To the Mosque

Hey all, sorry I haven't been keeping up on my blog posts...things have been a bit hectic lately, and while it's no excuse, I'm here again to post some blogs.
So, we visited the Kalamazoo Islamic Center, and it was definitely a great experience. I went in thinking it was just a Mosque, but our Imam quickly dispelled that myth. Much more happens in that building than just the regular Islamic services and prayers; indeed, it is an Islamic center, a place for the entire Muslim community to be able to call home and socialize.
We took off our shoes before entering the main gathering area, and it turns out this was one of the few things about Islam that I actually knew 100%. Most of the other things that I believed beforehand must have been what I had heard and not what I had read. At any rate, we learned about how close the Islamic community is in Kalamazoo, and how the Kalamazoo Islamic Center has been a vital part in that closeness. The Imam even said that he would have left Kalamazoo already had it not been for the Kalamazoo Islamic Center.
He dropped a bombshell on me, anyway, when he told us that he had to memorize the entire Qur'an in order to even become an Imam! And he did it at such a young age, as I recall. There are priests of most every other religion who can't boast even half of that.
We learned much about Islamic life and the many contributions that Islam has given to the world, including modern mathematics, medicine, and much more.
Unfortunately, our time was cut rather short, as the class period ended. I'd like to go back another time though as a class later on in the semester, perhaps. I think it'd be good to go back once we're all a little more educated on Islam and the Middle East as a whole.