Today we learned that Germany and the United States have silimar political issues. Namely- immigration/migration. This morning we visited the FHXB museum in Kreuzberg. We watched a video and had a tour around the Kreuzberg area. Our tour guide was a third generation Turkish Muslim migrant. Many people from Turkey migrated to Germany to be “guest workers” after WWII to earn money by helping rebuild the country. Even though this was meant to be a temporary move – just to make some money- many of these Turkish migrants ended up staying in Germany and raising their children here. Even though there are a couple of generations worth of these people in Gemany today they still aren’t fully assimilated into the German culture. Most of them are practicing Muslims which makes Germans fear them thanks to those radical groups that give all Muslims a bad rap. At the end of our tour we were able to visit a Turkish Mosque in Kreuzberg. We did our best to respect thier space and follow the rules (cover knees and shoulders, take shoes off, wear clean socks, etc.). It was so peaceful inside. There were a couple of men there praying but our group just cirlced up and our guide told us about Islam. He was excited that we wanted to learn about the religion in hopes that it would make us more open minded when it comes to Muslims. Personally I already try to be open minded but learning about their beliefs helps. I think it’s important to be educated on other religions especially something like Islam that is such a controversy in the world today thanks to terrorists. It seems to me like Americans and Germans and all other people who feel threatened by Islamic extremists will take their fear out on all Muslims and I think that is just ridiculous. It is unfortunate to think that people don’t feel accepted by their fellow citizens simply because some people who share their religion used it as an excuse to murder. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all are extremists. Most are just people like you and me. Overall this was a pretty enlightning day dispite the “cold” weather. (I say “cold” because even though it’s cold for here I’m sure it’s nothing compared to the weather back home).
Carpet in the Mosque