Islam

After my journey to Indonesia I have an entirely different view on Islam. Indonesia is quite possibly the worlds most islamic country. I am not going to lie I didnt know what to expect as an american traveling to a far away southeast asian country that the news depicts always depicts as a place that harbors islamic terrorists.

In fact on my journey I saw quite the opposite to be true. Most muslim people are friendly, open and very caring people. It just is very unfortunate that a few bad apples who use religion as their scapegoat alienates a whole religion. Every one I met and interacted with was muslim, expect the rare few Chinese people who were Catholic.

I am by no means a religous person so I am very open to other beliefs and practices. Here are a few things I learned about islam and how it was inculturated into the society here.

1. Praying 5 times a day
You get reminders to do this all day long as the mosque's all around the city blare an islamic "call to prayer". They also interupt certain radio stations as well to inform everyone of this.

2. Prayers rooms
I was suprised to see glitzy malls in the city of jakarta with actual prayer rooms set aside in case one needed to go pray. The rooms were complete with a place to wash your feet off before praying.

3. You must face Mecca when you pray
In a market they sell prayer rugs with a compass built in so you know exactly which way to pray.