For non-muslim

Have you ever visited a mosque?

If so, what was your impression of this visit?

For muslim

Have you ever vistied a church?

If so, what was your impression of this visit?

What about atheists and agnostics ? They could answer both question..

I've never been into a mosque..
would be something great to visit .. but i think It should not be considered as 'museum' or something .. it's a place where ppl pray and all ...

i visited the mosque when i was a school kid learning arabic (it was compulsory then). the Imam was really nice and told us all about how they pray and what they do at the mosque. There was a maltese muslim lady who went round with us to answer all our questions, and there were a lot from this pupil lol. we went up the tower where the muezzin chants every morning....all them steps..it was fun. then they gave us tea and cakes. we were shown the library attached to the mosque too, and were allowed to browse in the books.
when i was a kid, i even was a member in an islamic library. I used to borrow books on the life of Mohammed. My dad went furious once, cos he thought i was 'straying' but i was allowed to read the books after i explained my intention of getting knowledge of different cultures and religions. in fact i also borrowed books on buddha and hinduism from other libraries.
I would love to visit mosques in other countries, especially the ancient ones.


if any of you ever come to Malta, the churches in here are fantastic, if not in the religious sense, in the artistic sense, especially if you like baroque art.

For a school field trip bak in grade 11 i want to a mosque and it was pretty nicee...it was something new...something that i havent seen before

What about atheists and agnostics ? They could answer both question..


They're wolcome if they would like to answer the questions :)

I've never been into a mosque..
would be something great to visit .. but i think It should not be considered as 'museum' or something .. it's a place where ppl pray and all

Mosques are places where people can pray but it in the same time they can be employed to invite others to Islam.

They're wolcome if they would like to answer the questions :)



Mosques are places where people can pray but it in the same time they can be employed to invite others to Islam.
or maybe to build bridges and make them understand about people in Islam. I didn't convert by going to a mosque, but i appreciated the fact that these people are as devoted to prayer just as i am whenever i go to my church. and i appreciated the way they welcomed me, a Catholic. they didn't cry out for my blood and whatever. i was accepted as a sister, and i was respectful for it.

i visited the mosque when i was a school kid learning arabic (it was compulsory then). the Imam was really nice and told us all about how they pray and what they do at the mosque. There was a maltese muslim lady who went round with us to answer all our questions, and there were a lot from this pupil lol. we went up the tower where the muezzin chants every morning....all them steps..it was fun. then they gave us tea and cakes. we were shown the library attached to the mosque too, and were allowed to browse in the books.
when i was a kid, i even was a member in an islamic library. I used to borrow books on the life of Mohammed. My dad went furious once, cos he thought i was 'straying' but i was allowed to read the books after i explained my intention of getting knowledge of different cultures and religions. in fact i also borrowed books on buddha and hinduism from other libraries.
I would love to visit mosques in other countries, especially the ancient ones.


if any of you ever come to Malta, the churches in here are fantastic, if not in the religious sense, in the artistic sense, especially if you like baroque art.


Glad to hear that :)

The mosque where I usually pray, many people come to visit and they enjoy looking at people while they perform prayers. Some of them reverted to Islam.

I visited a church 4 years ago. :)

My first visit to church was quite an interesting one!
I went to an arab catholic church with my non-arab friends, my friends were all Christians and I was the only muslim. Yet, i was the only one who was able to understand what the priest was saying :D
So we went there and the prayer started, the priest asked us to open a book of hymns on a certain page. When I opened my book, all the pages were there except the one they were chanting, it was totally blank! lol I was like woah what a coincidence! and then they read some of the Bible, and then back to the book of hymns againg, but a different page and a different song, and guess what, that page was BLANK too! I started sweating lol and thought someone has put it there on purpose!

I've been to some churches in France and Spain and i found them almost abandoned. but was good experience

or maybe to build bridges and make them understand about people in Islam. I didn't convert by going to a mosque, but i appreciated the fact that these people are as devoted to prayer just as i am whenever i go to my church. and i appreciated the way they welcomed me, a Catholic. they didn't cry out for my blood and whatever. i was accepted as a sister, and i was respectful for it.

This was exactly the same way when prophet :PBUH:was advocating Islam. He was inviting to his lord with wisdom and kind enlightenment, and debating with them in the best possible manner

My first visit to church was quite an interesting one!
I went to an arab catholic church with my non-arab friends, my friends were all Christians and I was the only muslim. Yet, i was the only one who was able to understand what the priest was saying :D
So we went there and the prayer started, the priest asked us to open a book of hymns on a certain page. When I opened my book, all the pages were there except the one they were chanting, it was totally blank! lol I was like woah what a coincidence! and then they read some of the Bible, and then back to the book of hymns againg, but a different page and a different song, and guess what, that page was BLANK too! I started sweating lol and thought someone has put it there on purpose!

Funny experience :D

Did they offer you some food because I heard that they often serve food for the people coming into the church ?

I've been to some churches in France and Spain and i found them almost abandoned. but was good experience

I think that Spain has the biggest church in the world.

no i havent visited a church before

but i passed by 1 in Leeds 2 years ago...

i can see that churchs are always surrounded by a large space of green grass, relaxing :)

Funny experience :D

Did they offer you some food because I heard that they often serve food for the people coming into the church ?
no the church does not offer food to people coming in to visit lol.
if anything, if you are visiting a historical church outside of mass (prayer) hours, you'd have to pay for the tour guide lol. churches here, especially baroque ones are undergoing continuous restoration.
our mass consists of prayer, gospel, breaking of the bread, with some six or seven hymns put in between. the hymns range from baroque to folk to gospel ones. nothing beats a choir singing old hymns.
youtube panis angelicus. one of my favourites. it's sung on special occasions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l66YOyMvZyo&feature=related

I think that Spain has the biggest church in the world.
but malta has the most beautiful church.
http://images.google.com.mt/images?hl=mt&q=st.+john's+co+cathedral&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Funny experience :D

Did they offer you some food because I heard that they often serve food for the people coming into the church ?

yeah they offer bread and wine, at the end of the prayer (mass) they all walk to where the alter is and the priest feeds them bread and wine, the bread is the body and the wine is the blood. I didn't go there though, I just went out of the church.
But it was a good experience

oh you mean that kind of food. that's communion. i thought you meant a three course meal to encourage people to come to the flock :hyper:

My visits to modern churches were almost to do something like being involved in an activity and most of the time my visit would be straight to the room where the meetings were held.

But I like visiting historical sites of which are churches, the last church I went to is Lincoln Cathedral (http://www.lincolncathedral.com/)in UK two weeks ago, it is a thousand years old medieval church and was so fascinating!

http://home.clara.net/heureka/lincolnshire/lincoln-cathedral00.jpg"]http://home.clara.net/heureka/lincolnshire/lincoln-cathedral00.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.fairweather/docs/cathed2.jpg

I went to one yesterday while I was touring York. The Church was burnt down then rebuilt in the 1600s or something. It's really massive; loved the art work. I also remember going to the Notre Dame in France a very long time ago. I didn't really 'feel' anything, its just like going to a museum or something.

Church (very very very beautiful decoration, espically the colored windows)

Cathedral (I was terrified lol. It was in Vienna and there were monks chanting, the place was dark and candles were lit. It reminded me of the hunchback of notre dam :os and me getting lost from my parents in the cathedral didn't help. But i bumped into them outside thank God)

art in old churches is so rich because the main sponsors of artists (caravaggio, michelangelo, leonardo, cali, preti etc) was the church. in the catholic church, art gets you closer to God, because it reminds you of the person and the event that is depicted. In our churches we have lots of masterpieces. and we get to see them daily without payment when we go to mass.

Has anyone heard about kutna hora chruch? it's so scary since it's built of human skulls ?

Just google it if you wanna see some photos of it

kutna hora? sounds indian :os

Has anyone heard about kutna hora chruch? it's so scary since it's built of human skulls ?

Just google it if you wanna see some photos of it
it's made out of bones of people who weren't buried on holy ground (by holy ground i mean not consecrated ground..as in a normal christian cemetary) and were taken to kutna hora for proper burial. the chapel itself is not made of bones.

No it's in Czech Republic

kutna hora? sounds indian :os
it does sound indian but it's czech.

I've visited several mosques in West Africa, Europe, and the GCC.

Yeah, i've been to a Church many times, i've also been to a temple, and a synagogue :D

What's a synagogue juju?

What's a synagogue juju?
it's the jewish church/mosque version of a jewish thing...

Besides little local churches, I've been to Notre Dame, which coincidentally happened to be on the last Sunday before Advent. It was a bit spooky, but also a very interesting and enriching experience.
I've also been to Buddhist, Hindu and Baha'i temples in Malaysia, Thailand and India.

I live in north america and the ony reason ive entered a church just cuz some ppl had their weddin there...

I've been to mosques...and taken Muslims there.

And I've taken Muslims to a church too.

Once I was driving by the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception with some Somali ladies and I was telling them about it. "Can we go inside?" one of them asked.

"Sure, of course," I said. And we went in.

And a few weeks ago I found some Muslims in my local cathedral praying and offering money to statues of Jesus and Mary! :p The world is a funny place.

Yes, visited two churches, one in Austria (Salzburg) and one in Spain (Barçelona). The one in Austria is famous because of the movie "The Sound of Music" .. That's were they got married.

I've been to a lot, Westminister Abbey and several others.

But I think probably the most famous one I've been to is Sagrada Família, in Barcelona. From the outside, it is a masterpiece. Gaudi's work is stunning. (Although inside, there isn't much :p).

I was invited once to a wedding in a church in Liverpool England

there was this long folding type seat where up to 10 people can sit on it

when the bride with her father walked in everyone stood up including me

then when we sat down on that folding bench we heard a loud scream of agony from one old man sitting on the same bench I am sitting on!!!

every one on my bench stood, I thought they were curious to find out what happened to him, but I was far away from him so I didn't bother!!

then someone came up to me and shouted stand up!!!

so I stood up and was surprised why he shouted at me like that in a church!!!

then he told me to sit down.

and I can see some people looking at me and laughing in secret with their red cheeks, others can't help it and laughed loudly!!!

I didn't know what the hell they are laughing about, I felt so embarrassed and shy!!!

when we went out from the church I asked my friend what happened why people laughed at me and what was that scream of the old man?

he can't stop laughing as well, then he told me you fool the folding bench you sat on was squashing that old man's foot and you didn't know!!!!!

that was the funniest experience I had in a church and when I tell my friends about it they can't stop laughing and tell me you are like a Bedouin in a city!!!!

Yup. Been to quite a few churches actually. The architecture of them is exquisite.