Lauryn Mclaughlin

Mr. Watkins
11/13/2021

My Mosque Experience
I didn’t know what to expect for my first visit to a traditional Mosque. The Mosque is

located closed to NOC in Stillwater. It is a building I’ve driven by many times as a Stillwater

resident not knowing what the building was. My only reference for a Mosque is what I have seen

in movies and in books. I expected an elaborate building, with arches and towers, the Stillwater

Mosque looked like a traditional Christian Church (or at least my experience with our local

Churches).

Upon arrival we were given a tour of the inside of the building. This started with seeing

the prayer rooms. There two prayer rooms, one is for females and the other is for males. They

separate when doing prayers unlike in Christian Churches. We then went to the main hall, which

had a verse from the Quran, which is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to

be a revelation from God (Allah). The student giving the tour explained what the verse said and

meant, two other gentlemen also helped with the explanation. We then to the library and where

the students have an area to study or hangout. When we went downstairs we had to take off our

shoes, they explained you take off your shoes which is to keep the area of prayer clean, the

carpet was so soft and bouncy, they told us there were many layers of carpet to make it more

comfortable when praying on your knees.

There was an older speaker who then asked us if we had any questions, one of our

students asked if they believed in Jesus. He said they believe in the Jesus, but that he did not die
on the cross and that he is still alive (some parts of this was very confusing to me). They believe

when Jesus does return he will live for 40 years and then die. After the question and answers

they were very kind and gave us some really tasty food, which our group appreciated.

I really enjoyed the tour and learning more about both the Mosque and the Muslim

religion.