Twin Falls Masjid Qibla

The soft spoken assistant Imam, Ibrihim, at the Twin Falls, Idaho Masjid (Mosque) had issue with my infidel hat.  So I explained that I believed in God but did not need Muhammad.  He gave us a tour inside.  About 120 members he said and all are immigrants.  He is from Russia but others are mostly from Bosnia, Jordan and a few Somalis.  He tried to tell me the old "the bible has been changed" story and claimed the LDS folks agreed with him.  We talked Dead Sea Scrolls and manuscripts a bit but he knew very little.  I told him the bible is reliable and left him with a gospel of John and three videos.  He knew nothing about Joseph Smith the Mormon prophet so our videos should be an eye-opener for him.  Ibrihim said much of the funding for the Mosque has come from other American mosques.  The locals drive truck and a variety of other jobs.  He claimed that the Chobani yogurt company plays no part in their support.

Notice the Qibla direction as designated by the carpet facing the corner of the room.  Muslims must face Mecca when praying therefore in this case the mosque is on a small piece of property that did not allow for the building to be built with a qibla wall facing the proper direction therefore the carpet was installed to accommodate the direction of prayer.

There has been an ongoing debate over this issue because mosques built around the world have not always agreed as to where Mecca is.  Early mosques built faced in the general direction of Jerusalem or more specifically Petra, whereas later mosques faced the sacred black rock which is housed in the Ka'aba in Mecca of Saudi Arabia.  Mosques built later in Spain and north Africa simply faced south slightly east but not in the direction of Mecca. This pattern also applies to the graves of Muslims because they are traditionally buried lying on their right side facing Mecca or in line with the local qibla.