First Impressions
Coming from a very traditional mosque, my expectations were in some ways further off when I visited the Adams Center in Sterling Virginia near Dulles Airport. I pulled up to the Adams Center expecting a mosque but was greeted with an incredibly large structure thats purpose was clearly more than just a masjid. One of the first things to catch my eye when I walked into the Adams Center was the basketball court. A little bit jarred, I cautiously walked around, afraid I might walk into a sacred space.
The first person I met was Cynthia. She worked in the office and was the person that I was supposed to talk to about the Adams Center. She wore glasses, and an organgish head covering that stopped at her waist, underneath she wore jeans. She seemed a little hesitant at first, because in some ways, you never know what is intersting at a place where you work every day but she did point certain things that she thought were noteworthy. ”The Adams Center is not just a mosque,” she said as we filed past bulletin boards of community pamphlets. She described it as a community center where some people spend all of there time and where others come just to attend Friday prayer. Much like the Mass. Ave. masjid, the attendants ranged from a very diverse group of people. Cythina was from Peru while her colleagues were American as well as from other Middle Eastern countries.
A Community Center, not just a Mosque
Even beyond the basketball courts, the Adams Center was clearly more than a religious center. Hearing Cythnia talk about the Adams Center Boyscout troup, youth programs, basketball league, and Feed the Hungry programs, I pictured a mosque very far removed from the traditional atmosphere of the Mass. Ave. Islamic Center. In some ways, the Adam Center was not that differernt from many of the churches I had gone to.
Salah
I was able to sit in on the afternoon prayer which was conducted on the third level of the Adams Center. The prayer room itself was not ornate in design except for the Arabic letters in framed glass. Beside the the framed glass and a neatly written Arabic phrase on a white board, everything else was in English. The room was clean and neat and there two large windows facing the direction of Mecca.
I took off my shoes and sat down against the wall, but to my surprise, there was not Imam to lead the prayer until a booming sound came across a PA system. The call to prayer (Azzan) was being given over a loud speaker just as if someone had stood up and given. The reverance and the urgency was all the same as men filed in and removed there shoes to assume the position for prayer.
