On night, I was visiting Hamtramck and the mosque broadcast the call to prayer over its loudspeaker. The mosque had fought in court and won the right to broadcast. I watched as the faithful proceeded from all directions, arriving for their prayers. Not one of the gathering faithful slowed or indicated any notice of seeing me. I am fairly sure if I stood outside a Christian church making observance, I could expect an invite inside. The faithful flowed inside without a single distraction regarded. The mosque is located at Caniff + Campau, east of the great Cathedral of St. Florian. I regret never hearing the bells of St. Florian, also a call to prayer. I am certain these old bells are beautiful. I spent many evenings in Hamtramck, teaching English, from 1988 to 1993, teaching everything from reading to Brit Lit to General Education Equivalency to English as a Second Language. I remember the flood of students from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union when the Iron Curtain failed. So it doesn't surprise me that dear old Hamtown became a first haven for a new religion in Michigan. But it's not a first, really. It might only be one of the first mosques in such sharp contrast to a deeply Catholic community. A mosque had existed near Wayne State University from long before the center in Hamtramck. I have some idea that the information window of this mosque had been shattered in the reaction to 9-11. I have engaged a number of Muslims from Pakistan in the coffeehouses of Royal Oak. The two I liked most were system integrators with EDS. One fellow took a bunch of screenwriting classes at the Detroit Film Center after I introduced him to it. He wrote a play where a thunderbolt struck a gathering hiding from a lightening storm under an awning. Only the streetwalker survived. The judge, the priest and the teacher died. It was a pretty well written screenplay and I think it earned a reading by actual actors.
No comments:
Post a Comment