Jackson Hts, Queens

Today I noticed some citizen with duct tape had posted a wanted poster for seven terrorist muslims in America on the plywood of the under-renovation 74th Street stop on the 7 train. It was big face portraits of Muslim looking bearded men with a headline that basically said "Stare Into the Face of Evil". If you haven't been to Jackson Hts, there are a fair amount of women in headscarves, men in baggy pants and skullcap walking around. The visual of this minority in the neighborhood walking to and fro in front of the improvised wanted poster was an odd sight.

This is the subway station that is two blocks from my neighborhood mosque. It must give these local Muslim immigrant men and women pause to walk by these photos with this provocative headline. Do they feel weird about it? To them does this feel like a big cross burning on their lawn? Or do they say "let's catch the bad muslims"? Do they put up more signs on their stores "We Appreciate Your Business - God Bless America"? I'm all for wanted posters and spotting these (suspected) criminals, of course. It would just be an interesting thing to discuss with students or in a town hall meeting somewhere.

A text-only version of the wanted poster (actually it was the centerfold from the Wednesday NY Post) is online here.