On Turkish Ground

Yesterday, I went on an excursion with my class to someplace I had been looking forward to since I found out we were going. We spent our afternoon at the Berlin Türk Sehitlik Camii Mosque. I had never stepped foot into a mosque before. Honestly, I’ve never stepped foot into a synagogue, either. Anyways, dressed according to their dress code of pants and a conservative shirt, and socks packed in my bag to wear in the mosque, I was excited. When we got there, mid-day prayer had just ended and so we waited outside the gate until the HUGE crowd of primarily men flowed out. Also, accompanied out were two caskets, without any kind of special procession. We finally entered, and while our professor was checking in and finding our tour guide a few of us had to go to the bathroom.

I know what you’re thinking, TMI, but you’ll understand in a moment why I’m mentioning this. The women’s bathroom was on the side of the building in the back. We had to take our shoes off to even go up the stairs to get to the bathroom, where we found flip flops to wear while in there. Which, by the way, we tried asking the woman in the bathroom if they were for everyone to use, but barely could communicate an answer with her (later I learned is because their primary language is Turkish – awesome). Next to the bathroom was a room for women - none of them were talking, though, which I also found interesting because if there’s one thing that may be irregular in this situation, it’s not that there’s a room specifically for women, but that they weren’t talking with each other. Now, I’ve taken a class on women in Islam, because it fascinates me... I don’t think Muslim women are oppressed because they are Muslim, I believe they are oppressed because of the cultures that Muslim women typically live in. Our tour guide, who we had a great conversation with, assured us that the reason women and men do not pray together in the Mosque was because of the idea of distraction, not oppression. Women can choose to pray on the same floor as the men, they just have to be behind them all. Their prayer involves bending and kneeling and Muslims understand the “nature” of men and feel that men would be more concerned with the female bending down in front of them than on the prayer they were to be saying. It is also worth noting that what women choose to wear or not on their heads and bodies is their choice. Their teachings are clear that BOTH men and women need to be modest in their dress, that nothing is to be too form fitting for either sex, so as to take away from distractions. Our tour guide also assured us that in his thoughts, if a woman can be confident, with self-respect and restraint in tight jeans and shirts, then let her dress that way. But, the Muslim girls I have talked to believe that if a girl wears tight clothing, but a Hijaab (the head covering), they shouldn’t bother with even that. All interesting.

So, our tour began outside the actual mosque, but within the compound and we were told we were officially on Turkish ground. That Germany had given this space to Turkey, so that one of their dignitaries could be buried within the gates. As you can imagine, then, we were standing among a cemetery, as well. He explained that the graves are to face Mecca… something I had already figured to be true. We entered the beautiful five-year-old Mosque, taking our shoes off again, into an open carpeted room. We learned that the different colors and designs were chosen to represent the world: blue ceilings – the sky, a chandelier in the middle – the sun, gray pillars – the earth, green carpet – the grass. It has a lectern just like what we would see at a church or cathedral and a main alter where the person who leads the prayer stands. Calligraphy was the decoration all throughout, unlike our usual stain glass windows depicting saints or Jesus. Muslims do not believe depicting something so unfathomable, that God or Mohammed are too holy and too great to be able to be brought into human form through pictures in windows.

We sat in a circle for about an hour, there, in the middle of Mosque, where the people pray and talked about Islam. Our introduction began with being asked what does Islam mean. And learned that Islam means peace, and Muslim means people of the peace. Peace between mankind, peace between man and god and peace between man and our world. Therefore, as Muslims, they are embarrassed that something like people flying airplanes into buildings has become their image within the media. We reviewed the 5 Pillars of Islam and passed around a Koran. We asked any question we wanted to, and our guide was willing to answer anything and everything. We cross-referenced stories from the Bible, Torah and Koran, and learned that Muslims accept all the prophets that I, as a Christian, do, including Jesus, as prophets of the word of God. The obvious difference is that they do not believe Jesus as a savior, and talk of Mohammed as the last great prophet. He showed us how they pray and recited some verses out of the Koran. The teachings in their service are in Turkish, but anything out of the Koran and the prayers are always in Arabic. Our guide told us he was taking a class on Fridays to learn the translation of the Koran, so that he knew what the teachings were. And this is my greatest problem is Islam.

Unlike in Sunday School, where young children are encouraged to read the Bible out loud and take one home to read more about the stories we learn, many Muslims do not know the stories in the Koran because they can’t read them. Many only know the teachings by what their told by the Imam (leader). The Koran cannot be found written in any other language than Arabic. How can you understand and profess teaching you yourself do not even know? This is how the extremists are bred, I think, because they only hear bits and pieces of stories and teachings, and never the WHOLE story, unless they take the time to go to class. Their mosques aren’t like our churches where you have a “family” and go to classes and studies, and fellowship together. You go, you pray, you leave. And even then, men are only required to come and pray on Fridays one time. They even have an electronic board that tells you what times the five prayers are to take place - one was a little past midnight, another ridiculously early in the morning, that it was basically nighttime still and then others throughout the day. Regardless, their faith and relationship with God is completely internal. There is no one following up on their understanding of the teachings and what the faith truly stands for. So, when the Koran says that if someone tries to hurt you, you’re allowed to fight back, but only at the force that someone is forcing upon you, it can be misinterpreted for so many things. Define attack. Does it have to be physical? Or is it Spiritual? Emotional? This is where things get messy.

Being devout is very hard for Muslims. They are constantly targets because of the media and the image few have made for many. The population of Muslims in Berlin is around 300,000 and most of them are peace-loving people who want to work hard and provide for their family. Many came to West Berlin during the Cold War as Gastarbeiter (guest workers) and never left. Berlin has the second highest city population of Turks in world after Istanbul - beating all other Turkish cities. Some Germans, typically of the working class low-income ilk, have a great problem with them because they are "taking up the jobs and cheap housing." That's before the issues some have with their faith. I was already familiar with many aspects of Islam from my once-upon-a time Ohio State days, but this was a fantastic experience. When we first walked in, I had never felt more out of place in my entire life. But, the people there were so welcoming, and were eager to educate us on their lifestyles with the mission to break the barriers the media and extremists build. And I hope this helps anyone who’s read this. Do we have to agree with other people’s beliefs? Of course not. But my little trip to Turkey one Friday afternoon in Berlin really taught me a lot more than I could have asked for. I couldn’t imagine having to be eager about teaching others about my religion, not to try and spread the word I believe in, but with the hope that people know not to fear me for my faith.