The Islamic center that I went to, Islamic Jafferia Association Imambara, serves the Shia community. The division between Shia and Sunni have to do political differences. What I mean by this is that Shia Muslims believe that Imamat is part of Islam and was a political leader appointed by God. On the other hand, the Sunni Muslims believe that Imamat is not part of Islam and that they themselves can select someone whom they believe is fit to serve as a political leader. Both Shias and Sunnis believe in Ali and view him as Khalife but the Shias believe that the first Khlifa should have been Ali. Sunnis believe that Abu Bakr should be the first and that Ali was the fourth.
I went to the Mosque on two different days, Sunday and Thursday, and was able to witness two different events. On Sunday, I was given a tour by a young girl that just so happens to attend FIU as well. It was Sunday school for the young children. She gave me a tour of all the different rooms and sections in the Mosque. The young children were in school from 10am to 1pm. They were given Quraan classes and Dinyaat classes for an enitire hour each. I went back to Mosque that same week on Thursday night to actually see how the shias would gather to pray.
Before going inside the Mosque, I saw that there was a sink to wash hands and feet and next to that was a small shower where you can wash your feet. While I was inside, the first thing I noticed was that the Mosque was entirely covered in rug. It wasn’t until about half an hour inside that I started to noticed that there were some writings on the rug which I am guessing was written in Arabic. There were not that many symbols and I did expect to see a lot. In one of the rooms where the children had their Quraan and Dinyaat classes, I noticed that there was a long white curtain covering a table. There were a couple of nice and beautiful Islamic pantings before going into the main room where the prayers take place. I saw a crecent moon a couple...