Documentary 11/5/19

After watching the documentary, I realized how much I did not know about the Hajj. At my service site at the Nur-Allah mosque, we spent part of a Sunday school day learning about the Hajj. The teacher explained the basics of it; that it is a pillar of Islam, that all Muslims are supposed to make the journey, and that it is a very inclusive process. After watching the documentary, it is much more clear one what it actually is- and I definitely had a much different idea of what I thought it was. I thought it was the journey to Mecca, and basically, the Muslims that were there kinda hung out for a while and worshipped Allah. But, it definitely it is a strenuous time. Seeing in the documentary about the long walk, and the collection of stones to throw at the pillar that represents satan, the process of Hajj has a lot to it. The other part that I didn’t really expect Hajj to be is how peaceful it is. It was really interesting to see in the documentary about all of the people from all over the world coming together during this time. The documentary showed kindness such as donations of food, sharing of prayer mats, and many other things that displayed how the community of Muslims really came together during this journey. This documentary was very interesting in seeing how Hajj really is, from an insider’s perspective. I also think that it is a good thing that this documentary was played on a pretty mainstream news channel in the United States so that Americans can see what Islam is really like, and how peaceful it is. Hopefully, if more items of news are shown like this, stereotypes of Islam can be combatted within the United States.