Mosque in Cedar Rapids

I found the trip to the mosque to be very educational. Firstly, the similarities between Islam and Christianity continue to surprise me. I knew threw our readings and class discussions that Muslims believe that Jesus was a prophet and they believe in the virgin birth and they believe in one God. Despite all of these similarities it still shocked me when I found out that Muslims believe in the return of Christ as King for the final judgment. At first that idea seemed to “Christian” to be part of the Islam faith. However, I quickly realized my ignorance and began to be more open to what I was learning.
One thing that helped me understand the Islam faith more was the idea or term “People of the Book”, the Book being the Torah, Bible, Qur’an or other writings from the Jewish, Christian or Islam faiths. The people then are obviously the people of those faiths. To Muslims all of these people worship the same God and their holy books have similar origins and content. I had never heard Islam compared to Judaism or Christianity this way before but it made a lot of sense to me. Now I can see that these three religions are more like siblings rather than distant cousins, which is what I thought when I first started studying them.
Another thing that surprised me was the simplicity of the building. While the outside was architecturally different, I found the inside to be far more barren then I expected. I was even more surprised by this when I was told about the artistic nature of Arabic writing. Seeing some of the writings and hearing the language spoken was beautiful however, there were only a few images of Arabic writing in the building. One particular piece I did enjoy was the Arabic prayer written in the shape of a person praying on their knees.
This field trip was very beneficial to me because it was the first time I had been in a mosque and it was an educational experience that helped me bridge the gap between Islam and other religions, especially Christianity.