First Mosque + British Parliament + Munich

This week has been a fun filled week and it's far from being over. Tuesday, I went to British Parliament for a field trip. The security guard touched me in places I've never been touched before and that all I have to say about that. British Parliament was extremely impressive. As we went through the different corridors I felt like I was in a Dan Brown novel trying to understand all the cryptic messages and symbolism scattered through Parliament. The different procedures and steps are mind boggling. I'm not very keen on the Senate or House of Representatives, but I should look into it cause the British side of things is very entertaining.

For instance, the Queen can only reside in the House of Lords, mostly made up of noblemen with strong family lineage dating back to a many many years ago. She will sit on a woolsack. The woolsack symbolizes the strong economic growth and stability that led to the great rise of the Empire of Britain due to the strong export of wool. The last time a Queen or King were outside of there realm and walked over to the House of Commons they had their head chopped off. So, the Queen is not allowed on the "other side." Whats cool about the set up of Parliament is upon entrance you'll come to an intersection of 4 corridors. To the left, House of Commons, to the right, House of Lords, and forwards is the exit out along with offices. Where the Queen sits on her wool sack she can directly look down the corridor and into the House of Commons. On the flipside of things, or on the "other side" as they call it, the Prime Minister sits in a seat that is directly looking at the Queen on the other side of Parliament.



When the Queen wants to send the Prime Minister a message, she has a messenger run down the corridor and knock three times on the door: for Queen, Country, and God (I think) and then they have a hole that a person can look into and verify it isn't a enemy of the state. I could go on and on but its just super interesting, one must visit the place themselves to actually get the full effect.

Later in the day, I went to the London Central Mosque for my Islam and the West class. Very interesting. I'm sure many people in there lives will never even step into a mosque, so this was one of the bigger things I've done this trip. The women in the group put on their headscarves and we headed inside. We got to see an afternoon prayer and afterward we were lectured about some things that go on there and had the pleasure of one of the 'priests' read the Qu'ran in Arabic to us. For those of you interested, the Qu'ran is a pretty crazy book to say the least.

Equivalent to the Bible for Catholicism, Muslims use the Qu'ran as the linchpin of their faith, their belief, their everyday life. Read right to left, the book itself is organized in to thematic elements. Even this is highly disputed. The book itself is comprised of stories or psalms that Muhammad, their main prophet, heard from God in the hills of Mecca along time ago. Did you know, that the Qu'ran is recited in song? The stories are sung and are like none other literature known to man in the Arabic language? Did you also know that Jesus is mentioned more in the Qu'ran than any other prophet in there? Jesus is not considered the son of God because the true son of God, as they see it, is Adam (from Adam & Eve). In the Qu'ran, Jesus never is crucified on the cross. He is let down and stays alive. The Virgin Mother Mary is equivalent to a nun and is considered, in some ways, even more important than Jesus in the Qu'ran and when questioned about if the birth of Jesus was truly a miracle, the baby Jesus himself actually speaks to the non-believer and says he is brought on this earth to spread the word of the Lord (a new-born baby talking! that insane!!!). In the Qu'ran, Christians, Jews and Muslims are people of the book and are synonymous to each other as seen through the eyes of God or Allah. So aside from a few stories getting mixed around, Muslims, Christians, and Jews believe in the same monotheistic God and are at the same equal level. Just from this tidbit you can see how twisted Fundamental Extremist Muslims are in interpreting the Qu'ran and taking on their own person Jihad against the Western world when interpreting the Qu'ran. I don't know, that's my two cents on Islam and the West so far, if anyone was interested.

I am chilling in the room until my flight to Munich tomorrow morning. The flight is really early in the morning so we have to head to Gatwick tonight. I'll be sleeping on a bench in the terminal tonight. Be thankful you have beds tonight. Oh to be young. I'll write back upon my return from the beer Mecca of Germany.