This is my second Ashura in the US. Last year, it was on a Tuesday and I could not do the rituals quite the way I wanted, as explained at the end of my Nowruz 1386 post. But this year it was not on a weekday and I could visit a mosque for mourning ceremonies.
I attended the Islamic Center of America and it was good. The ceremony went exactly the way I desired; recitation of the Passion of Imam Hussein and his associates martyred in Karbala, without any unauthentic acts or words (as I've briefly explained under my Good Friday 2007 post). I was delighted to see the person who recited the Passion, did it reading from the book. And not surprisingly so, because he was not simply a precentor (or maddah as referred to by us Shia Muslims in Iran); he is a well-known clergy.
I had attended this mosque last year for the birth anniversary of our Prophet. From outside, it looks like any other mosque. But when I entered, I immediately thought of CedarCreek Church. They had a bookstore with luxurious books/items, a coffee-shop with excellent coffee (I'm not much into coffee, but I admit I was really impressed with their high-end service and quality) and you could smell the business-mentality much stronger than the excellent coffee. I had been taken there by one of my friends and I had no clue that we must have made reservations of $25 for the dinner (in Iran, dinners given over such religious celebrations are free). Fortunately, we were given complimentary tickets for the dinner.
And despite apparent similarities with CedarCreek and its modern atmosphere (without rock-music of course), they were not conservative, theologically speaking. I have to say they were far from that. Talking to one of their senior board members, I felt myself a backward bigot talking to a liberal.
Well, these labels are relative. I'm certainly a conservative Muslim (and if it were not for my passion with music and my beliefs on some other issues) I would had considered myself an orthodox. Yet, there are true bigots who regard conservative people like me as liberal. And probably, they would label people of this mosque as infidels. Religious labeling is a complicated business. Depending on where you stand on the ideological spectrum, you would think differently of other people, to your right or to your left. Maybe not.
When Imam Hussein defied the arrogant call of Yazid to pledge his allegiance to him as caliph, it was Imam Hussein who was labeled as rebel against Islam. At least, Herod didn't call himself a religious authority when he had John the Baptist beheaded. Just think about it, the embodiment of corruption and immorality calls himself caliph (successor of the Prophet) and then expects the Prophet's grandson to accept that. When I talk to my non-Muslim friends about what happened in Karbala 13 centuries ago, they find it incredible that those people could slaughter their Prophet's grandson and family and yet call themselves Muslim. An upside down world.
I attended the Islamic Center of America and it was good. The ceremony went exactly the way I desired; recitation of the Passion of Imam Hussein and his associates martyred in Karbala, without any unauthentic acts or words (as I've briefly explained under my Good Friday 2007 post). I was delighted to see the person who recited the Passion, did it reading from the book. And not surprisingly so, because he was not simply a precentor (or maddah as referred to by us Shia Muslims in Iran); he is a well-known clergy.
I had attended this mosque last year for the birth anniversary of our Prophet. From outside, it looks like any other mosque. But when I entered, I immediately thought of CedarCreek Church. They had a bookstore with luxurious books/items, a coffee-shop with excellent coffee (I'm not much into coffee, but I admit I was really impressed with their high-end service and quality) and you could smell the business-mentality much stronger than the excellent coffee. I had been taken there by one of my friends and I had no clue that we must have made reservations of $25 for the dinner (in Iran, dinners given over such religious celebrations are free). Fortunately, we were given complimentary tickets for the dinner.
And despite apparent similarities with CedarCreek and its modern atmosphere (without rock-music of course), they were not conservative, theologically speaking. I have to say they were far from that. Talking to one of their senior board members, I felt myself a backward bigot talking to a liberal.
Well, these labels are relative. I'm certainly a conservative Muslim (and if it were not for my passion with music and my beliefs on some other issues) I would had considered myself an orthodox. Yet, there are true bigots who regard conservative people like me as liberal. And probably, they would label people of this mosque as infidels. Religious labeling is a complicated business. Depending on where you stand on the ideological spectrum, you would think differently of other people, to your right or to your left. Maybe not.
When Imam Hussein defied the arrogant call of Yazid to pledge his allegiance to him as caliph, it was Imam Hussein who was labeled as rebel against Islam. At least, Herod didn't call himself a religious authority when he had John the Baptist beheaded. Just think about it, the embodiment of corruption and immorality calls himself caliph (successor of the Prophet) and then expects the Prophet's grandson to accept that. When I talk to my non-Muslim friends about what happened in Karbala 13 centuries ago, they find it incredible that those people could slaughter their Prophet's grandson and family and yet call themselves Muslim. An upside down world.
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