Today (02/10/07) I was praying at the Centre islamisque Pakistan ( CIPA) in Molenbeek, a place of worship led by the powerful businessman of Pakistani origin Ixelles Wassim Akhtar . The firm beat his fortune with the company Eastway (wholesale grocer) along the channel as well as real estate investments managed by his wife. Although politically Wassim is the Belgian representative of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP , member party of Socialist International and led by Benazir Bhutto), he rolls in Belgium for the Liberal party (MR) given its independent status or businessman. Thus, at 3 weeks past elections (2006), a meal was offered by a Liberal candidate to 60 followers of the mosque to "explain" the vote and "inform" the voters of Pakistani origin in the Belgian electoral system. Accuracy important, valid also for other places of worship visited a mosque the faithful do not necessarily share the electoral preferences of each administrative officer. The Pakistani Islamic Center is located at 22 rue des Ateliers in Molenbeek, along the canal and close to the buildings of the French Community.
Upon entering, you find yourself in a beautiful room for ablutions with a series of wooden chairs set on the white tiles. The place is clean and well maintained unlike the toilets are located to the right of this room. You must immediately remove their shoes and put away his shoes in
beautiful shelves right, then take his ablutions with multicolored soaps and head towards the door in front rooms overlooking the prayers. Before opening the door, you still have time to spend one last phone call or check the signs to make a donation to an Islamic charity, you never know what could happen to you ... Upon entering the prayer hall, it is customary here to cover the head by putting a little hat (which resembles a kipa) available on your right, shyly greet the congregation and take your place in aligning you on the grounds of the blue carpet. I dare not make reconciliation between the color of the carpet and the policy preferences of administrators. An effort has obviously been done in terms of decoration, are found even on the left a large digital time indication in addition to the conventional clock brand "Champion" indicating the time in the most holy sites. Unlike other
mosques, Arabic or Turkish speakers, there was no discourse at 21:00 for revising the faithful silently in a corner to land at around 22:00 to the time of collective prayer. A second room is upstairs and a common kitchen in the attic for the faithful who break their fast on the spot. With the kind invitation of some Pashtuns, I could drink tea while listening to some theatrics in their local language, which apparently differs from the country's official languages (Urdu and English). Thus all the Pakistanis do not necessarily speak the same language and the lingua franca is either Urdu or English. Then, everyone got talked a little of its own region and, as I understand it, Pakistan is divided into 4 provinces (Punjab , Sindh, Balochistan and Serhad) and an entity called "Azad Kashmir" in Pakistan is that this the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is Turkey: a fictional mega-militarized. But hey, better not do that kind of comment. Politically, you do not risk much if you make over tea views opposed to General Pervez Musharraf currently in power in Pakistan following a military coup but avoid go into more detail of the political world Pakistan. The
young imam "Adnan" (thirties) of Pakistani origin is fluent in French and Arabic. He even seems to have been a particular grade for his theological knowledge but I did not quite captured the exact name of its title (hafiz?). The prayer reads as elsewhere in classical Arabic but sometimes Imam provide a short summary in Urdu. Attention, support of the imam by reversals of "ammiiiinnn" is much quieter in this mosque. While elsewhere, everyone resumed forcefully the chorus' ammiiinn after the evocation of "darling", here the faithful merely mini "amin" in order not to rush the pace too prayer. Mini-maxi-amin to prayer because these cycles seemed to me curiously longer than elsewhere, unless it be the effect of fatigue ...
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