|
|
|
 |
I took a photo of a mosque in the suburb of Groepelingen from a nearby bridge. At the bottom on the left you see a gathering of people.
|
|
Those people were meeting for a chat at the door after the Friday service
|
Friday, September 5, 2008
On an expedition through the suburbs, which are in immediate neighbourhood of the ports, I passed a huge Islamic place of worship. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a gathering of people in front of the place of worship. I immediatelly understood that those people were meeting for a chat at the door after the Friday service.
I looked at the scenery from a nearby bridge and took a photo of the place of worship. I understood that the gathering was the same phenomenon as the gathering in front of the Christian village church after the Sunday service. I decided to go to the people.
There were only men. I didn't see any woman. There was almost nobody in his Sunday best, but all people wore very well-groomed clothes for everyday wear at least. I told them about my association. They agreed with it completely I told them about my first issue of ‚Klein Mexiko', which was about the family of a rich Turkish businessman in Bremen. A man, who was wearing a black suit and a tie, knew the grave of the businessman, which is in the Islamic part of a suburbian cemetery. Then we came onto the question, how the construction of the mosque had been funded. It had been very important, that many parishioners had given a donation After a while I left the place.
When I was slowly biking to the nearby residential buildings, I met an old man, who had also visited the service. His German was quite bad. He insistently tried to persuade me into photographing the interior of the mosque. He said that it was very magnificent. I felt that he was very proud of it. I said that I would definitely come back to this place one day.
Poster in the window of a Turkish club room
In the nearby Lindenhof street I saw a poster of a German telecommunications company. The poster was in a window which had been covered with a privacy film. The text of the poster was written in Turkish. So I asked one of the men in front of the window for a translation.He refered me to an eloquent young man who judging by his appearance could be taken for a model pupil.
The headline of the poster ‚Hos geldin Ramazan' approximately means ‚Welcome Ramadan'.
|
|
The young man explained to me, that the telecommunications company was tying to to win Turkish customers over the Ramadan period, which had just started. I found out, that I was standing at the entrance of a small mosque, where a service had just been held. I looked through the door and saw a clubroom. The real entrance of the mosque was at the back of the room.
Gifts from the telecommunications company
In front of the club house of a Turkish sports club I spoke to a young man, who shared out gifts from the aforementioned telecommunications company. The gifts were very suagary candies, by means of which a good Muslim is initially able to satisfy the hunger, when he is allowed to break fasting in the evening. The young man is a student of economics. He was born in the late seventies. He and his parents have already lived in several North German cities. Among other reasons, he got that promotion job, because he speaks Turkish and German.
Lindenhof street in Gröpelingen
I walked down the street which many Germans mockingly call ‚Little Turkey'. There were several shops which were run by Turkish people, but there are also a lot of shops which were run by Germans.
Please also read
About a Turkish supermarket
Please also read Dittmeier's report about an intercultural Catholic Church New Year Celebration. The report is dated April 13, 2004. His report about muslims in Cambodia is also very interesting.
The international poster organisation Loesje has started a project to train young people from all over Europe and Asia in how to organise and coordinate information campaigns about the Millennium Development Goals. These goals are set by the United Nations to fight poverty and to improve living standards world wide.
Next issue 'The Daily Groove'
on Sunday, August 31 2008
< previous issue next issue >
We would like to point out that we translated articles from German into English for the purpose of service. We would like to make it clear that the German translations are deciding, because the articles are directed to users who live in Germany.
Wir möchten darauf hinweisen, dass wir zu Servicezwecken englische Übersetzungen vorgenommen haben. Klarstellen möchten wir, dass maßgeblich die deutsche Übersetzung ist. Grund dessen ist, dass wir uns an in Deutschland ansässige Nutzer wenden.
Please also read Cats Talk (39)
|
|
|
|
|
place marker for advertisement
|
|
