One quiet mosque

“Jom solat kat bawah” means hubby wants me to join him two floors below, praying at the mosque. He seldom gets any makmum on working days. Normally there’s an Indonesian who prays Zohor and Asar here and, there’s a Pakistani at Isyak. That’s it – a total of two makmums in a day, sometimes just one, if one of them doesn't show up.

This mosque is nothing like a typical mosque in Malaysia. I mean, seriously, can anyone name a mosque in Malaysia which is located opposite a Sports Toto shop? As for us, we are getting used to seeing the long queues of obaachan and ojiichan buying Loto lottery ticket at the stall right in front of the mosque.

The jumu’ah prayer normally has less than 40 male makmums, but then, this part of Tokyo is not exactly buzzing with people. Asakusa is rather secluded, filled up with mostly elderly, living on their own, because it’s not customary anymore for the elderly to be looked after by their children. Note that I used ‘elderly’, not ‘old’ because in Japan, people neither get ‘old’ nor ‘fat’. Hence it’s normal to find obaachan (grandma), errr, I mean obachan (auntie), who dyed their hair garish purple, refusing to sit when a younger one offer his or her seat on the train for them. They try their best not to look frail in any way - 'nicely' made-up with thick layer of foundation and bright lipstick, wearing a'la Sophia Loren sunglasses with blouses and matching jackets that screamed ‘custom-made’. Even if they have to ride a tricycle instead of a bicycle, no they don’t exactly look ‘frail’.

Anyway, back to the mosque.
Did I mention that we receive weekly female congregation for jumu’ah? Oh yes, we do. New muslim sisters normally used to go to their jinja (shrine) to pray. Or even when they are at home, they used to have a special area for ‘spiritual’ activities. And since modern Japanese are not usually very 'spiritual', that means they are not used to praying often. The concept that one can pray anywhere, any place, at specific times day in day out used to be a foreign concept to them when they first discovered Islam. Some of them find it difficult to pray five times a day alone at home, so they make it a habit to at least come and pray once a week at the mosque. Of course, some of the sisters who attend the jumu’ah prayer do pray five times a day at their home, but at least for those who need morale support, this is where they come to every week.

Wassim, the Pakistani guy who tries to be at the mosque for Isyak daily, once told hubby that this mosque used to be rather popular about five or six years ago, but things changed drastically after September 11. Taking their cue from their ‘big brother’ in the US, the police in Japan raised their alert for any sign of ‘Muslim terrorists’ hiding in Japan. That meant increased police patrol near mosques areas. And a lot of people going to the mosques were stopped, their Alien Card checked and rechecked. Some were detained for further questioning upon finding that they had overstayed, others were simply harrased for simple stuff such as the ownership of their bikes (which they received from their friends who had left Japan, and thus they were not the ‘legal’ owner of the bike as recognized by the Japanese law).
The mosque used to have people coming from as far as Kita Senju, two towns away from Higashi Asakusa. But after September 11, after being subject to close scrutiny of policemen from the nearby Koban (police kiosk), people stopped coming ever since.

Hubby is trying to figure out how to imarahkan this mosque once again. Instead of going to Gyotoku, he’s thinking of holding a biweekly Islamic discussion (not limited to Fardhu Ain stuff only) here in this mosque. Yet at the same time he’s worried that people might not come since Asakusa is a bit remote. He’s been trying to invite others to make use of the BBQ facility at this mosque’s rooftop. He’s been trying to promote the usage of this mosque for any gathering or Islamic discussion, but has yet to receive any favorable response.

This is definitely one quiet mosque.