"Inside the Forbidden Fortress"

With thanks to the Avenging Apostate and Pedestrian Infidel , here is a glimpse of what it is like for a Muslim apostate to live among believing, practicing Muslims, and the efforts he must go to to conceal his disagreement with Islam. He gives an enlightening story of the differences in attitudes between the purpose of a "house of worship" in Islam vis a vis in so many other belief systems in the world.


"Inside the Forbidden Fortress"


Even though I am an apostate, in secret, I still have to pretend I am a Moslem by going to the mosque, praying, and reading the Koran. I am still living with my intensely Moslem family and they, of course, don’t know I have converted out of Islam. So I have to keep up the appearance of being devoutly Moslem myself, no matter how much I hate it. So, during the last Ramadan, I was reading the Koran, in the mosque, pretending as usual--since it was the Ramadan so there was no escaping for me anyway.

Now, I love to chew Extra—it’s my favorite gum. And I always chew it during the day, no matter where I am, even in the mosque. I wasn’t even aware of my gum-chewing, but someone else close by apparently was. An Arab approached me, and told me, "reading the Koran while chewing gum is sinful, you might not be able to pronounce the words in the Koran perfectly." I replied, "I am not reading it out loud anyway, so it doesn’t matter." Not backing down one bit, the arrogant Arab said, "it does." And the other Moslems around me, including my father, quickly ganged up on me and supported my opponent; they even wanted me to throw away my precious gum … At that point, I promptly stopped 'reading' the Koran and walked out of the mosque.You might be able to guess what happened after I walked out. My father was infuriated with me, and he lectured me angrily, at length, on how important it was for me to avoid doing something like that ever again. I got his point.

Many out there in the blogosphere might not know what goes on inside the mosque, what the environment is like in such places and what do people do in there, apart from praying.Well, to start off, mosques were actually not just places of worship but also the places for Moslems to gather for any reason deemed necessary. Mosques are the place where Moslems used to gather not just to pray, but to listen to Mohammed (or another appropriate devout follower of Muhammed) harang the faithful, prepare for battles/wars, and most importantly, to store weapons and captured booty.If in the event a Moslem-controlled settlement or town was ever assaulted by a non Moslem force, the mosque would be the location most important for the infidels to capture. The mosques of yesteryear (and this is still true to this day in many places) are literally strongholds, fortresses designed to resist attack. Whoever controls the mosque controls in fact the surrounding area-- something the coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq hopefully are already aware of.

Thusly, mosques are typically a stoutly-built complex of rooms, which are used for housing any required jihadists to defend the structure, as well as any required supplies to resist/endure a siege. During less violent times, this space was given over to the local mullah, his wives, children, slaves and concubines, and other booty captured from the infidels in past battles.Today, in some places, mosques are not used for all these purposes. But in many parts of the world (namely the Middle East and other places in the Islamic world) the mosque still plays an important role.

The mosque is not just a hall; it is ‘the Pentagon’ where Moslems plot and plan the ongoing jihad against the non Moslems. If it sounds strange and weird to non Moslems, it really is—you just have to step inside to feel it.Most mosques are surrounded by high fences and/or walls, which may be topped off with spikes or barbed wire. Not exactly welcoming, is it? Passing through the gates of a typical mosque, you first enter a courtyard which is used whenever the prayer hall of the mosque is occupied. Moslems have to pray, so they don’t mind standing outside to pray if need be. After all, if Moslems don’t pray, Allah isn’t happy and Moslems believe that one must always follow Allah, no matter how much pain and trouble that involves. The more suffering undertaken for Allah, the happier he is with you.

When you enter the mosque's main hall (that’s the place you get to right after the courtyard, bathrooms, toilets and residential rooms are usually in the back or on the side) you see a lot of people in there. Some are standing, some are sitting, some are prostrating, some are bowing, a couple of people might be talking to each other (all this happens after they are done with the normal prayer procedures and the mullah isn’t leading anymore), but that’s not a normal practice.

Being in a mosque gives me an odd feeling inside that’s tough to put into words. Every mosque I've been in (and that's a fair number) has a feeling of submission about it. By submission, I mean that everyone in this place has had their identity essentially destroyed by the straitjacket that is Islam. It is all quiet, but it isn't the peaceful sort of quiet. There is no peace—there is, rather, a palapble sense of fear.

Even today, it seems people are afraid of Mohammed, like he might come back from hell and punish anyone that doesn't follow his teachings. Muslims in a mosque don’t dare do anything that would make him mad--they’re still bowing down to his will and command. Mo still has authority and power over all these people, and a hold over his minions that is difficult for non Moslems to understand. But nevertheless, it is real and must be reckoned with.

It is only when you enter a mosque do you understand fully why they are so crazy about their religion, why they want it to dominate, why they’d do anything for it. Mohammed is still there in every mosque and the old memories are refreshed everyday. The only thing you can hear clearly is the words being recited from the Koran and nothing else. You look around, you see people focusing on just one thing, Islam. Their respect for Mohammed, their will to sacrifice for Islam, it multiplies many folds when they come together in the mosque, and they carry that feeling with them when they walk out back into the world.

If you ever get the chance of hearing a mullah, do listen to him closely, if you can understand. You will surely hear words like ‘May Allah destroy the infidels and give their possessions to us’, especially on Fridays. I've heard such things many times in a mosque, more times than I can count. In some parts of the world that prayer is actually written on the front wall of the mosque. There used to be a custom when the mullah used to give the sermon with a sword in his hand. Many carry that tradition till this day, but some have toned it down by holding a cane instead of a sword. Cane or sword, it still symbolizes the absolute jihadist nature of Islam.

The words ‘Islam is a religion of peace, harmony and tolerance’ immediately lose all meaning upon entering a mosque. In any mosque, there is no peace, there is no harmony and there is no tolerance for anything but Moslems and Islam. The Moslems whom you may have met an hour before and who said they are against the jihadis and what they’re doing, those very Moslems shout out loud, ‘death to infidels’ in their neighborhood mosques. Not just once or twice, but as a matter of course. The very Moslem who tells you, ‘you have a beautiful son, God bless him’ will go to the mosque and pray for the same ‘son’ to be killed so that the religion of his Allah can take over.

Understanding what goes on inside the mosque, and what a mosque is all about, is critical to understanding what Islam is all about. It's just as important as understanding the Koran and Hadiths. The typical mosque has a power over Moslems that Osama Bin Laden or Zarqawi could ever hope to have, that no mullah could ever have. A mosque is the house of Allah, a sacred place, where hope of victory for Moslems is always reborn. It gives them power, and the delusion that their twisted version of 'paradise', with all the virgins and palaces, is real and will be realized by all who fight the unbelievers.

The mosque symbolizes the strength of Islam; the mosque is a physical and spiritual fortress that Moslems are sure no kuffir could ever conquer.

posted by Avenging Apostate at 7:07 AM on Feb 25 2006