One of the experience I gained from living abroad is learning what does it mean to be a minority. Now that I am in Europe I become an ethnic and a religious minority! Friday is not a holiday here, people do not stop to do Friday prayers And usually it is very hard to be accommodate if you are working in a hospital.
I always asked the question why Friday prayer has to be in Arabic when most of the audience in fact do not understand Arabic?! The custom in most UK and Ireland Friday prayer is the first speech is in Arabic, while the second one is in English. The all the Audience understand English but few understand Arabic.
There is perception among Arabs because the Quran is in Arabic they have to lead when it come to Islam, forgetting the fact that majority of Muslims do not speak Arabic.
This Eid I lost my way and instead of going to my regular mosque I ended up in a Nigerians one (I think)! it is new because as far as I remember there is was only one mosque in this area and the number of Muslims in Dublin does not justify two mosques with only 500 meter apart. I think what happened is that they felt alienated by speeches in Arabic and regular reference to the Middle East Culture.
First everyone was looking at me with suspicion, of curse I was dressed differently, but I sat and did the usually ritual for Eid Takbber. After Prayer, The speech was in their own language, but i am sure it was about Gaddafi! I heard the following words “Gaddafi”, “40years”, “Tunisia”,Egypt”,”Iraq”,”Saddam”, and ”Justice”. so at least I knew what they were talking about! The strange thing I observed is the traditional dressing of the ladies which almost identical to the traditional dressing for women in Sudan.
It was a great experience for me, but is really sad to see those of similar religious background get fragmented on the bases of ethnicity and language.
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