2007/03/30

Islam and English

I have a Muslim friend who used to live in the US. One day we were talking about living here and living there. He brought up the fact that his son, who was born in the US and doesn't know Arabic very well, in some ways has more trouble here spiritually than in the US. There, the weekly sermon was in English, so his son could understand and learn, whereas here he doesn't understand what is being said. It doesn't seem likely that he is the only one that this has happened to.

So I thought that this announcement that there will be one mosque in Abu Dhabi where the sermon will be in English is good news for those in that situation, at least for those living there.

1 comment:

Mohammed UK said...

There is a mosque in Sharjah already with English-medium Khutba (the speech before Friday prayers). The temporary mosque in the Springs (Dubai) has an English translation of the Khutba immediately after the prayers. The translator is an Arab who is from (possibly born in) Australia.

As there is such a large Indo/Pakistani community here, I am aware of several places where there is a translation of the speech in either Urdu or Malyalam. This was the case at Sheikha Salama Mosque, the one Friday I was there.