Grand Mosque trip postponed

I tried to check out the grand mosque yesterday, but as it turns out there are visiting hours and the rest of the day the mosque is used as a.....well, mosque. I guess the tourist in me didn't consider that they actually use the mosque for worship.  From 9 to 11:30am tourist can visit.  Ofcourse I didn't know this until I took the cab ride over there (speaking of which I have an interesting story about that cab ride).  When I got to the mosque I took a couple of pictures of the outside then a guard politely informed me that I would have to come back during visiting hours.  I did get a couple of decent pictures I think.

So in this episode of "WTH!" we find ourselves in the cab ride over to the mosque.  There is a minute or so of silence and then the cab driver, Pakistani driver, just making conversation as some do, turns around and asks just as casually as can be as if asking me how I was doing today, "Are you from Africa?" Okay... the question kind of threw me for a second.  I knew he saw I was black and in a sense was being racist assuming that I was from Africa, but I also know that I am in the Middle East, and there are people from all over that come here, so his experience may be that the only black people he has encountered that got into his cab really were from Africa.  I could sense the genuine curiosity and innocence of his question.  I informed him that I was from the United States, American.  But then he asked "Do you know Congo?"  Okay.  So I tried again I told him I am American.  He said "Okay, American.  United States.  But do you know Congo?"  Okay innocent or not this conversation is getting more offensive by the second.  I wanted to say "You know, not all black people are from or know of Africa, Muhammad.  Is that your name, no its not is it? Know why? Because not all people from the Middle East are named Muhammad, Habib.  That's not your name either is it?  Don't feel to good when people start generalizing does it, Kareem.  Don't know who that is either do you?  Yeah that sucks doesn't it?"  But what came out was no I don't know the Congo.  Well it turns out the guy likes to learn languages from other countries as a hobby and he felt compelled to tell me how he has been studying the Congo language.  This doesn't exactly help the situation because I doubt we would be having this conversation if Mr. Caucasian business man gets into the car.  Anyway, he talks a little about his homeland in Pakistan, and I guess relating back to the American thread, since I didn't seem impressed he knew "my" African language, he talked about how in Pakistan its not so good to be there.  There is fighting and the gov't or who ever is in power treats them badly.  The Americans come in and things are okay, they help and I guess restore some order, but when they leave apparently it gets even worse than it was when the went in because the enemies want revenge.

The whole incident with Africa, I just had to laugh to myself as we rode to my destination.  I knew he meant no harm but its just funny, because that may have been the most racist conversation I have ever been a part of, but I am not sure he even knew what was going on.  He only sensed that I was less than enthused to discuss Africa and directed the conversation else where.  His English was choppy at best and I don't know if I tried to explain the situation to him if  he would understand.   Any way just thought I would share.  Gotta love it.

Here are a few pictures I was able to get from outside The pictures are from two different days- I actually came back during the correct hours but apparently the Dubai Sheik (sheik = ruler, governor)  felt the urge to visit the Grand Mosque that day and so they shut the place down, even turning away scheduled tour buses full of people.  Crazy, but if you're a sheik you can do that.  They are the definitely the big dogs out here.  They have pictures of them up all over the U.A.E., huge billboards.  No words, no slogans, no name captions, just huge house size portraits of the sheiks randomly strewn over Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Its as if the picture is saying to you "Come on, now.  You know who I am. Do I really have to say anything?"). 

I hope the pictures here capture at least some of the grandness of the mosque, the scale of this thing is unreal.  More to come once I get inside.