Shia Mosque and more

I have not updated this blog in several days and I feel bad for not having done so. These past days have been full of new experiences and adventures. I attended Friday prayers for at the Meqzuita al Ahmad, which I blogged about earlier. Several Turkish gentlemen invited me to their house for tea and there they explained that they are involved in a movement which distributes the Risale-i-Nur tafsir (Quranic exegisis). On Saturday, the Juventud Islamica Argentina hosted a night of Arab film, and I watched two movies with them: Le Grand Voyage and Children of Heaven

I did some sight-seeing the past several days, and went to the Puerto Madero district, la Boca, and to Palaza de Mayo to attend mass on Sunday at the Catedral Metropolitana and take a tour of Casa Rosada (the Argentinian analogue of the White House).

Also yesterday I attended a service at the Mezquita at Tauhid here in Flores, a Shii mosque. They were celebrating the Mawlid (birthday) of Imam Ali. There were about 150 people attending, and I got the feeling at this mosque that the attendees are more connected with the Arab world, and in some ways less integrated as Argentinians. I heard Arabic being spoken and women generally wore the hijab, though these are just superficial markers. I was advised though not to ask questions or for interviews on that day and I didn't. I don't think I'm going to write too much about the Shii community, though perhaps I should because they are not as small a percentage of the Muslim population as I am used to back in Los Angeles.

The radio station at the Mezquita at Tauhid

A few books on display at Mezquita at Tauhid