Saeed Mosque, originally uploaded by malyousif.
I visited the old neighbourhood this morning on the way to pay my respects to the Khalaf family (our neighbours of old) for the passing of their doyen. On the way back, I shot several pictures of the neighbourhood I grew up in in central Manama on my mobile phone… this one is of Saeed’s Mosque.
The local lore says that a Christian man fell in love with Bahrain and this (Al-Hammam) neighbourhood in Manama so much that he financed the building of this mosque for the area’s worshippers!
I guess, over 100 years ago people were much more tolerant than they are today.
Comments
There is still plenty of toleration on this side of the Atlantic, Mahmood. I just read in the Wall Street Journal of a Muslim trying to start a mosque here in the States that followed a moderate version of Islam that blended with democracy and such. He found a building that was perfect but it was owned by a Jew so he figured he would not rent it out. When he told the Jewish guy he wanted to put a mosque in there, he said the neighborhood needed a mosque and dropped the charge for the lease by 80%. He got his mosque together and hired an imam from the Middle East, Yemen I think.
It didn’t go that well. The imam fought the guy, especially when he took down the wall between the male and female worshippers. But it went really bad after Sep 11, with the imam calling for jihad in his sermons. He tried to fire the imam but the imam wouldn’t be fired. When he sued him to get him out, the imam sued back. The moderate Muslim claimed the imam violated the contract by preaching extremism. Unfortunately, the extremist sermons he had taped were done after he first filed suit and were excluded from the case. The imam lied his ass off, saying he had only preached the Koran and nothing more and that his employer had embezzled from the mosque.
The extremist won the case and a large judgement, which allowed him to buy the mosque. Now he’s preaching jihad in the mosque intended to be moderate. A microcosm of the Muslim world.
And really, Mahmood, there are an awful lot of mosques in the US. They even get deals on public land from politically correct multi-culti types in local government. How many churches and synagogues are in the Middle East let alone worshippers who are free of harassment by intolerant Muslims and their governments?
yes.. people were more tolerant then. maybe one day they will be again.
steve don’t try to fix every problem on earth. enjoy life for it is short. recent events have tarnished the face of religions including islam; religion is a path to purity. leave those who wish to exploit it for their own agendas; take pleasure from small things in life that bring joy to you and your family. peace be upon you.
this picture triggers memories of El-Manama and childhood. we used to run on those narrow streets near matam Haji Abbas and matam el Bad3. Thank you for posting this pic.
Steve, you’re back to your old tricks: taking an isolated incident, no matter how docile or incendiary, and mould it into your dogma. Rather than taking this beautiful instance of supposed interfaith cooperation and celebrate it.
Well done.
Anonymous: “recent events have tarnished the face of religions including islam”
Huh? Is there some other religion other than Islam on a global mass murdering spree? Are those Mormons acting up again? Have the Buddhists been casing the World Bank to blow it up? Did the Quakers call off poisoning the commuters on the New York subway at the last minute? Did the Baptists get caught plotting to blow up Canadian landmarks and behead the Canadian president?
Exactly what other religions are you talking about that have been tarnished by “recent events”? Did the Sep 11 attacks tarnish the Confucians? Did the Madrid bombings shame the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Did the Tube bombings embarass the Hindus? Were all the religions other than Islam committing atrocities that I somehow missed?
Steve
Mahmood,
I object to the impression you gave that a Christian donation to build a mosque a hundred years ago somehow implies Christian intolerance today of Islam. The problem is not Christian nor Buddhist nor Martian intolerance. It’s Islamic intolerance that is at the root of the problem. And it’s got to change.
I mean, really, when have you ever heard of Muslims ponying up donations to build a church? I’d love to see the synagogue built with Muslim donations. I’m guessing that’s the synagogue built out of dynamite.
Steve
It’s small, modest and doesn’t have any fancy extensions: Must be a Shia mosque.
The fact that the man pictured doesn’t have a swaying beards and isn’t wearing a skirt also gives it away.
Steve The American:
come on, we all now that it has nothing to do with what religion they are, it’s all interests and seeking for power.
You want to tell us that churchs hadn’t kept Europe in the darkness for ages. Hadn’t Catholics fight Protestants and thousands or more had been massacred?!! Hadn’t they abandoned who ever says “earth is not a flat”!! and killed em? Hadn’t Europe Map changed hundereds times that i couldn’t even call it!! Hey come on, let us not forget 2 million Native Americans, and unbelievably you still celebrate Thanks Giving, Thanks for what? for killing em, hehe and they offer you a turkey!! or 200,000 people massacred in a matter of seconds in Hiroshima and Nakazaki!!
On the other side, we know that Japan did kill a lot of people fighting Korea. Mongols, Othmans, Hitler, all did the same, when they wanted power no different.
Come on Steve, you are a mature, don’t bring the fight on. We all know it has only to do with personal interests, seeking power, greed and some mental problems. And a regilion is only a matter of way to reach it. They need to say some thing to the people, so people would follow them.
When I returned to childhood haunts some years ago, I was impressed by the smallness of everthing that I remembered as being so huge. For example, the small church of my youth was as large as a cathedral in my memories. Perhaps, Mahmood, you felt a smiliar experience when you visited the mosque of your childhood.
Your mosque looks wonderfully clean and quite austere. I wonder…where are your famous flowers?
Hey Mahmood is this the neighborhood you said I had to visit sometime? If I remember it started with an S, but for the life of me since I got back I can’t put my finger on what the towns name was…. Was hoping to get some pictures of it taken before I left, but thats looking really unlikely now.
I love these old parts of Manama. I’ve not seen this Mosque… it’s a really good picture.
I love the old parts of Muharraq as well. It was one of the first cities I fell in love w/ when I first came here to visit.
‘happy’ mosque it is indeed!
how about the myth surround sheikh aziz mosque and the german architects who couldnt demolish it with all the cranes of the world!
I love the old part of Manama city as well and have taken loads of shots of wonderful buildings — sadly they all appear at risk. i usually spend quite some time with photoshop getting rid of electrical or phone cables, satellite dishes and ac units!
The mosque looks really out of sync with the modern high rise in the back, though. At first I thought it was a water tank on top of the mosque. 🙂 Need new glasses.
so the IRA and ETA are muslim too steve?
ah the ugly american rears its dogmatic head once again.
I like that pic, and the arial pics of the islands. Bahrain seems pretty well laid back for an Islamic country.
Are all the old houses spoilt by having massive great air-conditioning units ?
dogma> c : a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds
Not that Steve needs or desires any help from me but I think that the facts are alot more ugly than the american.
There are signs of hope, this from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1853837,00.html
THE first Christian church in Qatar since the arrival of Islam in the 7th century is to be built in the conservative Muslim state, which is led by a reform-minded ruler.
This is probably one of those dumb questions, but I am going to ask it anyway. I was struck with the contrast of the new construction in the background and also by the neatness of the courtyard of the mosque. What I wondered was…what is on top of the tall part of the building behind the man? Is that construction with the roof and poles..tubing sticking out or what???
Steve, get your head out of your ass and start smelling something other than your own body refuse. Bahrain, the Bahraini government and people have copiously donated to the building of 2 cathedrals and a synagogue. Right here in “Muslim-land Bahrain”
And I did not imply that Christianity is no longer tolerant of Islam, but specifically it is people like you that not only have turned intolerant of everything not you, but also are destroying the means by which moderate Muslims are desperately trying to remove or at least allay extremism in Islam.
I guess you REALLY need another holiday Steve, the last one was surely not enough as it doesn’t seem to have included any self-reflection which is sorely needed.
As well as many Saudi’s have supported the Christian community in Bahrain. The people of Bahrain have been very good to the numerous churches over many many years.
Steve you should really take a trip to Bahrain!
Exactly, Mahmood. Steve’s holier than thou attitude is sounding like a stuck record: you guys are crap, we are wonderful. you guys are crap, we are wonderful. you guys are crap, we are wonderful. I just dont understand his idea of “dialogue”.
I just sense a complete and utter hatred emanating from him that I just cant be bothered to deal with anymore. I visit your blog to enjoy a reasonable debate among people I believe are more-or-less respectful of each other. I dont come here to stand accused in front of Steve the American, defending myself against his barrage of accusations and hatred that stretch to everything we have ever been or ever will be. There is a proverb in Arabic that says, blow in the water, it remains water. I guess it applies to Steve. No matter what we say, he’s going to come back with his broken record: you guys are crap, we are wonderful.
I understand, and I am sick of him too Lujayn, he’s been here for more than 18 months I think and he has not changed position to even acknowledge that generalisations do not work and that we too – as Arabs first, and muslims or whatever religion we adopt – detest extremism in any of its forms and that only a minority are practicing it and they are reducing in numbers on a daily basis. But Steve will never understand that… I’m giving up on him too and shall just ignore his wordy posts.
Thank goodness that the people who visit from the West vastly outnumber those who agree with His Holiness Steve the Intolerant.
Clippa wasn’t that Duraz we were talking about? Remind me of the context of the conversation if you would.
The creation came before all religions… religions came to organise the relations between human beings, and the relation between humans and the creator. All the killings, in all faiths are nothing but, dishonouring the mankind, which is against every religion from the start.
Americans, while they are dieing from poverty, ill health, and increasing rates of crimes everyday, their government is not interested in anything but supporting people like Bin-Laden, supporting groups and governments against the well of the people, taking part in war after war. This is civilisation!
Not to forget their stand against the people of South Africa and Nelson Mandela, and not to forget their blind support to Israel, regardless of whatever they do.
Not to mention that whenever an American official visits any country, being Christian or Muslim or any faith, a big demonstration will be there too.
We and them; an old story that aims to neglect what is happening in ones own world. Stop looking at others “them†and start fixing your self.
When it comes to religion I am often tempted to say “A plague on all your houses” but I don’t because the religious impulse seems hard-wired into the human psyche. After all, there is not a culture on the planet that has not developed and cultivated some kind of religious tradition. And as Salman Rushdie has said, even atheists are obsessed with God!
No, the problem is not religion, rather certain kinds of people are the problem: it is what human beings choose to make (or not) of the spiritual impulse. And that is why the values of tolerance, empathy and compassion which are taught by all religions (paradoxically alongside the calls to kill the “other”) need to be encouraged and embraced.
People who are drawn to fundamentalist, literalist dogmas are basically children, developmentally (as any parent knows, a small child needs the comfort of certainties — and later need to be taught to navigate the discomfort of ambiguity and uncertainty) — and it matters not whether their “faith” is a religious or political perspective.
Thankfully, Steve and his “jihadist” ilk are a minority everywhere, even here in the US. They just have very big mouths (and no manners) so it can be hard to remember that sometimes.
I belive I was talking about when I was considering working in an African NGO and an uncle of mine replying that there were parts of Bahrain that looked like Africa so why the hell was I going all the way over there 😛 … I think you mentioned a town I should visit!
Duraz? I’m not sure where that is, but I’ll ask someone to point it out for me!
Then Duraz must have been it!
For God’s sake, will someone please ask the GDN to start censoring pictures: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=147583&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=29099
When it comes to religion I am often tempted to say “A plague on all your houses†but I don’t because the religious impulse seems hard-wired into the human psyche.
Sunrunner. I think it has a lot to do with addictive personalities.
billT
Lujayn: “I just sense a complete and utter hatred emanating from him that I just cant be bothered to deal with anymore. I visit your blog to enjoy a reasonable debate among people I believe are more-or-less respectful of each other. I dont come here to stand accused in front of Steve the American, defending myself against his barrage of accusations and hatred that stretch to everything we have ever been or ever will be. There is a proverb in Arabic that says, blow in the water, it remains water. I guess it applies to Steve. No matter what we say, he’s going to come back with his broken record: you guys are crap, we are wonderful.”
Lujayn, this morning I walked to the Metro to find a huge crowd standing on the train platform. The sign said train service was suspended. First time I’ve ever seen that. The station-master announced something nearly unintelligible about the Metro Center and L’Enfant Plaza stations being out of service. What? What could take the main switching stations in the subway out? That’s when I started to wonder if this was the terror attack we all know is coming. This is how it would happen, with bunches of people standing around clueless. Last week they found out that Al Qaeda came within six weeks of planting cyanide gas on the New York subway and those guys always like to make multiple attacks.
I found out from my boss over the cell phone that the tunnels were flooded from last night’s rain. So it wasn’t the terrorist bombs. Yet. Whew.
So I drove in to work, not a happy task in congested Washington, DC where the traffic moves like molasses. I happenned to drive by the Pentagon on the cemetery side, the side the suicide jet hit. I slowed down to see if there were any marks left on the place, but it’s been repaired as good as new. I looked around at the light poles on the road and parking lot, remembering that the jet had clipped them on the way in.
Approaching my office I have to walk through a barrier of bollards, jersey barriers, and gates. Government buildings are still being fortified to ward off Muslim truck bombs. You need something like 80 feet of dead space between the bollards and the office to minimize the blast. There are a lot of office buildings being abandoned by the government because they are not defensible anymore against Muslim suicide bombers.
There is not a week that goes by that I am not reminded that Muslims want to attack my city and kill as many infidels as they possibly can. People like me. People like the nice ladies in my office and the two new moms. That affects my view. And every other week, a new Muslim mass murder plot is unravelled somewhere in Europe, Canada, or the US.
Now to be fair, once you leave Washington, the security environment changes dramatically. When I get back to Dallas, things are just as loose as they ever were and all this terrorist stuff is just stuff on TV that happens in faraway places.
Now if the Muslims came to build instead of destroy, my opinion would change radically for the better. If Muslims came to America to build hospitals and universities I would welcome them and their religion. But they build bombs and terror cells instead. What I see is a feral and inhuman hatred at the heart of Islam for all things non-Muslim, particularly America and Americans. It is preached in its mosques, indoctrinated in its followers, and acted upon by its jihadis.
All that has a profound effect on my opinion. And nothing has had such a profoundly negative effect on my opinion as the glee with which Muslims the world around received the news of Sep 11. That is an unforgettable reaction.
And unforgivable.
Steve
Such an emotional story, steve. That means I should pin the abu ghraib prison scandal, hiroshima bombs, vietnam, phillipines invasion, native american wipe out, and lynching on you?
Since everytime I watch japan in the world cup, my eyes tear up… every time I spot vietnam.. or watch shawshank redemption.. I have a lump in my throat… every time I see a black guy on Mtv… I feel sentimental…
cut the crap!
Steve early Muslims came to America as slaves and managed to help build America inspite of that handicap. Mahmood didnt dance in the streets and yet you seem to say that because he’s a Muslim (we dont know if he can dance since we havent heard how hes doing in his work outs lately) he’s unforgivable in your eyes or do I misread your words and you really mean that only some Muslims are unforgivable.
billT
Steve, I’m sorry you feel the way you do. I wish the world was a better place too. However, I am only responsible for my actions and words, not for all of mankind. In as much as I am responsible for my actions and words, I think I have been very positive and polite towards the attitudes and opinions you voice here. However, my sole purpose in life is not to defend myself, my faith and my culture to you. I am ready to discuss anything with anyone if I feel it has a point, and the other side genuinely cares to hear what I am saying, in as much as I care to understand what they are saying. Therefore, I really would rather not continue any dialogue with you, as it has started to feel futile.
Seriously, all the best.
Heyder,
Instead of inciting sectarian divide, find something better to do.
Have you never heard of:
أنا وأخوى على ولد عميوانا وولد عميعلى الغريب
Honestly, man get a life!!! I suggest:
بدل لا انت قاعد عدل وتتØÂشى عوج اقعد عوج وتØÂشى عدل
Muslims did not only come to America as slaves. They and other Arab emigrants had also functioned when Americans were ‘colonizing’ the Western part of the U.S. as traveling merchants. I attended a lecture once in which they were described as trading and selling items along the way as they travelled between towns!
– Thanks Mahmoud, I’ll definatly try to find it and head there if I get a chance before I leave!
so as a Muslim I’m directly responsible for the actions of 2billion plus people around the world? Steve all these terrorists you speak of make up what portion of the Muslim population? Yet that gives you the right to insult all Muslims?
Steve the American: you are defending and indefensible perspective. Hatred is hatred. Excuses for it are just that: excuses.
>Honestly, man get a life!!! I suggest:
ummm…I’m a graduate student at MIT therefore I have no life 😉
I’m not inciting secterian divide, I’m just suggesting that you have some respect for your eyes. They’ve served so well over the years and brought you so much joy and allowed you to see so much beauty. The least you can do is spare it the sight of a man wearing a skirt and sporting a 10ft beard with corn flakes stuck in it!
You’re quite right, Steve – extremists have to be guarded against and watched out for. But can you always predict who they are? What about Timothy McVeigh? Are there more like him?
Surely you need to be building bridges – or rather temples – with Muslims like the mosque builder in your story, rather than concentrating solely on the few people with extreme views like the imam.
Heyder,
Perhaps directing your scholastic capabilities towards “Steve the Idiot” would describe the better side of your education and not the one you learn elsewhere
Pssst!!!
Hey Steve. i don’t think you are in a position to judge. 9/11 was a terrible thing… but you can’t go on and blame all muslims for that. it was a group of people who wanted to make a point… and they used the name of religion to do it. i have visited many arab countries (middle east and Gulf) and i can honestly say that what you see on tv is not the real deal. i come from south africa… we have a terrable history… does that mean that all white people are racist… take break from hating… and see how refreshed you feel.
Do we really trust the USA government!
check this
http://www.lemonzoo.com/funny_videos/16020/Loose_Change_Documentary.html