The Castle in the Middle of Town

This is the mosque. Does it not look like a castle?

With all the hate going around for the Muslim community once again, I thought I would share the time I learned about Muslims. We have a mosque in our hometown although I have never met anyone there who I knew was Muslim. I thought it was the prettiest building I had ever seen, like a castle. Driving past it one day, I said to my parents "I wanna go to that church!"

"That's a mosque." said my dad.

"What's a mosque?" I asked.

"That's a church for people who are Muslim." he replied.

I was not unfamiliar with the word "Muslim". I had heard it from Mrs. Doubtfire when Daniel tried to cover his face with a tea towel, replying "I'm not a Muslim." Although I had no idea what the word meant. "What's a Muslim?" I asked.

"Well," my dad replied. I am guessing he was trying to find the right words. "They are people of a different religion than us. We're Christians. Some people are Jewish and some people are Muslim."

Now, I did know someone who was Jewish. Her name was Brittany and she was in my class at school. We knew she was Jewish because she brought in food for us on Jewish holidays. One time she brought in matza and another time she brought in apples and honey. We liked Brittany. Her food was good and she introduced us to old radio shows. It was probably the first time I had laughed so hard my sides hurt. My child brain thought if Muslims are like Jews, they must be cool because they bring food into their class! What kind of food did they eat during holidays? I wanted someone Muslim in my class, especially if they were as cool as Brittany. But I never did at least that I knew about.