Islam

Visit to the Islam School of Miami

I’ve never really been the religious type; mostly because I wasn’t raised in a religious household. This, I believe, is what caused me to be regrettably ignorant towards the practices and beliefs of other religions. That’s why I was a bit skeptical in making my decision on which site I wanted to go to for my school site visit. Buddhism and Hinduism would’ve been the easier choices because they’re the two religions that we’ve learned thus far in our World Religions class.

Islam was never really a practice that I knew much about. I grew up in the age of war on terror in America which closed my mind to the Muslim culture. The media was teaching the parents against the Muslims and the parents were instilling such beliefs into the raising of their children. For a long time I ignorantly believed that all Muslims were terrorists and stereotyped them like the rest of the ignorant American population who believe the same thing. I grew up and decided that I wanted to put an end to this gross generalization. Which is why I decided to go visit an Islamic place of worship and learn more about them first hand rather than learn from other people. Fortunately, this site visit changed my whole perception of the Islamic community. It showed how humble they can be to not just an inquiring college student, but to the rest of the world as well.

Once decided on my project to be taken place at a Mosque, Islamic place of worship, I needed to find just the right place to visit to get the full experience of the Muslim culture. One of my best friends in High School, Mahmoud Sarsour, and his family have been part of the Islamic faith for multiple generations. After some planning, he took me to his place of worship on a Wednesday where there wasn’t many people attending so I could have my time to speak to the leaders of the faith, and get an in depth description of everyday life in Islam.

I’d never seen or heard of this Mosque before, though I live...